- Heaven's Last Breath -

Royalty?

- Death -

---

"M-Madam, are you a s-samurai?"

I looked down to my left, seeing that the old dwarven was frozen in a stunned silence. Not knowing what to say, I turned to Aaron who only shrugged his shoulders. Jade remained silent for a moment.

"Y-Yes, I am."

As Jade cleared the air, the two guards almost fainted on the spot. It took a moment for the older dwarf to catch his breath as he turned to Jade, kneeling down on one knee.

"Please forgive us for our insolence, my lady." The dwarven guard lowered his gaze to the sandy desert floor, refusing to look up once Jade's identity was confirmed.

Ariel and I watched on with wide eyes, not knowing how to react to what we were seeing. We flashed each other knowing nods, looking back to the dwarves as they made preparations for us to enter the city even though we hadn't been searched yet.

"My lady, please follow us through the city gates." Before the older guard turned away, he looked to the three of us who hadn't been called lords, a wide smile on his face, "We'll show your servants to their quarters now."

The moment those words left the grey haired dwarf's mouth, I braced myself for what was to come. I didn't exactly care about what I had been called, knowing better than to pay any mind to an old drunk. As I turned to my right, I realised Ariel was no longer paying any attention to the conversation, no doubt scheming of more ways to make money.

But I knew we had one more person in our party who didn't take too kindly to being labelled like this.

"Eh? Who are you calling a servant, you son of a-"

Before Aaron could let loose on this poor old soul, Jade threw herself over the wine haired boy. Thankfully, the dwarf didn't seem to hear Aaron's response at which I let out a sigh of relief.

Like me, Aaron usually didn't care about what others said to him. But when it came to something like this, it was different. The only times I had seen Aaron break his usual cool, calm character was when someone called him something he was clearly above.

Jade pulled Aaron up to her side, throwing both arms around his neck playfully as she turned to the older guard, "Oh excuse me, they're with me. This is the Prince of the Stonehaven Kingdom, and my fiancé. This is his sister, the Princess of Stonehaven and this is the strongest warrior in the west, soon to be noble of Deathbone Desert."

Somehow, Jade's makeshift cover up was enough to persuade the guards as they apologised for calling us 'servants', bowing their heads profusely.

We followed the younger guard under the half raised portcullis, finally able to set foot in Ironforge City. The moment we passed under the heavy iron gate, I set my sights on the city ahead of us.

I looked around, only seeing towering buildings up and down the street as I turned left and right. Even though it was dark out, the streets were busy and bustling, more people than I cared to count enjoying themselves under the street lights and the night sky.

Just to my left, I saw the front door of one of the buildings fly off its hinges, crashing onto the street below the perron. Before I knew it, a horde of dwarves spilled out from the entrance, singing and chanting their way down the paved stone road.

As I surveyed the surroundings, I guessed this was Ironforge's residential district. The buildings were all tall and mostly identical. Each had around four or five stories stacked on top of the other, the building materials differing with each floor.