'Soveraign of cities, seemliest in sight, Of high renoun, riches and royaltie; Of lordis, barons, and many a goodly knyght;' In Honour of the City of London, William Dunbar (1501 approx.)

"The city of Vloria spotted!" A voice shouted nearby, this earned a cheer in response from everyone else including Minnow. 

"Huzzah!" Minnow shouted with his knightly brothers before turning to Shura. "How exciting! We'll be there in a matter of minutes! I can't wait to show you around!" Minnow exclaimed clearly ecstatic at the thought of showing her around.

"I'll be looking forward to it," Shura replied unable to turn down Minnow's offer. After all, he had been incredibly nice to her also saved her life. It would also be helpful to have a tour of the city. Though she wasn't so sure about going to all these spots that clearly sounded like destinations for couples. 

She didn't want Minnow or anyone else getting the wrong idea. On top of that, she wasn't sure what the ramifications were for her getting in the way of Minnow ending up with Princess Tetra. There could be some sort of butterfly effect stuff that could destroy the world or something for all she knew.

Furthermore, on top of that, her goal should be getting back home. Shura paused at this thought, well it ought to be anyway. She did love her family dearly, she was lucky to have a good family as she did. But her situation back home wasn't really the best. Fresh out of college with no job prospects, serving only to be a further financial burden upon her parents. 

She even got a degree she hated because she thought that would help her get a job! But instead, it only drove her further into debt. But here, she had barely been in the world two days and she had a job lined up! Sure it was because she killed something. But a job was a job... Shura grimaced at this line of thought pulling her knees up to her chest and then burying her face into her arms. 

"Shura..." Minnow's voice broke Shura's train of thought, Shura looked up seeing Minnow wave in front of her face. He smiled at her, "Deep in thought?" he asked concerned. "Yeah," Shura said looking towards the back of the wagon watching the trees go by.

Minnow situated himself next to her and spoke up, "You know I've been talking about for the last hour, why don't you tell me about Olisvine?" Minnow said hoping to keep Shura away from whatever thoughts she was having. Clearly, she was upset, he supposed he would be too. Losing a home can be a hard thing to process.

Shura stiffened up at this, damn it all, she hoped that Minnow wouldn't ask her about Olisvine. Surely he knew more about it than she did, so she couldn't simply lie about it. She supposed she had to come clean, to a certain extent.

"I'm not from there. So I wouldn't know." Shura spoke up after a moment, Minnow paused looking like he didn't believe her. "Then why in the world would you be in the middle of the village like you were?" he asked with a slight unbelieving chuckle to his voice.

Shura paused considering her words carefully, "I was visiting." Shura spoke after just a moment of thought. "Oh! You're a traveler then?" Minnow asked sounding more like he believed her. "I suppose you could call me that." Shura hesitantly agreed.

"Well, that certainly explains a lot! You don't actually look much like someone from Olisvine! But I didn't want to assume anything." Minnow cheerfully spoke now sounding like he completely believed her. "So where are you from then?" He asked with an interested glint in his eyes. He had never met someone foreign before! 

Shura looked away unable to stand the child-like excitement on Minnow's face. "Someplace far away. You wouldn't even know the country if I told you." Shura said hearing Minnow shift his position. He was now sitting in front of her.

"Please tell me!" He said with his eyes sparkling, for some reason the fact that she said it was far away only excited him even more. "Geeze..." Shura grumbled exasperated, running her fingers through her hair trying to decide how to explain it to Minnow.

"It's called America." She said unable to stand lying any further, she had always hated lying. Made her feel dirty... "Am-er-ica?" Minnow repeated slowly before laughing at his pronunciation of the word. "You were right! I've never heard of such a country!" He exclaimed wildly entertained by the name of her home country alone. 

"Is it a small country?" He asked assuming its size is probably the reason why he had never heard of it before. Shura contorted her face unsure of how to respond, faintly in her mind she swore she heard the screams of her patriotic relatives who took exception to such a comment.

"It..." Shura took a moment, "it depends on which country you're comparing it to."  She finished her thought satisfied with how she responded. "I see." Minnow replied clearly coming to his own conclusions, it was obvious that he thought Shura's country was incredibly small. For some reason this kind of irked Shura. Maybe she was more like her relatives than she'd like to admit...

"So what's it like there?" Minnow asked continuing on with his quizzing of Shura. He was clearly enjoying a chance to get to know her more. Just as Shura was getting ready to respond she was cut off by the sounds of horns that signaled the group's arrival. 

Moving some of the covers to the wagon aside, Shura and Minnow peered out at the citizens lined along the sides of the cobblestone streets cheering. "This is an awful lot of fanfare for just search and rescue," Shura mumbled mostly to herself, Minnow who was leaning from behind her spoke up. 

"Well monster attacks have been quite a plague upon the county side recently. Our party managed to save most people recently. Only twenty people from Olisvine actually died." Minnow explained, Shura was astonished, by modern standards that would be terrible even still. Though most modern standards considered even one life lost was a tragedy. 

"Only twenty?" Shura asked looking behind her at Minnow. An eyebrow cocked with a questioning look, "Well it's certainly better than the complete fatalities that have been happening." Minnow replied with a belligerent look to his face. It seemed that Shura had managed to offend the even good-natured Minnow. 

Shura's eyebrows raised at this, she supposed that would be good then. "I see." She replied before looking back outside. She tried to spot any familiar faces among the crowds but honestly couldn't manage to find any. 

The caravan of knights suddenly came to a stop. Shura lost her balance ending up in Minnow's lap. Shura sat there for a moment before grunting. "I swear Dragoon, that better be a dagger." She lowly hissed feeling something poking her backside. 

Minnow let out a nervous laugh and pushed her off. Shura turned around and Minnow held up a small scroll canister. There was a sheepish but embarrassed smile on his face. "I don't believe you." She said flatly her eyes narrowed, Minnow opened his mouth to defend himself but was cut off by Mako opening up the back flap.

"Come on you two," Mako said unaware of why Shura was looking at Minnow suspiciously and Minnow was holding up a scroll canister. Processing the odd scene Mako spoke up with an incredulous look on their face, "Did I interrupt something?" Mako said with a slight chuckle to their voice.

"No!" Minnow's high pitched voice was the first to respond. "Way to be casual Dragoon." Shura jabbed, Minnow shot Shura a look. Shura ignored Minnow's pouting and looked at Mako. "What's up?" She asked, Mako, took a second to deceiver what her phrasing meant and put it together. "The king wants to speak with you two," Mako said clarifying, Shura raised her eyebrows before looking Minnow.

"Wow not even in this country for a week and I get to meet the king. Look at me, I'm hot stuff." She grinning smugly at Minnow, Minnow glowered at Shura. "I'll show you hot stuff," he grumbled uncaring for Shura's teasing. Shura got up to jump out of the wagon. 

Grabbing onto the top she popped her head back inside and said to Minnow. "Might as well, I've already felt it." After that was said Shura jumped down. Minnow's face turned blood red at this and his mouth hung open. He sat there trying to stutter out a comeback before Mako got fed up and grabbed him. 

"You can flirt on your own time later," Mako said pulling Minnow out of the wagon. "We were not flirting!" Minnow exclaimed his voice cracked a little, "And here I thought we had something special." Shura teased with a smirk. 

Minnow's face was now flushed with frustration as he tried to stutter out a comeback, "I- you!" He tried his best, he really did, but it seemed the only thing that was sharp about him was his blade. Giving up on the battle of wits Minnow grabbed Shura's hand and dragged her behind him. "Oh my, where are we going Sir Minnow?" Shura said in her best impression of a southern lady.

"To see the king you- you perverted fiend!" Minnow exclaimed earning a laugh from Shura. Despite the embarrassment she cost him, there was a certain part of Minnow that was relieved about Shura finally managing to calm down. He knew there was something about the city of Vloria that tended to soothe wounds of the heart and mind. He was glad that the city was managing to do the same for Shura. 

For a while there, she had him worried. Far too often he had seen the effects of battle take a toll on others. He was concerned the same would've happened to her. But as it stood now, she seemed to be recovering ever so slowly. 

Shura was dragged across the city square where the caravan had stopped. Once Shura and Minnow made their way over towards the palace, the caravan continued towards what appeared to be the barracks. The crowd that had gathered slowly dissipated, especially after the disappearance of Mako. It seemed that Mako's unique appearance garnered the attention of many admirers and fans. A bit of information that Shura was surprised to learn.

By the time the Mid-Knight Saga series had started Mako had already settled down with someone. So there wasn't any real plot about Mako having admirers as they did. While being stuck in a world such as this wasn't completely ideal. There were certain aspects that Shura enjoyed, getting to see another angle to a world she knew fairly well was definitely one of these aspects.

Being pulled towards the gates of the palace Shura saw the lamp that Minnow had told her about a few moments ago. "Oh, so that's the lamp!" She exclaimed seeing the out of place ornate lamp with a pink flame. "That's a nice lamp." She added nudging Minnow.

"I'm upset with you! So don't try to butter me up!" Minnow exclaimed clearly crumbling, he obviously wanted to show Shura the city. But he also wanted to set boundaries with her. His reputation as a knight could be on the line if Shura insisted on making such slanderous comments! Sure they were only in jest, but it took only one lord or lady to hear them out of context for his career to be ruined!

"Come on Dragoon..." Shura whined, "Don't be like that...." She whined, even more, they made their way across the courtyard of the palace bickering back and forth.

"Minnow!" Shura finally let out a long whine of his name. Minnow stopped in his tracks and pointed his finger at her. "Shura!" he exclaimed, "yes?" Shura asked with a smug look on her face. "I'm glad you're feeling in better spirits but you can't just make comments as you have!" Minnow exclaimed clearly upset.

Shura's smile faded realizing the situation had changed. She wasn't entirely sure why she had gotten into an ornery mood when they arrived in the city. Maybe it was her way of coping... Nevertheless, it upset Minnow, who was the closest thing she had to a friend right now in this world. It wouldn't be a wise decision to lose the only ally she had.

"I see," Shura said returning to a similar mood that she had before they arrived in the city. Minnow averted his eyes clearly conflicted, "I'm sorry if I upset you Minnow." Shura apologized, "I was just trying to tease. Though I might have taken it too far. I'm sorry." She continued to apologize. she hated it but, it was better to apologize and keep a friend in a new world than to be without one. 

Minnow looked back at her frowning, "I'm sorry if I put a damper on your mood. It's just that there are certain expectations of a knight..." Minnow trailed off, he clearly didn't enjoy confrontations like this. Shura took a breath, "No, no, it's fine. I understand." Shura said holding up her free hand. It was only at this moment she had realized that Minnow and she were still holding hands. 

It was strange, usually, Shura would've noticed this right away. But she hadn't realized it until now. Minnow noticing her gaze at their hands spoke up. "We better head inside! Best not to keep the king waiting!" He said trying to change the subject from before and seeming like he was trying to keep Shura from noticing that he didn't let go of her hand. 

But she noticed now, as Minnow and she made their way inside. Minnow kept holding onto her hand, curious, Shura tried to slip her hand out of his just to see what would happen. Without even so much as looking at her, Minnow quickly gripped her hand firmly. Shura looked over at him wondering why the insistence of hand-holding. Nevertheless, she didn’t really mind it. So, she decided it wasn’t a problem. After all, it made it easier to admire the inside of the palace without getting lost.

Vaguely the Vloria palace reminded her of Buckingham palace. The architecture was quite similar, very romantic Greek or Roman styled. However, lions where the main point of aesthetic in Vloria’s palace. As someone who enjoyed looking at this sort of thing in her homeworld. Shura defiantly enjoyed looking at the inside of this palace.

Making their way towards the throne room the two of them were stopped by guards. "State your busi-" The much more stern shorter guard started to say before being cut off by the other one. "Oh hey Minnow!" The much larger friendlier sounding one greeted waving.

"Hi Goby!" Minnow greeted back using his free hand, "Hey Pistol." Minnow said less excitably. Pistol glared at him, "What's your business with the king?" Pistol said after shooting Goby a sidelong glare.

"Not sure." Minnow said after a moment, he had planned to talk to the head of the knights. "Oh well, you better head in then!" Goby said with a smile giving Shura small wave. Shura waved back finding Goby endearing. They made their way past as Pistol yelled at Goby for just letting anyone in, Goby argued his defense saying that Minnow was their friend so it was fine.

Shura couldn't help but be amused by the two of them, it reminded her of the three stooges without the third member. Turning towards the actual throne Shura saw a man sitting there, he was a mountain of a man with dark skin and steely eyes. He radiated power, it was a little intimating to Shura. The king spotted them across the room and smiled,

"I'm glad you finally showed up."