To my relief, a large multi-story stable building conveniently stood right beside the massive tal gate, as if to beckon to the unsuspecting visitors, telling them to leave their mounts before continuing on to Central.
Indeed, even before going in, I noticed that none of the few people passing through the checkpoint had any horses, or other types of vehicles for that matter.
The fact that the main gate was fully tallic was yet another oddity when compared to the heavy wooden inner gates that separated regular city districts, or even the tal-reinforced outer gates.
Also, out of pure curiosity, I used my Arcane Sense to inspect the stone wall near the gate, and, to little surprise, the Tides were clearly fidgety near its surface, suggesting active enchantnts beneath (or behind) the large, uniform bricks.
The checkpoint itself was largely similar to that of the Ministry headquarters, minus the fact that I didn’t need to leave my weapon behind.
I did, however, have to leave my Alchemist’s Fire concoctions behind. At the very least, my smoke bombs and the Darkness Sphere were allowed in, albeit after I told them I was an Iron-ranked adventurer, and presented my token for inspection.
As I passed through the short, narrow stone corridor, which stretched from one side of the wall to the other, passing right beneath them, I couldn’t help but grow curious. With this level of security, I wondered what sight would await upon my ergence.
Until now, even back when I approached the city, all I could see were a few of the majestic buildings near the very top of the hill, likely part of the Silverton estate, as evident not only by their location but also by their shining silver surface, occasionally blinding when I threw glances their way around the early afternoon hours.
Apart from those, I also saw the upper half of two large, long tree lines - the trees themselves reminiscent of spruces - encircling the of the hill at different altitudes. They were clearly planted in a strategic manner, to prevent the common folks’ eyes from reaching whatever lay beyond the wall.
After glancing at them a few tis, I also noticed their unusually deep and uniform green color, yet I never really paid much thought to it, or anything in the central district, at that.
As I ascended the circular stairs, I found myself in a small room, half of it occupied by a booth, which in turn was occupied by a single guard.
Unlike the regular city guards, often wearing bored or dismissive expressions, the man before sat in attention, giving a polite nod upon my ergence. When he spoke, his professional tone held a certain degree of respect.
“Greetings, sir. Is this your first ti in Central?”
“Yes. I need to make a delivery to this address.”
While showing him Anne's note, I also scanned his face for any changes. However, either he was extrely good at keeping a poker face, or adventurers making personal deliveries to noble estates was nothing out of the ordinary.
“Alright. You need to take the ‘ #*-’ at the station, right outside this booth. Go up to-”
“Wait, excuse . Take the what?”
“The ‘tram’. It's like a carriage, but without the wheels, or the horses, for that matter. By the way, when you see wide, fenced off trenches, with a tal rail at the center, don’t try to cross them or go in. Not only is it extrely dangerous, but it’s also a cri, with fines upwards of 100 gold.”
I quickly nodded, managing to keep the surprise from reflecting in my expression. Sebastian didn’t know that specific word, but from the description, I could already guess what was awaiting outside.
“Anyway, at the station, wait for the tram that goes up to the Alebrion intersection, sixth stop from here. There, take the tram that goes east to the Ozreon intersection. Your stop is right before that station, but if you miss it, it’s just a 5 minute walk back. The 7th estate is a sowhat small mansion, with a short tal fence and a spell blurring its interior from the street’s view. I don’t rember the street number, but the estate number should be visible right outside the gate.”
I listened to all of that without interruption, trying to morize the instructions while inwardly admiring the guard’s knowledge, which was far from trivial. To my surprise, he then gave a small note, which he scribbled behind the counter while giving the directions, making my efforts moot.
“Sixth stop, at Alebrion station. One stop before Ozreon station. Small mansion, short fence, blurring spell. Got it.”
With a polite smile, the guard motioned to go through the door.
Upon exiting the booth, the sight before made feel like I stepped into another world altogether.
The first thing that caught my eyes were the plants. Unlike the other districts, this one had plenty of them, mainly in the gardens of various mansions. However, I could see a few smaller bushes and trees in public spaces, too, either as part of a small nearby park, or even in the middle of the street.
But their existence alone would not evoke such astonishnt – rather, it was the plants themselves.
The trees, including those in the public spaces, were vibrant with colors. In the most literal sense.
So trees had purple leaves and bright red bark; Others had teal pines, their miniature size making them seem quite cute. One of the mansions farther up the hill had a tree with shiny white leaves, resembling silver. Sure, so of the plantlife resembled nature, but even then, their leaves, vines or pines were vibrant and lush, as if each and every plant was the healthiest, most flourishing version of itself.
Aside from the plants, the public infrastructure was also different.
The plaza beyond the gate was layered with pristine white bricks, similar to the ones you’d find near the major buildings in Northern, such as the Ministry HQ.
The road ahead of the plaza was made out of continuous stone, like the underground corridors in the aforentioned building, with side inlets, made of actual tal rather than curved stone, identifiably by their visible edges.
Speaking of tal, there were far more things made of tal here, including fences, poles, and even the core of the tram system I was yet to see.
Finally, there were the buildings. While so of them reminded of the regular 18th century mansions one could find on Earth, others a few of them sported a design which even modern architecture would find very daring, and extrely complex, if not impossible to implent.
The people around , far less nurous than those on most major city streets, could be divided into four groups:
The first group would be the guards, mostly spread out in individual patrols. Perhaps it was just the proximity to the gate, but it felt like this district had much tighter security.
The second group would be the obvious workers, such as the n in peculiar uniforms - leather caps, black cotton suits and white undergarnts - standing beside the station docs.
Next, there were visitors like myself, so of whom might’ve also been couriers, also out of the dozen or so I noticed, only two looked like adventurers.
As for the last group, they were obviously the nobles – with most, it was impossible not to notice them among the others, as their clothes were often of much higher quality and unique design, often involving leather or silk, and displaying either a mix of vibrant colors or a subtle blend of carefully picked ones. One middle aged woman even wore an elegant dress made of (or adorned by) so type of scales, a cacophony of colors reflected off their shiny surface.
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In fact, so of those clothes were made of fabric which strangely resembled synthetic fibers from Earth. Actually, they might as well have been synthetically made – it's not like I knew the full capabilities of alchemy, nor did I see every exotic beast and monster in this world.
Tearing my gaze off of the overwhelming new sights, I forced myself to refocus, walking towards the nearby station with steady steps.
“Greetings, visitor. Where are you headed?”
One of the station workers, having noticed looking around for a schedule or a
map, took the initiative to approach.
“The a… Alberion intersection.”
Thankfully, the note in my hand reminded of the na of my next destination.
“The next tram should be here within two minutes. Please be advised that visitors and workers have their own section in the back.”
Nodding in response to his polite (yet slightly unpleasant) instructions, I suddenly shifted my eyes in the direction of the faint sound of screeching tal.
Roughly three hundred ters ahead, farther up the hill, I could see the tram coming to a halt at what appeared to be the last stop before this station.
The vehicle itself resembled an old train trolley, with no locomotive in sight. However, beside its groove - a narrow cavity etched into its tal to fit the single rail - it had four tal rods, coming out roughly from where a car would have wheels, connecting it to the long, narrow cavities at both sides of the trench, their inner surface of which also gave off tallic glimr.
As for its exterior design, the walls and roof were decorated by intricate shapes and patterns, made out of the sa tal as the vehicle itself, and the glass in the tall, narrow windows was so clear I could barely notice it.
‘I’ve seen monsters, superhuman Techniques.. even literal magic. Why am I this surprised to see so sort of railway?’
Truly, even the trees should have been more conspicuous.
Vowing to keep my focus on what's important (not missing my stop) I patiently waited for the tram to make its way to the station, which was basically at the tip of a U-turn.
As the trolley ca to a screeching halt (which would actually sound rather quiet if not for my hyper-focused senses), a few nobles - and many more workers and visitors - disembarked, and I made my way to the left section (which constituted the ‘back’).
While, in theory, this was the ‘lower class’ section, the padded seats were in fact quite comfortable. Of course, they were less luxurious than the velvet covered ones that I managed to spy in the noble section, and there were far more people in the back than in the similarly sized front; However, as this was the ‘final’ station for the descent, catching a free seat wasn't a problem.
The tram slowly began its ascent. Well, ‘slowly’ was a relative term, as it had no problem covering roughly 250 ters in less than a minute.
Through the small glass window, in the wall that separated the two sections, I could see the attendant announcing the current station. However, I could only guess the content of his words via the slowing tram, as no sound made its way to our half of the vehicle - it would seem that privilege was reserved for the nobles alone. As stupid as that was.
Between counting the stops, I glanced at the passing mansions.
Well, truth be told, not all of the buildings could be called mansions, but that was beside the point.
One peculiar thing was that often, the building beyond the fence would look blurry, as if behind murky glass. However, most of the ti, this only applied to the building and its imdiate surroundings - their gardens, filled with vibrant foliage, flowers, and sotis sculptures and statues, would almost always be fully visible, as if touting the estate's extravagant tastes.
At so point, the tram even went underground, passing beneath the - lower - circle of trees, which ca into view through the back window upon the trolley's resurgence.
‘Alright, the next one should be my stop.’
“Ozreon station!”
As it turned out, the attendant in the front could open the small window. Perhaps the reason it was closed most of the ti was to preserve the noble’s privacy, opening only before major stops such as this one.
Regardless, I exited the tram, asking the nearby attendant for directions to my next destination.
After around 10 minutes, my next tram arrived, prompting a journey similar to the first.
Well, not completely similar. On one hand, while the first tram was moving up the hill, this line was, allegedly, circling it horizontally.
On one hand, I couldn't get a free seat this ti, being forced to stand while holding onto one of the railings near the roof. On the other hand, my view from the left was a sea of green foliage, with the occasional tram passing by in the opposite direction, and on the right, it was a uniform-looking brick wall, with the exception of platforms (and ascending stairs) at every stop.
‘Well, I didn't really co here to enjoy the view.’
11 stops (and roughly twice as many minutes) later, I managed to ti my departure from this bland ride, saving myself a 5 minute walk.
Upon ascending the wide stone stairs, I found myself standing in the middle of yet another fascinating street.
Well, it was largely more of the sa, yet ‘the sa’ was so unique that I couldn’t really call it mundane. The estates here were bigger, on average, usually consisting of at least two buildings – the main mansion, and a smaller house, likely for the servants.
Moreover, beside the Sealsense array that was present in literally every estate, and the commonplace blurring spell, so of the estates had actual illusion magic.
Among the most exotic sights was a serene mountain range, stretching from beyond the low teal-painted fence, a peaceful sea shore, calm waves breaking upon the fence (but never crossing its boundary), and a continuous - and looping - fight between two creatures that looked like white leopards, only that their bodies were twice as large, their fangs and claws were much longer and sharper, and their strength and speed was vastly superior to those of the similar beast from Earth (at least according to this illusion).
If I haven’t felt that before, then stepping into this street would serve as an even bigger reminder of this city’s status as one of the 5 central cities in this enormous kingdom.
Finding Silver estate number 7 wasn’t that difficult – despite the fluff, each gate had two signs, one with the street number (which was called Ordeon’s Sacrifice, apparently), the other (and often decorated) sign displaying the estate na. In the case of Silver collateral families, their number was inscribed below the na, in a smaller, yet still distinctly visible font.
Well, unlike the street numbers, it wasn’t in chronological order, but luckily, I only had one direction to search in.
Anne Silver’s estate was actually different from most neighbors – and what made it stand out wasn’t an especially extravagant building, or exquisite trees and flowers.
No – what made it stand out was actually the distinct lack of such features.
The estate itself was no smaller than the ones beside it, however, even through the blurring spell (which covered the garden, unlike nearly every other noble housing nearby), I could see the garden looking unassuming, with a single tree that looked like an oak, and a small white flowerbed in the opposite corner.
As for the 3-story mansion itself, the outline suggested it looked like the classical renaissance style mansions I occasionally saw in Northern, and beside it, there was only one small 2-story servant building.
While this was by no ans unimpressive, it was clear the owner of this estate did not care for displaying a quirky, majestic, or otherwise special design. However, the clean, nearly pristine tal fence, the head of each bar shining with a silver tip, indicated the place wasn’t neglected.
As I approached the small tal gate, styled similarly to the fence, I couldn’t help but pause for a mont, glancing at my watch.
‘Oh well. Better than being late, I guess.’
Ding!
Upon pressing my token against sothing that looked suspiciously similar to a modern doorbell, apart from the fact it had a concave glass surface rather than a button, I imdiately heard the pleasant ringing sound, albeit its source was the device itself. Still, given everything I’ve seen, I had no doubt its signal would reach soone inside.
“Greetings, visitor. How may I help you?”
Before stood a woman with short, smooth gray hair, reaching her chin. Her brown eyes, faint wrinkles visible around them, were locked onto , her gaze a mix between politeness and subtle caution.
“I got an appointnt, and, um, a delivery. Here’s the note.”
I passed on Anne’s note.
The woman squinted her eyes, looking for sothing in it, before taking a small tal pipe with a lens inside to inspect the signature.
‘Oh, so that’s why they took the note at the gate.’
After a few seconds, her face visibly relaxed, before she furrowed her brow.
“I know, sorry. I thought getting here would take more ti.”
I could see the subtle sigh escaping her nose, but anyone with less sharp senses would be unable to notice it behind her professional facade.
“It’s fine, sir. Please, follow .”
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