Gate: Thus the Reich Empire Fought There, Revised

Chapter 11: The Quests

Arriving with three dragons dashed any hope of coming to the town inconspicuously. Thus, Itami, Pina, Norman, and Alra forgoed any attempts at concealing their identities. Instead, they arrived in somewhat formal attire, including Itami and Alra's military button-up coats and epaulet jacket capes. Norman wore a similar variant and his new jacket cape while Pina donned her red dress. A vast crowd gathered before them as Itami helped Pina step down from Forest's saddle.

"Is that really her!?"

"It is!"

"I told you we saw her!"

The Special Region townsfolk gaped in awe at Pina's arrival, and she struggled to take it all in. She clutched Itami's arm tight, and he chuckled a little at her anxious expression. "What's wrong? Never walked among the common people before?"

"I have! On occasion." Pina muttered. Zorzal made regular trips into the slums in the capital and other poorer Imperial settlements to better tend to their needs, but Pina never joined him despite his offers. Her encounters with the common people of Italica were brief, just passing through on her way from the manor to the walls.

"It's alright, they won't bite you." Alra chuckled as she took Norman's hand and walked with their dragons.

Itami guided Pina through the road and struggled to contain his amusement when she pulled herself closer each time a commoner greeted her. At his insistence, she returned their greetings while Itami and Alra did the same with patrolling soldiers who saluted them. As the minutes went by, he spotted their destination, a two-floored tavern named 'The Golden Dragon' with a tiled roof and a large porch where patrons ate and drank to their hearts' content. Pina, however, puffed up her cheeks at Itami.

"You purposely landed further away, so I'd have to walk past the plebeians."

"Who me? Never." Itami said with an innocent look.

She kept pouting even as Forest licked her face. Azrael and Panache both waved at them from the porch seating while having dinner together. Nor were they alone. Bruno and Bozes waited for them near the entrance, and the blonde woman looked ready to jump up and over the tavern the way she sprung on her feet and beamed with bright pink cheeks. Bruno took his wife's shoulders as if to keep her from leaping off the porch, but Bozes broke free and hugged Pina.

"I take it the trip to the physician went well." Itami said.

"Ja, you could say that." Bruno said, almost shouting. He, too, had a giddish expression on his face, and Itami started to put the pieces together. Bozes, however, beat him to the punch and almost sang like a songbird.

"We're going to have a baby!"

Itami half-expected Pina to gasp or shout something at her. However, he covered his mouth to contain his laughter as the Princess gave a resigned brown-beaten expression and just nodded.

"Congratulations. You and every other woman here." Pina muttered the last bit under her breath.

She glanced out around the town and cringed upon the confirmation of what she said earlier. Every other local woman, human, elf, and demi-human married to someone from Itami's world was with child, nor were they alone. The few women who married local men, too, had swollen stomachs. A shiver ran down Pina's spine as she realized the population of Alnus would explode in no time, supplanting the Empire in a generation or two. Just then, a thought crept into her head, and she imagined herself and Itami with kids, and butterflies filled the Princess's stomach.

"Great, we have two things to celebrate then." Norman laughed.

Pina snapped out of her daydream and yelped with a scarlet face. Itami smiled back at her even as she quivered but said nothing. Bozes and Bruno gasped at the sight of Iron, who came up and nuzzled' Bozes's stomach.