We did not get attacked for the rest of the way, thankfully. In fact, it was quite peaceful. I mostly talked with Nix and exchanged a few words with Sultus. He seemed to be the only member of the elven trio to have gotten over his fear of us.

  At that moment, I was standing in the usual wagon, looking at the view. Thinking back, I probably should have just used my wings to fly and see further away instead of trying to stand up on something this unstable, but I didn't really think of it at the time.

  I could see a dark line on the horizon. It looked ominous, but I quickly recognised it from the many tales that I had heard when I was still in that stupid b. Most of those stories were from that one guard who kept talking about the time he was stationned in the far north of the Empire, near the world's edge. Back then, listening to that sort of stuff was often the best part of my day.

  Now that I could see the edge of our world with my own eyes, however, I knew that that guard's endless bragging didn't do it justice. Above where the ground ended, the sky also simply stopped. There were no clouds or even a hint of blue past the edge, only infinite darkness illuminated by nothing but a handful of dim stars. In all honesty, I couldn't decide if the knowledge that the space beyond our world wasn't truly empty and was instead filled with things like the void swarm made it creepier or not.

  Still, it was an awe-inspiring sight, in it's own way. It really went to show just how small we all were, in the grand scheme of things. According to some theories I had heard some researchers talk about, all of the stars were worlds of their own.

  'If that's true, going to a different world to never have to deal with the Gcius Empire again would be nice...'

  My thoughts were interrupted by someone's hand poking my shoulder.

  "Look! We can see the capital! There are lots of huge structures!" (Nix)

  There was a white city standing out against the dark abyss. It was fairly nice, I guess. From our current distance, the main thing that I could observe was the city wall. It looked completely pristine, somehow. There was probably some sort of magic involved in keeping it perfectly clean.

  The huge buildings that made up most of the city were all pced at a perfectly regur intervals. Looking at this capital, I felt like staring at a physical representation of order. There was not a single stone out of pce.

  "Yeah, it looks nice, but I feel like there is something missing. I just can't put my finger on what that something is..." (Dragonfly)

  "I agree, there's not enough chaos. Should we-" (Nix)

  "No. We are not going to fix that." (Dragonfly)

  The locals already had enough issues with the Empire's delegation and the bandit problem. We were not going to make their situation worse.

  Ok, we weren't going to make the situation worse on purpose. I had a feeling that things weren't about to go smoothly. Actually, I would have been surprised if we could even get in the capital without some incident occuring.

  An hour ter, we were at the gates. Hander talked with the guards for a few minutes and the caravan made it's way inside after a short inspection.

  The guards that did the inspection didn't even talk to Nix and I either. We just got inside the city's walls without running into a single issue.

  That wasn't supposed to happen? What was I getting this bad premonition for? And why was it getting worse?

  "Well, adventurers, I'm happy to say that your work here is done. It was a pleasure working with you, and may we meet again some other time. I would feel safe if you were to protect our cargo again." (Hander)

  With that, he handed a few coins to me and the elven trio's warrior. I was pretty sure that someone had told me his name at some point, but I couldn't be bothered to remember it.

  The pay was a full two gold, which was quite nice. Sure, it had taken several days of travel, but we already needed to come here. Nothing like getting paid for something you'd have done anyways.

  "Farewell, adventurers. Until we meet again." (Hander)

  And that's how we ended up alone in the streets of the capital. First order of business, find the local Adventurers Guild. Second order of business, figure out why I had such a bad feeling about this pce. Third order of business... help brush and clean Nix's tail, apparently. With all the spotless white stone around, her tail needed to be even more care to stand out, according to said fox.

  I wasn't quite sure as to if she just liked having her tail brushed or if that was a serious concern for her.

  Right, I also had to find information about Chaos and investigate the bandits. How did I even end up with this many things to do?

  'Ah, yes, I remember. I'm just too curious not to investigate everything...'