[City of Anvil]

Its been a day or two since Asagi and the rest of the hero's party are following the trail of death which exudes a strong stench of deathly aura. Just like what agreed upon, this group consists of Asagi, Azrael, Jophiel, Hero Sato, Takahashi, Ban, Hino, and Fujino. with this members in a group, they then returned back to the surface as they followed the trail of death that is slowly spreading throughout this land .

They went to many places, abandoned caves, empty temple, along the hot desert, and even some meadow plains. However they cant seem to pinpoint the exact origin of this deathly aura. Just as when all hopes is lost, Azrael then finally spoke up as he admitted that he can pinpoint the exact origin location of the deathly aura due to his affinity with the said death. Upon hearing that Asagi completely went ballistic as she complained non-stop on how could Azrael kept silent this whole time, while everyone were going mad in searching for it.

Due to that Azrael apologized sincerely for his tardy manner, as he mistakenly believed that everyone could find it without him speaking up. Because of that, Asagi walked away for a moment as she cooled her head, before ordering Azrael to lead the way.

Naturally with Azrael at the lead, they were able to easily find the direction in which the deathly aura left its trail,, as they bypassed another long land of deserted area and experienced being attacked by the local monsters in the area. They were attacked by huge Scorpioche, Golems, Huge snakes, and even desert monster which is named as desert devils due to their horrendous appearance. But with the strength of the whole group and the help of the hero's party, no monsters were a challenge as they all fell before them.

In this moment before continuing on their way to the origin place of the deathly aura, Asagi suggested that they should rest first at an inn in the nearest city, the moment she saw the city of Anvil at the edge of the horizon. With that, they took a detour and stayed in the city for the day, which leads to the current scenario wherein they are inside the bustling city, full of people.

No matter where they look, this city is completely filled with people in all direction. It was so filled that one can even mistake it for a commercial city or the capital city of this country.

"Alright! Just like how the generic trope goes, we should all look for an inn first before dismissing the party, so with that... lets go find our inn" said by Asagi with full of excitement.

 After all this will be the first time that she would experience sleeping on an inn. Additionally since both Azrael and Jophiel isn't that actually strict at her, unlike some archangels she knew, she can fully experience adventuring without some constant lectures from her archangels on how she need to maintain her image.

With it they soon arrived before the infamous inn in the city with the help of asking around from the local citizens of the land. Of course upon entering the establishment, the other eyes of some guest and staff turned towards them, as they saw some weird looking people entering the building. Since they were wearing cloaks on top of their disguises, some people naturally taught of them as travelers who were going from one place after another in their journey. Since because of that, they naturally can attract attention of other people who took interest in them.

Upon reaching the counter, Asagi pulled along Hero Sato as she talked to him on what to do next while attending the staff members.

"Good morning travelers, welcome to our humble inn, how can we help you?" 

"We just want a room! a room to stay for the day"

"Oh we do have that!"

"Great! give us 3 huge rooms for our group"

"3 huge rooms? you mean our top rooms? i think we do have that... scratch that, we do have three available rooms, would you like to stay in?"

"Yes! about 24  hours... what's the rate?"

"24 hours? wait up! About 35 huge gold coins"

"Thirty five?"

Hearing that, Asagi swept through her pockets, as she touched something and asked the staff host.

"Do you accept gems?"

"Gems? what gems?"

Upon hearing that, Asagi took one small ruby stones which immediately attracted everyone's attention. the reason for this, is because none of them had seen gems before nor know its worth, but since some of them heard about its beauty from the capital city of this land and its highly expensive luxury from the powerful people in the capital city, they naturally became attracted by the offer as this was the first time they saw a gems as red as ruby.

A ruby is a pinkish red to blood-red colored gemstone, a variety of the mineral corundum (aluminium oxide). Ruby is one of the most popular traditional jewelry gems and is very durable. he quality of a ruby is determined by its color, cut, and clarity, which, along with carat weight, affect its value. The brightest and most valuable shade of red, called blood-red or pigeon blood, commands a large premium over other rubies of similar quality. After color follows clarity: similar to diamonds, a clear stone will command a premium, but a ruby without any needle-like rutile inclusions may indicate that the stone has been treated. Ruby is the traditional birthstone for July and is usually pinker than garnet, although some rhodolite garnets have a similar pinkish hue to most rubies. The world's most valuable ruby to be sold at auction is the Sunrise Ruby.

Rubies have a of 9.0 on the Mohs scale of mineral hardness. Among the natural gems, only and are harder, with diamond having a Mohs hardness of 10.0 and moissanite falling somewhere in between corundum (ruby) and diamond in hardness. Some rubies show a three-point or six-point asterism or "star". These rubies are cut into cabochons to display the effect properly. Asterisms are best visible with a single-light source and move across the stone as the light moves or the stone is rotated. Such effects occur when light is reflected off the "silk" (the structurally oriented rutile needle inclusions) in a certain way. This is one example where inclusions increase the value of a gemstone. Furthermore, rubies can show color changes—though this occurs very rarely—as well as chatoyancy or the "cat's eye" effect.

With this, one can even mistaken it as Asagi being a nouveau riche. The term implies  people from a low social class who have recently become very rich and like to show this by spending a lot of money.

Upon seeing the ruby gemstone, the staff of the inn couldn't hide their shock, as they never seen such gemstone ever in their entire life. To be exact they've come across multiple gemstone that are quite beautiful in a sense that many envy its owners, however this ruby is literally on its own league as such type of mineral doesn't exist in this world. With its radiant color and attractive shape, anyone wou7ld literally be shock by its beauty.

Of course the staff members weren't the only one who is shocked, as the other guest in the inn had their mouths gape wide open and their movement halted from surprise. A priceless treasure, that was what is in front of them. With it such reaction is literally normal in a sense.

But Asagi and the rest of her group doesn't know of such fact and regarded such an incident as normal thing, due to that, they weren't able to catch everyone's reaction as they all stared at Asagi as if she was an alluring bag of treasures.

In that moment, while everyone was shocked silly, the owner of the inn quickly pushed his staff aside and welcome serviced Asagi and her group.

"We would humbly accept such gemstone! Thank you customer... Since we have been fully paid, let me personally take you to the three rooms available, but before anything else, i would like to ask if you guys wanted to be our prized VIP client?"

"VIP client?" asked by Asagi

"Yes VIP client! the only way to become a VIP client is to register and be a member of our inn, upon successful registration, you will then receive an identity card in which it will state that you are a VIP client, you can use this card to our any establishment and partners in the land. Also you will also have about 25?% discount in all bills, payment, and purchase our services or products"

"Ah! i see.... No need for that" replied by Asagi as she remembered the advertisement of the mall's employee about their establishment benefits if the customer would avail their promo or whatnot.

Due to that experience, Asagi literally became used to such advertisement, as she often rejects the offer and sticks with the regular services or payments. However Asagi's quick disregard for such advertisement caught the inn's owner off guard, as it tried to reason out towards Asagi.

"But we have a huge discount benefit"

"Don't need it! after all we wont be staying in this city for long"

The moment the owner of the inn heard that, his smile then faded, as he was somewhat disappointed by Asagi's answer while servicing them appropriately in accordance to pay.

"I see...alright then! i cant do much if you guys don't want the inn's promo, I'll just lead you to your rooms"

With the inn's owner in the lead, Asagi then followed after, which then followed in turn by the hero's party and both Azrael and Jophiel who were at the rear. Compared to Asagi, Jophiel and Azrael stayed silent as they were disappointed from the people's reaction towards their queen's interaction with the inn's staff member. The moment the ruby was taken out of the vault and was showcased to everyone in the inn, greed could apparently be seen as it was quite obvious from their expression alone.

Greed (or avarice) is an insatiable desire for material gain (be it food, money, land, or animate/inanimate possessions) or social value, such as status, or power. Greed has been identified as undesirable throughout known human history because it creates behavior-conflict between personal and social goals. What's more greed is considered as part of the seven sins, since both Azrael and Jophiel are archangels, they are quite literally sensitive to sin, causing them to silently observe the people who eyed the treasure.

With that, they were then brought into their own room as they separated in groups to occupy all three rooms. the 1st room belongs to Asagi as she claimed it as hers, the second room are for the hero and its party to share, while the third room are the two archangels they had along to occupy for the night.

Once everyone settled in, Asagi then told everyone to spend the rest of the day in a manner that they want, which is basically like a day off for everyone. Naturally the rest were enli9ghtened as both Jophiel and Azrael kept their poker face in this time of relief. Once she made the announcement, she then entered the room and rested inside her own room.

Rest is incredibly important to one's body's health. Many studies back on earth have proven the myriad benefits of rest. Rest reduces stress, gives you the opportunity to be more active, works against the many detriments of a sedentary lifestyle, and boosts your immune system. By allowing our bodies time to recover, rest helps prevent injuries and improve overall performance. It also aids in muscle repair, reduces inflammation, and supports a healthy immune system. Additionally, rest helps manage stress levels and lowers blood pressure, contributing to a healthier heart.

With such an obvious fact, Asagi then took her sweet time as she took a bathe while dousing herself in water and soup. After taking a bath which is a luxury for the rich, she then sat on the soft chair while drinking some wine that was displayed in the table.

After taking an hour or two of resting, she then stood up, as she gets dressed and went out of her room and the inn itself. After stretching her arms, Hero Sato then called out to her from behind, as he was surprised to see Asagi outside of the inn without any archangels guarding her.

"Your majesty?!?!"

"Hmmm? Oh Hero Sato"

"What are you doing outside your majesty?"

"Well i want to stroll around before heading back inside my room"

"Without any guards?"

"Yep! you have no idea just how suffocating it is to have someone guard you in every step in the way.

"I... I see"

"Yes! so would you care to join me?"

"Huh? Yes?"

***ReadAtWebnovel***