“What do you mean by there’s no governor?” Cozy stepped up to the man they had trapped in the crystal, pointing her finger at him. “What happened to the previous lady?”

  “She’s gone. Ain’t nothin’ to say about her except that she ain’t governor anymore. Regardless, that leaves us free reign to do stuff before they figure anything out!”

  “There’s no backup for this?” Ed asked.

  The man spit in Ed’s face, refusing to answer his question. “My backup is arriving soon, so let me go you damn kids!”

  The man began to shake in his crystal prison, before suddenly an energy blast blew it apart, freeing him. All four of them raised their guards as the dust cleared, and the man they were interrogating got away. On top of a nearby building, various men were firing energy projectiles from the top of various buildings. They were clearly looking for a fight.

  “Hey! What’s going on here?” Adelyn immediately revved her chainsaw to deflect a few blasts. Cozy herself spawned her wings and prepared to fight back herself. Sending her own blasts of energy towards the attackers, she noticed the attackers begin to scatter. And behind them, she saw a man with a large greatsword attacking the criminals from behind.

  “Who’s that?” Cozy asked, but nobody else had time to answer. Suddenly, a pink-haired woman leaped in between them, wielding her own sword and light armor.

  “I’d recommend all of you getting the hell out of here, now! Follow me!” she commanded. It was in such a decisive tone, that Cozy felt compelled to follow even though. This seemed to have an effect on everyone else, and they all took off amidst the magical blasting.

  “What is going on?!” Teddie asked as they escaped the battlefield.

  “I’m terribly sorry,” the woman with pink hair said. “I swear, this is just a terrible first impression. Things are bad, but they’re normally not that bad.”

  “It sure seemed pretty bad to me!” Ed said.

  “But it’s the city of Love, and Cozy was describing it as a much more positive place!” Adelyn said. “So, something wrong must have happened.”

  “And who are you?” Cozy said, gliding above them a bit with her wings. This helped her maintain a fair bit of speed.

  “I’m Junice, volunteer-captain of the city guard! I’ll explain in a second, I’m hoping my comrades have cleared out the area by now.”

  Junice eventually stopped and took a breath, as the fighting died down behind them. They had run to a more commercial area, one with shops, and lights. Regardless, it seemed safer here.

  “Junice!” A man also in armor ran towards her. “Are you okay?”

  “Yeah. Yeah. I was just showing some new guests around. Sorry… about that.”

  They looked towards the four. Cozy waved.

  “And who might you be?” The man asked.

  “I’m Cozy,” Cozy stepped forwards. “This is Adelyn, Ed, and Teddie. Our carriage was attacked and we were brought here for our safety.”

  “Ah… another set of travellers, stumbling into Loura at the worst time. Of course. I’m Max, good to meet you.”

  “Yeah, actually. I have to ask about that, what the heck is going on? The guy back there said there isn’t a governor, and it’s only been a year and a half since I’ve been here!” Cozy continued. “What happened to the previous one?”

  “It’s… complicated,” Junice said. “She got ousted by the Lovebird. We’re not sure why, and it wants a new candidate.”

  “We HAVE a new candidate. The damn bird agrees,” Max said. “But it just won’t give her the damn powers.”

  “Yeah that’s another problem,” Junice responded. “The government’s broken down ever since the lack of the governor. It’s up to us volunteers to try and maintain the peace, because we need the city to function.”

  Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on Royal Road.

  “How is the city functioning without a governor and a barely there guard? Are you guys really a volunteer force?” Ed asked.

  “Yeah… I mean, of course we are. But we can’t afford to have this city cooped up in fear and loneliness either.” Junice seemed to be particularly devout about this, standing tall and poetically in front of the four. “If people don’t see each other, then how are we supposed to show that our bonds can weather the hardships? Despite these criminal attacks, we need to keep on living and functioning, because we love our city, and our love will pay off.”

  A bit of sarcastic clapping came from Max, who didn’t seem very impressed with the speech.

  “It’s a nice sentiment, Junice. But I really implore you to reconsider. We’re so stretched thin trying to keep people safe that your ideal of love isn’t going to work.”

  “We’re in the City of Love, Max. If this place can’t stand strong, then who will?” Junice responded.

  Adelyn stepped up. “I think Junice is right. We can fight off the criminals, but if we let them run down this city and stop people from living then… that’ll just be really sad, won't it?”

  “Well,” Ed interrupted Adelyn. “It’s hard to live if people are living in fear. Can’t love if you’re scared.”

  “It’s our job to wash that fear away. Once the governor gets chosen again, then I’m so sure that we’ll be able to quickly get back on our feet!”

  Cozy raised her eyebrow with a little bit of suspicion, but before she could say anything, Teddie spoke up.

  “You said you had a candidate…?” Teddie looked at the two. “Can… Can we meet them… to get to know them?”

  “Woah, woah, woah,” Max raised his hands. “Hold it right there. I know we just saved you but you’re not gonna be meeting the candidate like that. If something happened to her then that’ll set our recovery process back by way too long.”

  Cozy stepped in front of Teddie and began to speak up. “We’ve come from the City of Lune. Special convoys to help with your troubled city.”

  The girl was twisting the truth a little bit, but they did have some form of a divine mandate at the very least. It was a worthy lie for their cause.

  “That is where our carriage came from. We’re here to help, trust me.”

  “Aren’t you all a bunch of preteens?” Max said, suspiciously. “That seems a little suspicious that Luan would send you all to help us out specifically.”

  “Then you would be familiar with Luan’s tendency to bow to a divine mandate, and we have a divine mandate,” Cozy responded. She closed her hand into a fist, and a beautiful glowing moon crystal rose from the ground. “If you tested every single one of us, we would have the most divine blood you’ve seen. We are here to help.”

  The presentation seemed to convince both of them. Normally, Cozy wouldn’t like to rely on such a thing granted to her by that god, but that was behind her now. Anything was necessary.

  “Jeez kid, you’ve made your point,” Max said.

  “We really appreciate the help,” Junice said, thankful. “Especially for the divine mandate. There’s nobody truly better to understand our struggles.”

  “Thank you,” Cozy bowed. “When can we meet her?”

  “We can set up the meeting tomorrow,” Max crossed his arms. “I think for now, you should be taken to a non-chaotic place in this city. Junice?”

  “Of course! Follow me, there’s an inn nearby!” Junice said.

  Despite the trouble this city was going through, the food was superb. This inn served some of the best squail eggs imaginable. A bird that was native to this region, and sang songs of love and harmony.

  Junice had paid for their food, and everyone was scarfing down. Today had a lot going on, and tomorrow they had more to plan for.

  “You all need to look good in front of the governor, so be ready,” Cozy warned everyone.

  “She isn’t the governor yet, but I feel like we aren’t getting an approval until we fix this entire city,” Ed said.

  “Yeah,” Adelyn said. “No governor… no approval. But, man. It feels like we keep on running into problems, and it’s taking so long.”

  “I mean… I think they expected us to quit by this point,” Teddie said. “But we haven’t… and we’ve already done so much.”

  “Yeah, but this is only the fourth city? Out of nine? It’s kind of wild,” Ed said. “Seems like this country is dealing with more trouble than I thought.”

  “Problems follow us everywhere we go,” Cozy pointed out. “Remember, we all started working with this girl cause she just fell out of the sky. I think we should be accustomed to it.”

  “True. But, how are we gonna deal with this problem?” Ed said back.

  “I think we just do what we start with, ask,” Adelyn said.

  “But she isn’t the governor yet,” Cozy said. “Our goal is essentially to crown a king, so we can’t just do her a favor.”

  “...I think I have an idea,” Teddie said. “The Lovebird. We need to meet them. You guys can talk to the candidate, but I want to talk to the bird.”

  “Oh, yeah, you can talk to animals can’t you?” Ed added. “Act as a therapist to the bird, find out why it’s being so particular.”

  “Good thinking Teddie!” Adelyn encouraged him. “I think we have something planned for tomorrow then. We talk to the candidate, Teddie talks to the bird, we get our governor, and we’re one step closer to Rumia.”

  Cozy nodded. That was a plan that she could agree with.