In this land of magic, he who was born with the gift of magic was considered a noble, but he who was normal... was relegated to commoner, to be of the lowest social class. Since magic was everything.

The emperor was the one in whom the immortal spirit of the great black-scaled dragon resided.

That's why, for everyone on the street, it was almost impossible that the great emperor was talking to a simple commoner "Girl, I never came to this town, can you tell me where they serve good tea?"