Chapter Sixty-Nine: Coastal City of Leila

The Coastal City of Leila.

As the most prosperous port city along the coastline of the Ost Empire, Leila is undeniably the key hub connecting the entire nation with foreign trade. Here lies the world’s largest port, with daily traffic exceeding over a hundred thousand, and hundreds of vessels big and small.

During special times, this number can multiply exponentially.

Due to the frequent and dense movement of people and the thriving economy in the Coastal City of Leila, countless individuals from all walks of life gather here, hailing from inland, foreign lands, and even all corners of the world. Even the Ost Empire, with all its mighty power, cannot fully control everything here.

Thus, the local governing policy mainly revolves around the words “Connect” and “Control.” On one hand, it aims to maintain good relations with several powerful organizations entrenched within the city that don’t belong to the Ost Empire. On the other hand, it strives to limit the intrusion of foreign powers, especially those from the vast Endless Sea, imposing strict customs regulations without overly disrupting the economic flow.

This is the current state of Leila.

It has been over a week since the “Noah’s Ark” entered the port of Leila, and with the unwavering support of the Lingyin Merchant Association, Miss Vilyric and the others have gradually adapted to the local customs and climate. Now, it’s time to find something else to do.

Hen hasn’t explicitly told Miss Vilyric what to do next, and the Priestess has no intention of adhering to a fixed agenda; going with the flow is what matters most.

As mentioned before, she didn’t want to be overly bound to the Lingyin Merchant Association and certainly couldn’t remain in this port city forever. Over these past few days, Miss Vilyric has mapped out a route, planning to travel and explore just like before, heading northwest towards the area where Xiao Guang’s true form resides to check the situation.

Though the Divine Spark’s embryonic form, representing her pet’s consciousness, has returned to her in its juvenile state due to a recent incident, that does not mean the physical body is unimportant. Xiao Guang’s recent evolution came rather suddenly; it couldn’t have just happened naturally—there must be some unidentified external forces influencing and prompting it.

Due to the development stage of the Divine Spark, the Little Dragon Daughter’s primary memories cannot yet sync with her true form, so Miss Vilyric feels it’s necessary to take a trip herself to see things firsthand.

Of course, this matter isn’t urgent; it’s just a rough plan. Before setting out, she must first handle her current tasks and make preparations for the journey.

Anything related to the Lingyin Merchant Association can be dealt with by Ming Lan on his own. However, the two girls, Le Qiao Qiao and Hong Yan, who aren’t part of the association and merely followed Miss Vilyric to another world, require some deliberation.

The Priestess has no intention of keeping them tied to her side indefinitely, but it wouldn’t be right to just toss them aside either. Hong Yan came to this original place to find a brother from the West Saint family, while Le Qiao Qiao hasn’t mentioned anything similar, but she clearly didn’t come here on a whim.

Unlike Miss Vilyric’s plan, the two seem to intend to head west together, crossing the vast lands of the Ost Empire toward the Holy Empire located in the center of the continent, honing their skills and exploring while trying to achieve their respective goals along the way.

The Priestess certainly won’t interfere with their choices; all good things come to an end. Miss Vilyric believes she has already protected and taken care of the two girls a lot along the way, but to become true strong individuals and accomplish their own goals, they need to put in the effort and overcome the obstacles ahead.

However, before parting ways for real, she can still offer a little assistance. Conveniently, this is also something Miss Vilyric needs to do herself.

“Oh! This is the legendary Adventurer’s Guild! It’s livelier than I imagined! Boss, can you really eat your fill every day working here?!”

Glancing at the curious little Miss Thief, who was already looking around as soon as she stepped into the hall, Miss Vilyric helplessly shook her head, holding the golden-haired little girl’s hand.

“That’s not called working; it’s taking on various tasks from here and returning for corresponding rewards after completion. It’s more like… um, now that I mention it, it does seem a bit like working?”

Clearing her throat, the Priestess got back on track.

“In short, with your current situation, if you want to get some operating funds without too much impacting your travel plans, taking on tasks as adventurers is the most suitable choice. This organization has an extensive reach, with branches all over the world; this is just one of them.”

“Once registered as adventurers, no matter where you go, as long as you find a relatively big city, you should be able to earn money this way. But remember to act within your limits; many requests carry certain risks, and there have been more than a few adventurers who have died while on missions for various reasons.”

“Eh…”

Le Qiao Qiao become a bit concerned, turning back.

“You speak with such confidence… Could it be that the boss is also an adventurer? A person as impressive as you, and you still have to work for this organization?”

“Get out of here! I’ve told you it’s not working! Adventurers and the Adventurer’s Guild can only be seen as mutually beneficial at most; do you understand what a two-way choice is?”

Sighing in exasperation, the Priestess gently knocked the overly curious girl on the head, then took out the previously prepared adventurer’s badge and led the two girls to a free counter.

“Hello, could you please verify the identity information on this? I’d like to guarantee their registration as mithril-level adventurers.”

The counter staff was a young man who appeared knowledgeable and well-mannered, dressed in the Adventurer’s Guild’s uniform, exuding an air of refinement, obviously a product of specialized education from an academy.

In the Ost Empire, where the lowest compulsory education coverage is only about thirty percent, such talents are relatively rare.

By the way, he’s human and doesn’t appear to be mixed blood at first glance; even if he is, probably not by much.

Strictly speaking, the imperial family of the Ost Empire is mixed blood; being a centrally highly centralized empire, this nation’s acceptance of other races isn’t as smoothly integrated as the Holy Empire, but also not as extremely exclusionary as the United Kingdom of Humans. Overall, it probably falls somewhere in between.

In the entire Ost Empire, roughly sixty percent of the population comprises human and human-mixed blood, while the remainder consists of a complex makeup of races, including tree spirits, various sea races, dragonkin, and so forth, with the major categories exceeding ten types.

Although it is a multi-racial country, the biggest difference between the Ost Empire and the Holy Empire is that the mixing ratio of different races is very low. Apart from some special areas, such as the Coastal City of Leila, in most regions, a single race holds an overwhelming majority.

This is what they call huddling for warmth.

The formation of this situation is mainly because the Ost Empire has not always been a relatively complete large country like the Holy Empire. Its current territory was once divided among a dozen races and nations over the past few centuries, forming a vast mixture of small to medium-sized country zones.

However, later on, one of these nations, for various reasons, rose to prominence and, through unreasonable rapid development, sequentially swallowed neighboring countries through various means. In just a century, it unified into a formidable entity that could stand among the world’s top.

That is the current Ost Empire, the youngest among the top five, existing largely because it was ‘fought’ into existence.

   

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