Chapter 578: Chaotic City

Royal City, the capital of Green Leaf Kingdom...

Evening...

A group of seven appeared in front of the city gates, looking haggard. Many such groups arrive at the capital daily, but this one attracted some attention from the passersby.

Why?

Because two members of the group were elves. Even in the peaceful times, very few elves could be seen in the city, let alone in these chaotic times of war. After all, elves also had territories to protect from the demons and didn't have time to come here. So, the arrival of these two naturally attracted some attention.

'Maybe they are outcasts...' Many thought before continuing to ignore them.

When the group of seven arrived at the city gates, one of the guards stopped them and asked, "Where are you guys from?"

"Where else could we be from if not from the Green Leaf kingdom?" Max said in a tired voice.

The guard who asked the question narrowed his eyes in displeasure, but his companion waved his hand to calm him down and said, "You misunderstood, little brother. My colleague meant to ask which city you are from."

Emily frowned. "Why? Isn't knowing we are from Green Leaf enough?"

Because they no longer had a fast enough flying beast, they had to travel on foot for two days without rest. Not only that, as they came closer to the capital, they encountered more and more demons. After fighting so much, all of them were drained and wanted nothing more than to find an inn and rest. So, when the guards stopped them and started asking questions they didn't need to ask, everyone was displeased.

The guard's lips twitched, but seeing their haggard looks, he understood their situation and smiled, "It's enough. You guys can go in. Right, don't forget to register yourself at the Royal Palace if you want to go to the battlefield with everyone."

Max and others couldn't be bothered to ask anything. So, they just nodded, and entered the city.

Half an hour after they entered, a beautiful golden sparrow appeared in the sky above the city. A moment later, it landed on the busy square in front of the Royal Palace, and four people elegantly floated down.

A flying beast landing on the square wasn't uncommon, so only a few paid glances over, but those who did, and saw the people who got down from the beast, immediately left whatever they were doing and rushed over with smiles on their faces, and bowed in greeting.

"Greetings, Crown Prince!"

"Greetings, Crown Prince!"

"Hope your journey has been safe and fruitful."

...

It was impossible for this commotion to not attract everyone's attention.

More people rushed over and started greeting the mana in golden brocade robes, who calmly smiled and returned their greetings with a nod.

He then glanced at the lady by his side, whi was looking at everything with a slightly surprised expression on her beautiful face. When she noticed him looking at her, she asked, "So, you are Green Leaf's crown prince?"

The man nodded, "That's right. Surprising right?"

"Yeah, but not too much. But the fact that Mr. Eric is not arrogant and is quite approachable despite being a kingdom's crown prince is more surprising." The lady, Lily, said, nodding.

When the crowd saw Eric talking to Lily, they finally noticed her, and were stunned. "How beautiful!"

"Is... is a real fairy?"

"How could she be so beautiful? Even our Kingdom's number one beauty, princess Lexis, falls short in comparison to her." "She! Keep your voice down, but I have to admit you are not wrong."

"I hope she is single."

"Why? You want to make her your woman. Keke, I finally understood what the saying 'A toad lusting for the swan meat' means.'

...

Ignoring the crowd's chatter, Eric led Lily towards the Royal palace. His two guards followed.

Suddenly, however, Lily stopped in her tracks and looked in a direction with a vacant expression on her face.

Eric was startled. After traveling for almost two days with her, he had realized she was a woman with a strong character and was someone calm and indifferent. At least he didn't see her lose composure like this even when they faced a demon group led by a six-star demon. So, he was genuinely surprised to see her like this and carefully asked, "What is it, Miss Lily?"

"I... don't know." Lily muttered with a confused look on her face. She suddenly felt a familiar presence for a second but when she tried to sense it again, she couldn't. For some reason, this made her uneasy.

Eric's eyes flashed before he said with a smile, "It's alright. Let's go now. I'm sure you need a good rest."

Lily hesitated briefly before nodding. She wanted to say she could find an inn to stay, but because she had already agreed to stay at his place and rest while he arranged a flying beast for him, she couldn't refuse. Besides, she could tell he wasn't a bad person and wouldn't try to harm her. Also, she intended to ask his help to find a place in the capital for her young master and the rest of the family to stay. So, she nodded and followed him to the Royal palace.

...

The Royal City was huge. It was easily ten times bigger than any normal sized city. But despite that, it still couldn't handle the inflow of refugees-the people who had to leave their cities due to the demon invasion-and was filled to the brim. If not for the fact that countless people died in demons' hands when coming here, and people in many small cities and towns didn't even have a chance to move out before they were slaughtered, the city wouldn't even have any room to walk on the streets.

After half an hour, they had covered a small part of the city, and had checked dozens of inns, but none had any rooms left. "Do we have to sleep on the streets now?" Adam muttered, his brows furrowed as he looked at several people sleeping or resting on the ground like homeless dogs.

Durden patted his head, and said with a complicated expression in his eyes. "No. We don't have to. This is the outer area of the city, where prices are cheaper, and the number of people here is overwhelming." "As we move towards the central area of the city, prices will soar and the number of ordinary folks will decrease. So, we won't have trouble finding an empty inn there."

Everyone sighed at his words as they understood what he meant. The outer part of the city was overcrowded, inns were overbooked, and people were forced to adjust in any free place they could find.

They had seen many conflicts arise, and people die because more than one party wanted to occupy the same small corner. The increased number of people, and the lack of order gave rise to robberies, arsons, rapes, killings and several other crimes, making the area chaotic, unsuitable to live in. Even they encountered some people who wanted their money and women. Of course, they weren't shown any mercy and were killed.

Meanwhile, the city's inner and central area wasn't facing these issues. Although they hadn't seen it, they knew it for a fact.

No matter the situation, the strong always commanded many rights and privileges compared to ordinary people.

Just then, they heard a commotion in the distance. Some people were beating an old man, already on the verge of death, and a young girl in tattered clothes was crying and trying to stop them, while the crowd just watched on without any intention to help.

Durden, Shasha, Emily and others just frowned before ignoring them. They had seen too many such scenes on the way, and couldn't be bothered to, or could resolve every issue.

However,

Max's expression changed when he took a closer look at the girl and the old man.

In the next instant, Whoosh!

He rushed towards the group...