Chapter 400: Royal Capital

Several settlements possessed towers belonging to Mage organizations or wealthy families, recognizable by the magical formations glowing faintly around their upper levels.

Once, they passed a distant compound where dozens of young warriors trained inside an open field while armed guards watched the road.

The Kingdom’s strongest institutions had concentrated themselves around its political center, and Sage was increasingly aware that building a headquarters here would be nothing like expanding through Evergreen.

The towns changed too. The spaces between them gradually shrank until Sage sometimes couldn’t tell exactly where one settlement ended and another began.

Villages beside the Royal Road had grown into busy trading communities, and larger towns sprawledbeyond their original walls with new buildings constructed along every road leading toward the Capital.

Warehouses appeared everywhere. Caravan yards occupied enormous stretches of land. Blacksmiths, stables, inns and markets catered to the endless movement of people heading toward or away from the city.

There were enough travelers on the road now that their twenty-wagon caravan no longer attracted attention.

Several days later, Orwin’s caravan separated from them at a major junction.

The merchant clasped Sage’s hand before leaving and promised that if the Adventurer Guild established itself successfully in the Capital, Sage shouldn’t be surprised to see an Orwin-owned supply shop somewhere nearby.

The mercenary captain also thanked him again for saving his men, adding that he intended to visit Evergreen personally and learn more about Guild registration.

After farewells were exchanged, Sage, Mina and Boren continued with their own carriage, and for the first time in days they were traveling without twenty wagons surrounding them.

They didn’t remain alone for long.

By the following afternoon, the Royal Road had become the largest road Sage had seen since arriving in this world.

Multiple lanes of wagons, riders and pedestrians moved steadily in both directions, while paved sections replaced the packed surfaces common farther west.

Patrol posts stood beside important intersections, and signs directed travelers toward surrounding estates, military roads, towns and commercial districts.

Everyone seemed to be heading somewhere. Farmers drove carts loaded with produce. Merchants transported goods in caravans dozens of wagons long.

Nobles passed behind curtained carriage windows. Mages traveled on horseback beside armed escorts. Workers walked with tools over their shoulders, and families carried luggage toward settlements ahead.

Then the road began climbing.

Their driver mentioned that the Capital would become visible once they crossed the long ridge ahead, and Mina immediately stopped whatever she had been doing and moved toward the window.

Boren tried pretending he wasn’t interested, but within several minutes he had also leaned forward.

Sage remained seated at first, though eventually even he put away the papers he had been reading.

The carriage reached the crest near sunset.

Their driver slowed without being asked.

For once, Boren said nothing.

Sage stepped down from the carriage.

The Royal Capital stood across the vast plain below.

Even after Pax’s reports, Sage hadn’t expected the sheer size of it. Greyvale could have disappeared inside the city several times over.

The Capital stretched across the horizon, a massive concentration of stone, towers, estates and densely packed districts that seemed less like one city than several cities pressed together.

Entire settlements had grown outside its defenses, spreading along the major roads and surrounding the outer walls with inns, warehouses, workshops, markets, farms and residential districts built to support the population moving through the Capital every day.

But it was the walls that held Sage’s attention first.

They were gigantic.

The main defensive wall rose so high above the surrounding buildings that even from this distance Sage could clearly make out its upper battlements.

Massive blocks of pale grey stone formed a barrier that stretched for miles in both directions, interrupted at regular intervals by enormous defensive towers.

Each tower was broad enough to resemble a fortress of its own, rising above the wall with multiple levels and visible positions for soldiers, siege weapons and Mages.

Faint magical lines ran across portions of the stone, occasionally catching the lowering sunlight, suggesting that the Capital’s defenses depended on far more than simple masonry.

Several enormous gates pierced the outer wall, but the central gate facing the Royal Road dwarfed everything around it.

Twin gate towers rose on either side, connected by fortified structures above an entrance large enough to allow several wagons through at once.

Yet despite its size, the road approaching it was packed.

From the hill where Sage stood, the line looked endless.

The enormous Royal Road descended across the plain toward the Capital, and nearly the entire visible stretch was filled with people. Wagons formed dense columns.

Merchant caravans moved beside passenger coaches. Riders threaded carefully between slower traffic while pedestrians filled designated sections near the sides.

Even at this distance Sage could see separate lines forming as travelers approached the main gate, while guards and officials processed the constant flow entering the city.

Beyond the walls, towers rose everywhere.

Some were narrow Mage towers surrounded by faint magical lights.

Others belonged to military fortifications or enormous Guilds and organizations Sage knew nothing about yet.

Farther inward stood grand structures that could only belong to powerful noble Houses, while the highest parts of the Capital climbed gradually toward its central districts.

Somewhere among that mass of buildings stood the Royal Palace, the center of the Kingdom’s government and the place around which countless factions had gathered for generations.

Somewhere inside was Pax.

By now, his people had already established themselves among the streets, quietly gathering information while Sage traveled toward them.

And elsewhere within those same walls, people Sage had never met were waiting for Valeria to eventually follow him east.

Sage knew none of that last part.

Beside him, Mina had gone completely still, her earlier excitement replaced by open disbelief as she tried to take in the entire city at once.

Even Boren remained silent, which Sage considered perhaps the most convincing proof of the Capital’s scale.

Sage himself needed a moment.

He had come here to build the Kingdom Headquarters of the Adventurer Guild.

Looking at the city now, he finally understood how small Greyvale had been compared to the stage he was about to enter.

Then a slow smile appeared on his face.

"So that’s the Royal Capital."