"This is one of Heliohapt's most famous places, the gate of happiness!"

"Ooh!!"

"These are the idols that protect Heliohapt."

"Oooh!"

"This is our country's greatest architectural achievement, the Royal palace."

"Ooooh!"

Sera giggled as Sinbad and Mystras looked in awe at all things they were shown. It was kinda cute to see them so entranced of every little thing they were shown, of course, she felt the same way. She never was able to see much from that old fish tank.

"Amazing, huh? I wonder how they built such a gigantic structure," commented Ja'far as he looked at the pyramids.

Sinbad smiled brightly and covered his eyes from the sun, "I wonder how they made such a gigantic structure."

"Wow!! Sinbad!! What the heck is that?!" Said Mystras as he pointed to a stand, his attention now taken by a weird plant. Mystras then pulled Sinbad to the stand with a weird plant called a "mandrulu". It was almost shaped like an actual human and it was really creepy. 

"What is this?! I've never seen anything like this!"

"It's edible, right?! Ah! It moved!"

"Sera, look at this!"

"No! Get that thing away from me!"

Meanwhile, Ja'far hoped they wouldn't attract more attention and Drakon only sighed. Hinahoho smiled as if he was blissfully unaware and Masrur just stayed silent.

The man running the stand explained more about the creepy plant all while Sera stayed as far away from it as possible and Sinbad seemed engrossed into the conversation as if wanting to learn more.

A lot of other plants were shown, which were all equally as creepy as the others; at least in Sera's opinion. Some included: Cypress faces, Toliri Helmet, and the fang from a maurenia baboon. The tour guide then explained why they had many exotic plants and animals. It was on account to them being close to the dark continent. 

He then gave Sinbad and Mystras a medicine to try as an example. It was a medicine to recover from exhaustion.

"Wow! Amazing. It's like all my exhaustion vanished in an instant!"

"That's great! That was..."

The two then proceeded to vomit it out as he told them what was in it. Needless to say, it was nasty.

Sinbad wiped his mouth and groaned, "ugh... But, these medicines are amazing...! If we could start trading these medicines from Heliohapt..."

"Well as long as they don't know what's in them, I'm sure it'll work out," Sera commented.

"It's that all of these things here are unusual, and on top of that they've all been perfected through years of refined techniques and research," said Ja'far.

"You! How much are these medicines?! How much do you have in stock? Can you produce them in mass quantities?! Do you trade them?!" Sinbad bombarded him with question after question.

"Sin, calm down!"

The man didn't seem to mind as he answered his questions, "if you're in that, you should try visiting the place where they handle diplomatic matters..."

"In that case, let's head to the palace!-" he then got excited- "the palace was that triangle-shaped building we saw earlier, right? I'm excited to see it! Come on, Sera!"

Sera held on to her hood as Sinbad grabbed her wrist and dragged her to where the palace was. "Oi, Sin! Slow down!"

Ja'far then tried to stop him, but soon ended up running after him.

•~•~•

Once they all made to the palace they were met with the king's consul, Narmes.

"Currently, our country is proactively seeking contact with the outside world. It seems that the king will meet with you personally," he informed.

Sinbad smiled, excited as he took off the top layer of clothing he had on. The rest followed suit and meanwhile, Drakon seemed slightly hesitant about his hood.

Sera had taken the long skirt she had worn to reveal a white mini skirt under but hesitated to remove her hood just like Drakon.

"Are you going to take it off?"

She jumped to see a man in a bird mask. "I-If it's alright with you I'd like to keep it on," she said.

To back her up, Sinbad placed a hand on her shoulder, "she's embarrassed. People in her family were taught to never show their hair. It was said to be unsightly..."

"My hair or the act of showing it?" She asked unamused while crossing her arms. Sinbad elbowed her side to shut her up, she glared at him.

"Y-Yes, people in my family were always born with the most horrid looking hair. S-So, we prefer to cover it..." She laughed nervously.

The man with the masked stared at them as if wondering if it was true, but then brushed it off.

She let out a breath of relief, "thank Solomon..."

"You owe me~," teased Sinbad.

Sera scoffed, "I'll pay you back later lover boy."

Drakon was then stopped by the same man and was asked if he was wearing a mask, on account of looking like a dragon.

"That's great, huh, Drakon? They thought you were wearing a mask." Sinbad whispered.

"Yeah..."

They walked into the throne room and kneeled in front of the king. "Welcome to my country of Heliohapt. I welcome you, guests from a foreign land... But what an interesting group you are... Imuchakk and someone from Sasan." 

"You are no ordinary travelers. Who are you?" He asked.

They had just walked into the throne room where the current king for Heliohapt was sitting on his throne with the snake wrapped around him, his name was Armakan Amun-Ra.

"I'm Sinbad, head of Sindria trading company. I'm a merchant, formerly of Reim, but currently based in Balbadd."

Sinbad then began to convince him to start trading with their company and he spoke of how they could be a valuable asset before he said anything. Someone interjected.

"Please wait, young king. There's no need for you to waste time meeting personally with such a questionable bunch of warriors. You want to make a deal, travelers?"

It was a man that seemed to be a vizier along with an old woman and a man wearing another animal mask at his side. Sera looked at the rest of the group almost asking if they felt something that seemed off but it seemed to be just her. 

The man's name was Gafra Ka, the old woman at his side was Patra Aman-Ra. She is the wife of the late king and was the queen dowager, a dowager was a widow with a title. The man with the dog mask was the priest, Anubis.

The vizier scoffed at Narmes, "really, consul Narmes... You're quite the disappointment, letting the young king meet with foreign travelers at a time like this... You're not fit for the title of consul," he said with a small smirk.

The queen soon joined in, "don't you understand what's going on?" She asked, "ever since the of the former king and the enthronement of prince Armakan, this country has nothing but bad luck." 

Sera turned to the kid sitting on the throne, 'so... he's not the king?' She thought with raised brows.

"It appears so... Nothing like what you told me."

'Let's not talk about that,' Sera thought as the memories flashed through her mind. Amdusias seemed to understand as he soon stayed quiet. 

While Sera was distracted the vizier spoke of the bad luck going through the country. Apparently, deaths have increased with no reasonable cause and mostly aimed towards young, healthy people. They had all thought of it as a curse on account of it being so mysterious.

"That's right!" Spoke up the queen. She proceeded to blame the current king and explained how the old king had wanted to keep foreign influence out, which was opposite of what the current king wanted, "I'm sure these actions must have invoked rage of our great former king," she said.

Narmes, having grown angry, snapped at them, "Lord Gafra! Lady Patra! You are speaking in front of your king!" He snapped as he glared at them.

Gafra put his hands up, "please excuse us... We had no intention of being rude," he said. 

'He's lying,' thought Sera.

"Very true." 

Gafra's eyes narrowed, "but... We are praying this curse does not affect our young king," he said as he looked to Armakan who currently wasn't commenting on the situation.

'He lied again.'

"Correct."

They were all escorted out of the throne room to where Narmes apologized for the small argument that had ensued. He also offered to pay for all lodgings. 

*~*~*

Everyone had gotten their things and were currently going to where they were staying, "it seems like this country has its own problems, too," commented Hinahoho.

"Yeah..."

The tour guide with them soon stopped and explained what was going on. Their former king, who had passed, had not wanted this country to interact with foreign countries. He wanted them to be isolated. 

The new king, Armakan, wanted the opposite. He changed the foreign policy entirely, the younger generation supported it, unlike the older generation. 

"Leave it to the old generations to screw everything over," mumbled Sera. 

The country was split in two, one for it and one against. His fist was clenched as he spoke, "but... I'm sure they'll come to understand our point of view someday-" he smiled brightly at them- "this is what's best for the sake of Heliohapt's future. We believe that with all our hearts! Anyway, we'll show you to the inn. Please follow me," he said.

When they got there Sinbad spoke to the receptionist while Ja'far spoke with the tour guide. While that went on, Sera was with Masrur, "Masrur..." She spoke up. 

Masrur looked up at her as he heard his name. Sera took a deep breath as she looked down at him, "what do you think of Sinbad?" She asked low enough so that no one can hear her. 

Masrur looked between her and Sinbad, "... He's different."

Sera glanced at Sinbad who busy talking to Hinahoho and Mystras about his guest being a woman. She sighed as a small blush ran across her cheeks, "you can say that again..." She mumbled, "Masrur, I have something to share with you and it's a secret that you can't tell anyone."

Masrur gazed up at her all while Amdusias was telling her to keep quiet, "My queen, you can't!"

Sera ignored her djinn, "Masrur, I-"

"KYAAA!"

They both sharply turned to see the tour guide had collapsed onto the floor, "what happened?!" Asked Sinbad as he ran to Ja'far who was cradling the tour guide. 

As they all got closer they gasped as the light had left his eyes, it was unnerving given that he seemed so full of life earlier and was now dead. 

Ja'far looked up at them, "he's... Dead...?!!" He said with a strained look on his face. 

~~~~~~~~

Sorry for taking so long to update... I made a long chapter to try and make up for it. Please don't be upset with me! I hope you all enjoyed it!