My Girlfriend is an S-Class Adventurer

Sheltered Halvøy was a city unlike any other city in the Broteforge Empire, whether that was a good thing or a bad thing. Even though this grand city had borders that stretched across miles of forest, greenish fields and verdant hills, most of its territorial domain was washed by seawater.

As Luke, Ayumi, Nathalia and the rest of the gang approached Sheltered Halvøy after two weeks of travel, they noticed that there was less and less forest, and the fields became more extensive.

Since it had been many years since Ayumi had last visited this town, she was surprised not to see as many trees as there used to be. When Ayumi Yamazak took over as Matriarch of the Strogueher family, an invitation to a banquet was extended, just like this time. On that occasion Ayumi met the Emperor for the first time, and had long conversations with him regarding her vision for the future of the Empire and his vision.

As Ayumi recalled the day she met the Emperor, her eyes widened, because several hypothetical situations popped into her head.

As Ynosuke and Luke talked about Sea Ornament, and the others rested, looking at the scenery and relaxing with the galloping of the horses, Matriarch Strogueher suddenly cleared her throat to capture everyone's attention, and spoke:

"I know we are only a day's ride away from arriving, but I just remembered something. A few years ago, I had the opportunity to talk with the Emperor for the first time, and for some reason, I almost forgot about the personality desas... difficult to deal with."

Everyone arched their eyebrows, not understanding what she meant. If she meant that the Emperor had a difficult personality, like someone who gets angry easily or someone who is very methodical, none of them thought they had a problem dealing with it.

"What do you mean? Does he, like, have a horn fetish? If so, I think I'd better not attend the banquet." Alexis asked, while trying to hide her horns, making her look very cute.

"In case it is something like that, or that he hates half-horns, we just take that disguise elixir, no?" Luke asked her.

"Disguise elixir, what is that?" inquired Meredith, interestedly.

"Guys, it's not a prejudice, still less a fetish." Ayumi stated, putting her right hand to her mouth to hold back laughter. "Although in the past the Imperial Family established the prejudices..."

"Mom?" Nathalia caught the blonde Elf's attention, because she was starting to ramble on about it as she always did when she needed to explain something.

"Right, right, I get it. Let's say the Emperor is proud. Yeah, that's the most appropriate word to describe his personality."

"I believe extremely proud would be a more correct adjective." Amelia corrected.

Luke frowned, not believing it. "I have dealt with many proud and haughty nobles in my life. I believe we can connect with that, can't we?" He asked Meredith, Zack, Ynosuke, and John, who nodded with looks of determination at the half-wolf.

At that moment, Amelia and Ayumi exchanged glances, and saved themselves the trouble of telling the Emperor's stories. Their hope was that, since this was a very serious matter, perhaps the Emperor would not expose his difficult side.

The next day, when the big chariot of the gang first approached the city, at least close enough to see a glimpse of what it looked like from afar, everyone saw a forest of gigantic trees whose leaves were completely pink. In addition, most of the buildings in the city had greenish, pointed roofs, standing out amidst the beautiful trees, but also matching the environment.

To uncultured people, like most of the half-wolf gang, Sheltered Halvøy seemed to be just a very strange town, and also different from what they expected. What they didn't know was that the Capital of the Broteforge Empire was the heritage of an ancient people, the Ainveldibra and Ainyedre Elves.

In the past, the city of Sheltered Halvøy was a symbol of unity for the entire nation, and at the present time this idea still persisted, bringing people from many different cities.

Still, as Luke entered the town by carriage, he felt strange. The street was very clean and there were hardly any weeds growing between the cracks in the sidewalks, although there was a gigantic forest of trees surrounding the city, just as all the buildings looked modern and splendid.

Not only for the half-wolf, but for any other first-time visitor to this city, it was normal to feel this way, because there was no other city in the world like this one.

In the streets, the inhabitants walked quietly and passively. It was possible to notice many adventurers too, who wore splendid armor, but there were not as many as in the Cardinal Kingdom, where on every street it was possible to see at least one different Adventurer.

As they watched the scenery change rapidly because of the fast-paced carriage ride, they didn't even notice they were approaching one of the largest buildings in the city.

"Welcome, to the Emperor's Palace!" Ayumi exclaimed as she got off the carriage first.

Then, each person who got out of the carriage after her had the same reaction. First, everyone was dumbfounded and, for a second, speechless to describe the thing before them.

They were looking at a long, wide marble bridge, which had a perfect grove and rich Gothic architectural details, which were the four pillars of five meters each on each side of this bridge. This majestic bridge connected the Palace to the normal city, creating a path for all those who needed to enter the Palace for some reason to pass over the gorge, which was not empty, but only served to ventilate the Palace's underground.

It was easy to notice lights coming out of small windows in the walls of this cliff, which caught anyone's attention. While everyone in the half-wolf was watching this canyon that went as far as the eye could not reach, they heard footsteps approaching from behind them.

Ayumi Yamazaki turned around, and saw a man with gray, flowing hair, who was standing with his arms back and a very formal outfit.

"Hello, Matriarch Strogueher. Long time no see, eh? In case you don't remember, I am Jefford, one of Emperor Callant's three chief butlers. We have been awaiting your arrival."