1368 Emerald Vine Restaurant
"Your majesty, do your best. It will be great if you two can hit it off," Elder Liang excitedly spoke as Alex prepared to leave.
"Don't worry, elder Liang. I'm sure his majesty will capture young Talia's heart with his charm," the king said.
Alex turned around to look at both of their overly excited faces and sighed. Even Yao Ning held a small smile, hoping that Alex would truly
He shook his head and turned around, placing a mask on his face before walking out of the palace. The elder still wished him luck as he left and only stopped once he left the gate.
Alex walked through the busy street of the city that was starting to get a little less crowded as the morning was ending and midday was starting.
He made his way to the east of the town, toward the crossing on the 4th street. The King had set up their meeting location, and it had been a prestigious restaurant belonging to the Azure Imperium, but currently under the King himself.
The only staff members in the kitchen that was allowed there were people above Level 6 in cooking, so the food there always came out great.
Alex grumbled a little under his mask to himself. He did not want to go through with this at all. However, he had to show that there was some purpose as to why he was looking for strong, young girls so that he could quickly find his cousin.
He was already worried that his cousin wasn't trying to meet him in some way, with the worst possibilities playing out in his mind all the time, so he did not want to add regret to all of that by not doing the best he could at finding her.
If he couldn't find her by the time he was to leave this continent 20 years later, he was even prepared to ask the Emperor for some help in finding anything that was known about her.
His mind wandered to the things that were happening around him, keeping a mental note of all that went on in the city. He wanted to learn what he could from here to become a better king when he went back
Unlike the Dragon Capital, the Greenheart City had a surprising number of mortals living here. While surprising, Alex found it quite understandable as well. While it was still a capital, it was not the capital that everyone cultivator wanted to live in if they could.
Alex also saw multiple Alchemy and medicine stores, even more so than the Dragon Capital. As one of the hubs of alchemy, there truly was a lot going on in this city.
He arrived by 4th Street about 15 minutes later and took out a small token given to him by King Jin.
The token had a small ladle wrapped in vines, almost emulating the Azure Imperium's insignia, but in its own unique way. On the opposite side, it had two numbers.
Alex looked at the massive restaurant that was in front of him, on top of which rested the restaurant's emblem. Next to it was the restaurant's name written in a large text.
Emerald Vine Restaurant.
Alex walked up the stairs along with quite a few people that were going in and out of the restaurant and was greeted by two staff at the door.
Alex handed over the token to the guards, who seemed to realize the importance of it and immediately bowed.
"Show me the way," Alex said from within his mask.
The guards instantly nodded, calling a pair of female staff that came to take him. They were very respectful to him, which made a few people wonder who exactly he was.
Some made accurate guesses, but others simply wondered if he was one of the many important youths that would have started arriving for when the Endless Shadow Abyss was opened.
Having no verifications, those guesses just remained as that.
Alex was taken to a side of the room that had a functioning elevator. These were one of the influences that the players had had on the empire at an architectural scale. Many such changes were happening around the continent, all of which were possible because the Players were strong and had a word in what happened in this world.
The places where the old ones were in control such as the Royal schools and sects hadn't yet chosen to make the changes, but the commercial buildings, especially tall ones, and especially ones that mortals visited had started accepting these changes.
Alex could hear an audible tone ring out every time he passed and floor, and he heard that tone 5 times. On the fifth ring, the doors opened, letting him walk out onto a large, open balcony-like area with a rather intimate table in the center.
And on the table was already seated a young woman with prettily tied black hair, who turned around with an expectant expression. Her expression died a bit when she saw Alex, but that was only because she couldn't really see him.
The female staff quickly walked out and started preparing Alex's seats before he even walked over. By the time he walked close to the girl, they had already walked back into the elevator.
Alex walked over to the girl, who still hesitated a bit, and removed his mask. As he did, the girl finally got to see his face and her expression improved drastically.
"Your majesty, I am Talia Hoffner, the disciple of Ming Wuling from the Cloud Iron sect," the girl immediately bowed and introduced herself. "I am honored that you are allowing me to meet you here today."
"You don't have to be so stiff, Miss Talia," Alex said as he cupped his hands in greeting. "It's good to finally see you as well. You are prettier than what I saw in the pictures."
The girl blushed a little. She wore a mostly green robe with a head full of gold jewelry and stark white pearls. She was an entire head shorter than Alex, but that only added to her charm.
Her gray eyes stuck out the most among her other physical traits, grabbing one's attention immediately.
As for her cultivation base, it was in the Saint Core 8th realm, a step above Alex. It had increased in the past 6 months since Alex had found her information, which was already from the Endless Shadow Abyss opening a year ago.
"You are very handsome yourself, your Majesty," the girl quickly said.
"Please sit," Alex said and let Talia sit back while he went over to the seat on the other side of the bare meter-long table and sat.
Talia was all smiles, excitement, and maybe even a bit of nervousness.
Alex got comfortable and decided to start with some small talk. However, before he could do that, the girl spoke immediately.
"Your majesty, if you don't mind, I have a confusion that I hope you can clear up," she quickly said.
"Sure, ask away," Alex said.
"Can you tell me how you know about me?" the girl asked. "I don't think I've done anything recently to be famous enough for you to be noticed by you or anyone important."
Alex was a little surprised. "Do you… not know why you're here?"
