Andrew stood at the entrance of the magic airship, waiting for it to land.
His heart couldn't help but thump rapidly, feeling similar to when he first arrived in this Fla Realm, nervous yet a bit excited and thrilled!
In contrast, the process of landing the airship was incredibly stable.
Almost imperceptible upon landing, the airship door opened right before him.
At that mont, instead of the widespread drought and heat like the Inner Sea Desert or the warm humidity of Warm Fire City present in this Fla Realm, it was cold air mixed with the scent of earth and grass that greeted him!
"This is...?"
Andrew activated the "Gate of Enlightennt" to enter the "Whole Power State" while concentrating on looking out.
What he saw outside the opened door was actually a frozen tundra.
The tundra was almost devoid of vegetation over three ters high, instead covered by large areas of moss, grass, low shrubs, and scattered thin layers of snow.
Though he had heard before coming here that: the Royal Court had snow.
However, witnessing it firsthand, Andrew couldn't help but feel amazed: "This Fla Realm, though primarily dominated by a climate type similar to the tropical desert climate of the world before I crossed over, indeed has snowy places!"
His gaze extended forward along the tundra.
At the edge of the field, towering snow-capped mountain ranges erged.
At the foot of the snow mountains lay a cluster of blue-gray castle-like buildings.
That was where the Royal Court was located.
"So this is what the Royal Court looks like?"
Andrew seriously observed.
His eyes held scrutiny, curiosity, and a hint of peculiarity.
To be honest, there was quite a discrepancy between its appearance and what he had envisioned as the Royal Court.
The fortress at the foot of the snow mountain, rather than being "majestic in the north of this Fla Realm," seed more like nestled quietly in the northern corner of this world, squeezed between the two behemoths (Magic Guild and Warm Fire Comrce Association).
The architectural style had no connection to grandeur; instead, it reminded Andrew of so vacation hotels in remote areas from the world he had crossed from, looking very quiet, even a bit secluded.
"So the upcoming negotiations are going to take place in such a place!" Andrew thought to himself, then smiled slightly, "Actually, it's quite nice. Although the Royal Court's scale is sowhat disappointing, this tundra and snowy mountain environnt is actually beneficial to !"
Snow is a form of water.
The air at the foot of the snowy mountain where the Royal Court is situated has a higher water elent content than most places in this Fla Realm, though not as high as Warm Fire City!
The cold air here was sowhat damp compared to the dry cold of the Inner Sea Desert's nights.
So although it's quite different from what he expected, overall, Andrew's first impression of the Royal Court was pretty good!
"Is this... the legendary 'snow'?"
Havier stood right next to Andrew, bending over to stare at a patch of white snow on the ground, wide-eyed.
As if he were looking at sothing fresh and rare.
Because in this Fla Realm, snow is indeed extrely scarce!
Seeing Havier like this, Andrew couldn't help but feel a stirring in his heart. He asked, "Havier, haven't you been here before either? Is this your first ti at the Royal Court like ?"
In Andrew's mind, since the Royal Court had established a tacit alliance with the Warm Fire Comrce Association through Catherine, there should have been so regular interactions, right?
But now, not only Havier, even Sabye looked like a first-tir!
Dean Charlie's face was calm, making it hard to tell if he had been to the Royal Court before.
On the surface, only Susan showed a hint of nostalgic expression, indicating she had been to the Royal Court before, recalling past events.
"What's it to you whether I've been to the Royal Court or not?" Havier grumbled with a sullen face.
Andrew wasn't angry, just genuinely surprised: "So you've really never been here!"
Havier: "..."
Beside them, Dean Charlie smiled and explained, "Here's the thing, although Miss Catherine married the 'King' of the Royal Court, the Royal Court officially still maintains neutrality and hasn't chosen a side between our Comrce Association and the Magic Guild.
And on our Comrce Association's side, to avoid making the Magic Guild overly cautious, we've intentionally had minimal unnecessary daily interactions with the Royal Court. So aside from Susan, who escorted Miss Catherine when she first ca here, even I am visiting the Royal Court for the first ti. The sa goes for Miss Catherine."
"Oh, that's why!" Andrew finally understood.
Sure enough, after Barbara got off the airship, she was looking around as if searching for soone.
Barbara hadn't seen her second sister, Catherine, who had married into the Royal Court for a while, now the "Queen" of the Royal Court!
"Where's Second Sister? Where is she, where is she?"
Barbara was still looking around.
Andrew had never seen Barbara looking so "impatient," and it secretly amused him, yet he couldn't help but feel curious: "I've heard Barbara ntion her second sister Catherine more than once. Surely this ti during the Royal Court negotiations, I'll get to et her. I'm curious what kind of person she is."
Thinking so, he looked ahead.
Soon, he saw a team rapidly approaching from the direction of the Royal Court.
The mbers of this team were undoubtedly all warriors, uniformly clad in blue-gray semi-coated armor, carrying curved swords and round shields, with each cheek sporting one ice-blue pattern, which he couldn't tell was a tattoo or face paint.
These people were naturally the "Frost Guards" unique to the Royal Court, also known as "Frost Knights."
As the na suggests, the elental attribute of the Frost Guards is the Ice Elent, closely related to the Water Elent.
This wasn't Andrew's first ti seeing the Frost Guards of this Fla Realm.
Back in the Wildfire Territory, he had encountered them once—when the old mayor of what was then Wildfire Town, following Desert Speaker Rose's orders, secretly sabotaged the Water Tower Tree "Shire" while Andrew was preoccupied after defeating the old mage Humboldt and taking over Wildfire Town.
That mayor was a Frost Guard!
"Speaking of which, the Royal Court is an ally of the Warm Fire Comrce Association, but back then that Wildfire Town mayor sided with Desert Speaker Rose of the Magic Guild..." Andrew suddenly thought, then shook his head slightly, "It must have been an isolated case."
Looking up, he saw that the Frost Guard leader among the newcors had already started shouting even before approaching, "…Are the friends from the Warm Fire Comrce Association here? Her Majesty the Queen sent us to receive you. Apologies for not welcoming you further in advance, really very sorry!"
With these words, they had led the team to approach closely.
Dean Charlie naturally stepped forward as the leader of his group, speaking courteously, "It's us who arrived a bit ahead of schedule. We should have inford you sooner, the apology should be mine."
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