By the time the town gates came into view, lunch had happened, the dishes had been abandoned, and somehow nobody had talked me out of walking toward a dungeon to free someone called the Tyrant Dragon Empress. The title still felt unreal in my head, like something I should have heard in a story instead of from a glowing system panel over lunch.

Celeste walked a few steps ahead with the kind of body language that made people move before she had to ask. She had taken charge after lunch, mostly because I had stared at the quest panel too long and Reika had politely suggested that letting me plan the trip might lead to our deaths.

Reika stayed beside me with her ears turning toward every noise she heard, curiosity pulling her attention in every direction. Valka followed on my other side, quiet in a way that made me more nervous than her ’special’ room ever had.

The words Tyrant Dragon Empress had changed something in Valka’s face, and I had no idea if that was good or more like, run before the demon princess explains history bad.

"So..." I said as we passed under the gate, trying not to look like a guy traveling with three beautiful women and half a plan, "town first. Supplies, rumors, and maybe someone tells us the dragon empress part sounds worse than it is."

Celeste looked back at me without slowing. "Adrian."

Laughing at her response. "Right. No pastry theories."

Valka’s eyes moved over the busy street. "If the title has survived this long, someone may have wanted it remembered."

"Sometimes a title is just a warning...," Valka said, her gaze still sharp, pausing to think before finishing. "...and sometimes it is a lie meant to bind something they didn’t understand."

Celeste pointed toward the first row of shops before I could think too hard about that. "Which is why we are getting supplies and answers before anyone goes near that dungeon."

The shopping was over quickly, Celeste able to find everything she thought we would need fairly quickly. Once we finished, I had a rope over one shoulder, a pack of dried food under my arm, and the sudden realization that adventuring involved way more carrying things than I had emotionally prepared for. "Do we really need all of this?" I asked as Celeste tucked a small roll of bandages into the bag hanging from my other shoulder. "I’m not complaining, I’m just saying I feel like a pack mule with anxiety."

Celeste tightened the strap until the bag sat properly against my side, giving me the same calm look she used when I was wrong and wasting everyone’s time. "Yes," she said, then reached past me to take two small oil flasks from Reika before placing them into the pack. "Unless you would rather enter a dungeon with no food, no rope, no light, and no way to stop yourself from bleeding."

"That was very detailed, thank you," I said, adjusting the weight before it pulled me sideways.

Reika stepped around me with her ears twitching at the glass clinking inside the bag, then slid a small utility knife into one of the side pockets like she had already decided I could not be trusted to remember sharp objects. "Master complains now, but he will be very happy when he can see in the dark."

"That’s fair," I said, glancing down at the pack that now looked more prepared for this quest than I did. "I do like having the ability to see things before they try to eat me."

Valka returned from the next stall holding a bundle of iron spikes in one hand and a short coil of chain in the other. Her face was calm, like she had not just selected the most suspicious items in the entire market. Celeste stared at the chain for a second before looking away, her face became flush as she scoffed.

"Many things," Valka replied, sounding genuinely confused that the answer was not obvious.

I slowly reached over and took the bundle before Celeste could ask for examples. "Great. Emergency many-things chain. Love it," I said, shoving it into the pack and pretending it did not immediately make the whole bag feel more threatening.

Celeste pinched the bridge of her nose, then pointed toward the busier part of the street where the stalls opened into the main road. "Now I’ll go ask questions, quickly. If there is a dungeon northeast of town, someone here has heard something. Stay here and wait..."

Celeste walking off alone with purpose was usually a good thing, but being told to stay in one spot made me more aware of the spear at my back and the fact that Celeste had clearly decided I was not the planner here. Reika leaned against the side of the stall beside me, watching the crowd with her ears still moving, while Valka stood perfectly still at my other side with her chain tucked under one arm like it was the most normal purchase in the world.

The wait was not long, but it was awkward as hell. A few people slowed down to stare at us, then immediately decided they had somewhere else to be once Valka looked back. I tried to smile like we were just a normal group of travelers, but the rope, food pack, demon princess, and fox girl did not exactly make us look ordinary.

Celeste came back after a few minutes with her arms crossed and her mouth set in a hard line.

"That bad?" I asked.

"No one knows anything useful," she said, stopping in front of us. "Most people have never heard of the Tyrant Dragon Empress. Two thought I was asking about a children’s story. One old man went pale when I said dragonkin, then suddenly remembered he had somewhere to be."

Reika’s ears angled forward. "So he knew something."

"Probably," Celeste said, looking toward the northeastern road. "But not enough to say it out loud."

Valka’s fingers tightened slightly around the chain. "Fear makes poor witnesses."

"Great," I said, shifting the pack higher on my shoulder. "So our grand information hunt got us supplies, weird looks, and one scared old man."

"It also told us people avoid the subject," Celeste said, already turning toward the road out of town. "That is still an answer."

With nothing else to buy and no one else willing to explain why an ancient dragon lady was apparently local nightmare fuel, we headed for the edge of town. The noise of the stalls faded behind us little by little, replaced by wagon wheels, distant birds, and the crunch of our boots on the road. I glanced back once at the safety of the town, then forward at the road leading northeast.

Celeste kept walking. Reika followed with her tail swaying playfully behind her. Valka looked toward the road ahead with a faint smile that made me think she was either ready for danger or hoping for it.

I adjusted the pack on my shoulder and followed them out, because apparently the only thing worse than walking toward the Tyrant Dragon Empress was letting her wake up before we got there.