Taking a carriage to the Magic Tower, then a gate to the Empire - we managed to arrive without incident, though I was a bit thrown off by Han Se-ah unconsciously scratching my arm and leaning her weight against like a cushion.
"Co to think of it, where in the Empire are we?"
"We ca to the Imperial capital first. Since we don't have exact information, I figured we'd go where the guild presence is strongest."
"Makes sense, since unlike the Kingdom where enemies gather at the tower, the Empire faces threats from three directions."
Specifically, we were in the Imperial capital.
As Irene said, monster waves pressed along the Empire's borders, so we didn't know where that Heavenly King's final ss had landed. Han Se-ah's quest window remained quiet too - either the event hadn't triggered yet, or we needed to gather info and head there ourselves.
The Kingdom had plains to the east, wastelands to the west, jungle to the south, and snow to the north.
The Empire had plains to the east, desert to the west, and snow to both south and north.
If they'd placed the Empire to the Kingdom's left or right, it would follow basic logic - cold north, hot south. But for so reason, Heroes Chronicle had stacked the Empire above the Kingdom. This ant the massive Empire had huge mountains in its center with vast plains above and below.
...Was it modeled after the Alps region of Europe?
Of course, the Empire hadn't explored to the continent's edges yet, so who knew what lay beyond. There could be more snow past the eastern plains, or an ocean beyond the western desert. If BB Gas got into Japanese stuff, an Oriental kingdom might suddenly appear in the eastern sea.
"So what's the plan in the Imperial capital?"
"With our hero party reputation, I thought we'd check with the rcenary's Guild for any unusual requests. If those tower escapees are working with the monster waves, they're bound to stand out."
"Oh, why's that?"
"Well, creatures suddenly appearing in habitats they don't belong in tend to catch attention."
After arriving in the Imperial capital via gate, I explained to the bright eyes turned my way asking for clarification during our conversation.
The forces the Heavenly King sent outside the tower were clearly different from normal monsters. Setting aside the dark mage's undead troops, even common races like goblin infantry or orc javelineers stood out as alien.
Goblins were typically naked dwarves wielding rusty scavenged spears, while orcs were essentially primitive n mixed with bears and gorillas, using clubs and crude bows.
Without exceptionally smart leaders, the wandering monsters normal people encountered were primitive cave-dwellers barely able to make stone axes. If you saw infantry units in full plate armor with steel shields and alchemy grenades mixed among stone axe primitives, you'd have to be unqualified as an adventurer or rcenary not to notice sothing was wrong.
"Plus, people who deal with monster waves are usually locals who know their ecosystem inside out. Grace, wouldn't you notice if swamp creatures suddenly showed up in your village?"
"True... mountain creatures are pretty predictable. That's why we can spot wandering monster traces right away."
Like if log-carrying yeti waves suddenly had centaur riders, or wyverns leading flocks of man-eating giant birds. When obviously suspicious things happened, people would report to the guild if only for the money.
So might try to grab fa and money by hunting them themselves, but most rcenaries would report it just for drinking money and gossip fodder.
Well... if glory-seeking rcenaries handled it themselves, that was one less quest for us. Unlike mid-boss or boss monster loot, we didn't necessarily need to land the killing blow on tower escapees.
"So, to the Adventurer's Guild?"
"rcenary's Guild. They're usually bigger than Adventurer's Guilds since they handle more varied work. Our city's Adventurer's Guild is unusually large because of the Demon Lord's tower."
"Ah, I see."
Walking through the Imperial capital while chatting, it definitely felt bigger than the Kingdom's capital, probably due to the Empire's larger territory and population.
This wasn't just imagination - the Empire really did seem to have more large, tall buildings. While the Kingdom's capital had many European-style pointed-roof mansions with classical charm, the Imperial capital had more spacious modern-style square mansions.
Though I couldn't explain properly since I wasn't an architecture expert, the difference between slim pointed roofs and chunky square mansions was clear.
"It really feels like an Imperial capital - the streets are so wide."
"Must be because of all the people."
While I wracked my helt stand's brain comparing Kingdom and Imperial architecture, our companions eagerly took in the Imperial sights.
Being the Imperial capital, it had lots of people and correspondingly wide, tall buildings. The width was one thing, but seeing nothing but 3-4 story buildings everywhere naturally amazed our adventurer's city natives who were used to single-story buildings.
By their Kingdom common sense, normal buildings were single-story, rchant houses two-story, guilds three-story... that sort of scale.
※
The Imperial capital's streets overflowed with people. Though nothing compared to modern 21st century cities, for our companions who'd only seen morning crowds of adventurers heading to work, this was beyond crowds - it was a sea of humanity.
The wide paved roads had endless lines of carriages with constant clopping of hooves, while so many people walked alongside that shoulders brushed every ten seconds.
From young wives in neat dresses shopping to rcenaries slouching around in battered armor, noble girls peering curiously from carriages and laborers hurriedly moving goods down alleyways to clear noble paths.
At first glance it seed like the adventurer's city, but the scale was completely different. Unlike there, we'd walked nearly 30 minutes from the tower-shaped Magic Tower and still hadn't reached the rcenary's Guild.
"That building looks like it might be it?"
"What do you see?"
"Over there, that gray four-story building on the left."
Unlike the adventurer's city where the Magic Tower, Adventurer's Guild and market were all within 10 minutes' walk, it took almost 40 minutes to walk from the Magic Tower to the rcenary's Guild. No wonder they had circuit carriages regularly running through the city.
With buildings spaced so far apart and built so tall, Grace quickly spotted the sign. Following her slender finger pointing up, Han Se-ah silently sent her cara flying.
The huge sign on the four-story building read 'RCENARY' with a symbol showing a dagger piercing both a coin purse and contract for illiterate commoners. Below were crowds of armored people heading toward the massive building.
"Heading down to the Kingdom this ti..."
"By the way, how's that rookie doing from last ti?"
"Don't even ntion it, at the inn during the last party..."
Given this was the Imperial capital far from monster threats, everyone gathering there was naturally rcenaries.
Pushing through the crowds into the packed first floor, we found a receptionist smiling brightly at us.
"Welco! Are you here to request a mission?"
"Actually, we'd like to buy so information."
"Oh, information? That's not really our specialty..."
They'd apparently hired a pretty girl as the guild's face - a redhead with prominent freckles across her nose smiled sunnily at us.
She probably thought we were important clients given our clean, neat appearance that didn't match typical rcenaries or adventurers, plus everyone's good looks. Fair enough - we hadn't been rolling around the tower but had just teleported here after getting cleaned up, polished and massaged at the Wesley mansion, so the misunderstanding made sense.
"With that headscarf and apron, she looks less like a rcenary's Guild receptionist and more like an innkeeper's daughter, or like those girls at German beer festivals. Though I'm saying that mainly because of the size of certain areas..."
-Look at Han-lady jumping straight to chest comnts lololololololol
-Never realized I liked the Empire so much lol Are all the receptionists this pretty?
-Is this that shaless manga character type - humble village girl (Miss Korea with G-cup knockers)
-Wow, amazing breasts, who is this lady? I had to click when I saw the thumbnail!
-Why act surprised lol She's obviously a pro selling cleavage views for tips lololololol
But wasn't the cara being a bit too blatant?
I was trying my best not to stare, but if you do that what does that make ?
Enjoy the chappy!
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