After Melina and Ichiro split to go to the north and south continents, she and her group took the magic quartz in Lotus to get to Vista in an instant.
They appeared inside a large circular room with cobblestone walls and floor, where a group of guards stood by next to the magic quartz.
"Soldiers!" one of the guards exclaimed, making the rest point their weapons at the group.
"There’s a bear in the castle!" another one yelled.
Noticing the misunderstanding, Melina instantly raised her hands and stood in front of Athena and her cub, asking the guards to lower their weapons as the bears were friendly.
"What the hell are you guys doing?" said Florencia, entering the room with a commanding presence.
"Apologies, Princess. We got startled by the massive bear..." the soldier replied.
Florencia was Luca’s twin sister, and she had been a student for Ichiro during his time at the academy.
While the princess of Vista hadn’t interacted with Melina that much, she still knew a lot about her as the rumors of her exploits with Ichiro were spreading all over the world.
A few seconds later, Luca arrived to greet the guests but was also startled by the sight of Athena, who was peacefully sitting next to Melina with her cub mounted on her back.
"Good to see you, Luca!" Melina said with a gentle smile.
"Same to you, princess..." he replied, scanning the room with his head.
"I thought Ichiro would be accompanying you," Luca continued.
"Yeah, we had a change of plans..." said Melina, but Florencia halted her and told her to explain everything with her father present.
’Man, going from one king meeting to another... Lucky Ichiro,’ Melina thought as they were brought to the throne’s room.
The King of Vista, just like his offspring, had greenish hair and eyes, which matched the emerald crown he wore on his head.
His name was Cesare Verde, and he introduced himself first as a descendant of "Giuseppe the Sage" before his title as king.
Contrary to the defiant attitude that the twins shared, their father had a more approachable aura around him—with a gentle smile and elegant posture.
"It’s my pleasure to have you here, Princess Melina," the king said, welcoming the silver-haired sage to the palace.
"I gotta say. This is the first time a bear has roamed inside our castle, so it’s safe to say that your visit is already a historic moment for our nation..." he continued, his comment sounding like a joke but also serious.
Melina thanked the king for taking them in but expressed the fact that she didn’t have much time and needed to get on with her mission as soon as possible.
The king already knew about all of the different accomplishments that both Melina and Ichiro had done around the world, and he was aware that she was looking for the relic that was hidden in his country.
With all the sages from the Mages’ Tower helping spread the information about the devils, the victories and feats of the two engaged sages were known all over the world.
Sage Louie and Devon had passed by Vista not long before Melina’s arrival, so the king also got a report from them, which was much more trustworthy than rumors.
"Oh, they are not here? I thought at least one of them would be around..." Melina commented, referring to the two sages.
"They’ve been going to every town in every nation giving people these..." the king replied, asking a servant to bring something to the throne room.
A minute later, the servant returned holding a large crystal, which resembled the magic quartz that they used to teleport.
When Melina inspected it, she noticed it was the exact same material, except it had a completely different enchantment from the ones Ichiro used to create the teleportation effect.