Shangri La Pt. 1

95: Warm Welcome

"Now I get to show you my world." 

'His– His world?' 

"Hang on– Yah!" he suggested as he clasped the reins and made the horse start to gallop faster. 

And because they were going much faster than before, Izumi could only rest her hands over his wrists and hope she wouldn't fall, and that made the blond smile even more.

While they continued riding towards the Capital, it was clear that some knights had spotted them approaching the main gates. 

"Geez, more people from the East, huh? Gotta turn 'em away–" 

"Eh? More people from the East? What do they look like?" 

"Hard to tell from here, but I can tell where they came from." 

The first knight answered lackadaisical. But when the second knight looked out to see a horse with someone on it, he squinted his eyes and recognized the spiky ash blond hair and froze. 

"Here we go~" 

"Ah– Hey hey, don't do that!" a knight spoke as he stopped the one who was in control of the gears to open the gates. 

"Ha? Why not?" 

"You moron, you don't know who that is, do you?!?" 

"Huh? Don't know who?" 

"The guy arriving at the gates! That's the Captain!" 

"Ah– Huh?" 

"Arg– open the gates, we don't wanna get on the Captain's bad side!" 

"Ah– R-Right!" 

"HEY EVERYBODY, CAPTAIN BAKUGO'S BACK!!!" the second knight screamed, causing an uproar to take place inside the Capital.

Hearing such a thing caught Izumi's attention as she watched before her how fast the front gates opened with knights standing at attention and saluting to their Captain. 

"Hm? We don't need to inform them who we are before we enter?" 

"Nah, they recognize me, and that's all that's important." 

"Eh?" 

Sure enough, the second they approached the gates, the knights greeted their Captain without even flinching. 

"WELCOME BACK, CAPTAIN!!!" they all screamed in unison, easily making Izumi jump in her seat from their welcome. And though she thought this would be the only greeting they'd get, it was clear the entire Capital knew and made a clear path heading straight to the castle. 

Hundreds of thousands of people stayed out of their way as the horse trotted through the city, and all were happy to see the blond's arrival.

"It's Captain Bakugo, he's returned!" 

"Welcome back, Captain Bakugo!" 

Everyone cheered for the blond, and it piqued the greenette's interest as to why they would welcome such a hot-headed, uptight blond right away. 

"U-Um, a-any reason why they're greeting you like this? Are they all afraid of you?" Izumi questioned. 

"Hm? Oh, nah. Because they all knew I took part in the war a couple years ago–and saved a lot of people in it–they deem me as a hero. Pretty cool ain't it?" he pointed out with a smirk. 

"Ah– M-Mn, this is... far different from your arrival in the Yaoyorozu Clan's city. It's very thrilling to experience." Izumi answered as even her heart was thumping in her chest.