It was around 9 AM or so, and so far nothing in particular had happened. I've asked Maia earlier at around what time she thought we'd arrive at her house, and it seems like it wouldn't be any time before 6 in the evening at earliest. Though I was a little weirded out about that answer, you know what I mean? That mansion wasn't supposed to be far from the capital after all, so I asked her the specifics. And you know what she said?
"I mean yeah, we should reach the capital by like 11 maybe? Midday at latest either way, but what'll take longer is to reach my house itself. It's not at the border or anything like that after all."
"I mean, I didn't assume that it would be right at the entrance, but no matter how you put it, isn't more than possibly 7 hours a little too much though?"
"And that's with a regulated pathway for our carriages as well for the record. Oh also a private road as well, since any further carriages on our way would delay it even more."
"Is this some kind of joke…?"
"Hm?… wait- ohh… that makes sense."
"What? What does?"
"You don't know how big the capital actually is, do you? Cael."
"Obviously not? But how big can one city actually be? Granted that it's the capital."
"Yeah, I just realized what the issue here is."
She took another strawberry from her basket, however before actually eating it, she pointed towards me with the hand that was holding it, in this case her left one.
"Cael, I won't blame you for not knowing since I never told you, nor you ever needed to know until now. But for the record, the size of the capital, which is close enough to a circle in shape, is… roughly 147km in each direction."
And as my eyes widened, she took it all out in one bite, grinning while looking at me. Her expression was somewhat of a smug smile, mixed with the relatable satisfaction you get from blowing someone's mind with an insane fact, but I think I understood the reason for both of them fairly well. The second one aside being self explanatory, it was the first one that pissed me off, but also awestruck me at the same time.
It still hadn't really clicked in my brain, you know? That this strawberry freak gorilla was actually the Commander's Lieutenant that is. But the implication from her expression served as a reminder, well, at least that's what I interpreted it as. "Yep, that's right, my dear younger brother. I am in charge of this massive city most of the time!" Well, assuming that the Commander doesn't manually manage it 24/7, since she's kinda busy managing the entire continent after all.
But putting an end to this short flashback from around half an hour ago, now you know why we'd end up there so late. Honestly, I really don't mind having to stay this close to Luna until 6, or hell, even 7 in the evening either. But the tranquillity of our ride did seem to be about to take a slight break.
Taking her head out from the carriage's window on her side, Maia then shouted.
"Markus, we're basically there! You know what to do!"
"I understood!"
And she smuggled back in as if nothing happened right afterwards.
"What was that about?"
I asked, as it seemed like I was the only one who was genuinely curious for the better or the worst. Or rather, I guess I can't fully comment on that? After all, there's probably someone else among us that would've been just as curious, if she wasn't dead asleep, lying on Iris' shoulder with her head. Even prodigies need to rest after all. It wouldn't be weird for her to be tired after working on such a large project as her first one, so it couldn't be helped.
"You'll see, you'll see. Don't worry about it."
Just as I was starting to think about it though, the carriage sped up noticeably. It's not like any of us flew out of our seats or anything like that, but it was kinda like when you're in a car, and you can feel it getting faster out of nowhere. You probably get what I mean… hopefully.
Either way, I decided to just take her word for it, and not worry about it for the time being. Glancing over my left shoulder, I checked on the other passenger that was only present in physical form at the moment, and probably not mentally.
With her head on my shoulder, Luna had been reading a novel for around 15 minutes or so. I'm not really sure what the plot is about, but once in a while I did also take a few peeks at it, so I know a little context I guess? It seems to be like a fantasy, close to sci-fi ish, novel? If anything I'm surprised the people in a fantasy world would write about fantasy… but on the other hand, this is only a fantasy world in my perspective, so I guess that makes sense.
Besides occasional mumbling to herself she also pretty much didn't open her mouth. I'd assume that it's a pretty good book for her to be this invested- well, at least I think she's invested? Her expression isn't the kind that a reader would have when being so invested into a story that they can't stop, but she was also clearly invested enough to ignore her surroundings, so maybe it was like a way in between.
The random speeding up aside, I get not only to ride the same carriage as Luna, but also seeing her this up close, while she's reading with her head on my shoulder… Even if I were to die today, I'd gladly accept it!—-
But I didn't actually expect to see what I did, when I casually glanced forward at the right window of the carriage. A large beast, with a bear-like body, but the head of an insect, was running towards us on all 8 of its legs, at full speed. I quickly averted my eyes and looked at Maia, trying to warn her, or at least to tell her to do something in case she already noticed, but she raised her hand towards me before I could speak, holding another strawberry in it.
"Don't worry so much, Cael."
"But-"
I turned towards the window again, and it was now closer. However… as it reached a certain distance near us, suddenly flames engulfed its entire body from the ground going upwards. Of course, I didn't need to ask what happened, since a certain someone who has a contract with the fire spirit king was here with us though. Casually eating her strawberry now, she spoke.
"See? Everything is under control… to begin with, this is why I told Markus to speed up. If we take the individual time to get out and fight every single monster that is to appear in these few kilometers to the capital, we'd be here until tomorrow. So instead, I'm just checking our surrounding area with mana, and taking care of them from here, to save time."
"Why are there even so many monsters around here? We didn't really meet that many on our way to the capital, and it was a 1 month long journey, but you make it seem like there'll be at least 10 times more monsters around here."
"Because that's exactly what it'll be like. It's more than 10 times more as well for the record. If I had to actually give you a ratio though? Hmm, I guess compared to the average place in this kingdom, whether it's near a city, town or village… in the last 5 kilometers or so in each direction, right before the capital, there's at least 100x more monsters."
"Yeah that makes sense I guess… it's the capital after all, I'm sure that a lot of monsters would be nearby, so it totally makes sense for there to be 100 times more monster—-….. did you just say 100 times?"
"Yep, 100 times."
"Than anywhere else in the kingdom?"
"Than anywhere else in the kingdom."
"…why?"
I wasn't even panicked or surprised anymore honestly, I genuinely just wanted an answer… Her monotone tone while answering made it clear that she didn't think much of it, so rushing her for answers would be like asking a vegan to give you some recipe for some meat you just bought. She may know the answer, but may be reluctant in sharing it when she doesn't have any interest in it herself.
"It's because around 5 kilometers away from the capital in each direction, there's a zone that's called "The Ring of Doom." You know how monsters are attracted to mana, no? And as you can guess, there isn't any place in the entire kingdom with more of it than the capital, especially now that the current Commander and headquarters of the Sentinels is there. But probably by pure survival instinct, they won't ever dare to approach the city itself. Which is why, they just sit around as close as possible, where they can get stronger from the higher mana density in the air anyway, without risking getting killed by anyone in particular."
"Aha, I see, I see."
At this point, I should probably just shut up, nod, and move on. Or I may not be able to keep up with how ridiculously nonchalant she is about it all… that's the Commander's Lieutenant for you, huh?
So I decided to just go back to gazing over my beautiful Luna while she read, and focus on that instead of the God knows how many hordes of monsters, that were constantly approaching our carriage and getting burnt to ashes at the same time.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
(Maia's Pov)
"Say, is that novel really that interesting? You seem pretty invested."
"Do you really have to talk to me while I'm reading?"
"Hmm, good question. But as far as I'm concerned, mana communication doesn't count as talking, you know?"
"It's fairly good for this world's level of literature."
It's been around 15 minutes or so since we entered the Ring of Doom. I was unfortunately the one that had to clear our way around the carriage, since I'm technically the "strongest" here. Well, it's not like it's a hard job or anything like that since these monsters are fairly weak for me, but it's still a bit of a pain since I do have to keep surveilling our surrounding area at all times, and actually pay attention to it. I was keeping the area of it to around 1 kilometer in each direction for the moment, which as you can guess, means that in that whole area, I'm constantly nitpicking and killing every single monster in it.
You can't blame me for getting a little bored then, right? Which is why I got curious, seeing the real strongest leisurously reading a novel while clinging to my little brother. And not to mention that he also seems to have gotten used to her touch to home extent, given the fact that his face is only slightly blushing now, in comparison to his full tomato level of red his whole face would've gotten until now.
"What's it about?"
"It's a sci-fi fantasy, with drama and mystery mixed in between. I guess there's also a hint of romance?"
"Hmmm…"
"…alright, alright. I'll give you a little more context, but stop bothering me afterwards, will you?"
"Sure, sure."
"The plot is about the main character that seems to be under the effect of an urban legend's phenomena. To put it shortly, it turns people's deepest and darkest intrusive thoughts into reality. The main character is under the effect of the "hero" of said urban legend. He has to single-handedly take care of each individual person, by helping them find their true selves, and overcoming their intrusive thoughts, now a reality."
"Woah, that actually sounds kinda interesting."
"Its probably one of the highest level works of this world, honestly. Though it does remind me of one specific series from Cael's previous world that he was reincarnated into, before this one. For that matter, that world's literature level was generally vastly superior though. I guess that instead of having the Puberty Syndrome, the people in this novel have the Intrusiveness Syndrome? Not that there's an official name for it in the urban legend so far, but still."
"Puberty Syndrome?"
"Oh… that's right. I didn't tell you about that one yet, huh? I'll do it someday, it's a great series."
For the record, Mio knows pretty much everything about the world that Cael was in before this one, and the same goes for any other world before that as well. Of course, it's not like she was actually there to experience or learn about them though. But unlike the rest of us, Mio had the closest relationship with "her", so she'd just give Mio all the information about each of his reincarnation's worlds.
Don't get me wrong though, it's not like the 2 of them are best buddies that hang out with each other- well, maybe they would've hung out together if it was possible, but it's really not. So regardless, whatever kind of close relationship you have in mind between them is probably fairly wrong. Not that I have any reason to give any context on it right now though. For that matter, I'm not sure if you can even tell who "she" is… but I guess that's not an issue for now… you'll definitely see her again, and get more context someday after all.
"Alright, I'll look forward to it then. But didn't you tell me to stop bothering you? You say that but you're not letting the conversation die… if you wanna talk to me that bad, just say s-"
However, I was… well, forcefully snapped back into my place. What do I mean by that? I guess you can say that, uhm, I got a little…distracted…? While talking to her, I lost track of what happened in my mana surveillance for a second. And what snapped me back into remembering what my job was, is the fact that Mio remotely killed around 1000 monsters around that area at the same time.
"…I'll go back to my job."
At least I satisfied my curiosity? Can't complain about that.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
(Cael's Pov)
I'm not going to lie, when Maia said that we'd have a private or at least remote way for our carriage to arrive at her house, I was kinda imagining like a deserted road that only we could use, that would take us directly there… but it turns out that what she actually meant, was that one of the roads that also lead to her house, was simply reserved for us. Meaning, we passed through the city on a completely normal road, with the exception of having countless recruits guarding each side of the carriage on our way.
If I was to describe it better to give you a visual, think like how spectators are sided on each side of the road during a parade or something like that, except it wasn't regular spectators that were the first in line, but I guess the highest ranking military recruits in the kingdom. Of course, there were also regular civilians as well behind them, but don't get me wrong, it was probably the furthest thing from excited celebrating of our arrival, and more like a mix between "urg… they really came…" and "well, I guess we can't do anything about it…" kind of glares and also attitude.
That alone was way better than I expected though, so I couldn't really complain. That being said, no matter how much time passed, it still didn't seem to click into my head, or at least not until we were about halfway there. And what I mean by that, is just the sheer size of this "city", which I'm pretty sure would've probably been the size of some country back on earth. In fact, not only have we passed over a few bridges built over rivers, but even through tunnels built inside mountains. And surprisingly enough, this "capital city" even had a country side, on our way alone.
Calling this just a city was honestly just straight up weird, but i can't really do much about it other than getting used to it… even though this country sized "city" literally has mountains, rivers and a countryside inside of it… but either way, all of those were before we entered the actual "capital" part, aka the center area. I had asked Maia about it, and it turns out that the actual main "city" area was only around 70 in each direction, again in a circular shape, which I guess meant that the other 70km or so were spread in between perimetral and regional functions of it?
As I said, we quite literally passed over a part that was only seemingly agricultural, so maybe instead of having actual farms and fields inside the main city, all of that stuff was done still within the capital but in the more rural side of it? Which did make sense, since apparently the capital of the kingdom is completely independent financially from the rest of it. Of course, commerce and importation are still a thing, because why wouldn't they? But rather than for example importing crops from a different region as a main source, it's done more as a source of variety.
As far as I'm concerned, it's probably so a random family within the capital that has never really had any reason to leave it before, could say something like "today I have something special! Instead of the regular potatoes we usually eat, these are from outside the capital!" While cooking up some potatoes from the neighboring city. Which for the record is only like 20 kilometers away from the capital borders, closer to the elven kingdom border if I'm not mistaken, I asked Maia about it once since I was curious.
As we exited the rural area and entered the first "layer" of the actual city, the difference was almost astonishing to say the least. It genuinely looked like a real city for the first time since we entered the "capital" a few hours ago. If I had to make a guess, I'd say that the average level of income and lifestyle here was probably similar to that of any regular city civilian from anywhere else in the kingdom? Not that I've been to one before but it seems accurate to me.
And as we progressed through the actual city, the clear differences in lifestyle and probably income as well was put on display fairly often. For instance, the general architecture of houses, buildings etc went from casual town level, to an average city, and then to what you actually expected when you heard the word "capital" all as you progressed towards the center of it.
Larger roads as you entered the real capital area, more street stalls, more shops everywhere you looked, and frankly speaking even just more people, that were all simply "richer" looking. We went from getting eyed by villagers in the rural area, to semi rural civilians of the real "city" to the real people now as we were almost at Maia's house.
"There sure are a lot more people here, huh?"
Even though it was already pretty dark outside at that too, behind the usual recruits protection line there were still plenty of people.
"Put yourself in their shoes, my cute little brother. To them were some criminals that returned to their sacred capital! Of course they're gonna be watching us even if it means staying in the dark."
"…fair enough. But on the other hand, I don't really see any reporters or journalists outside?"
"Ah, they're waiting in front of my house already. I told them to do that, rather than making us stop and arrive tomorrow from all the commotion. But don't worry about it too much, I told dad and mom to answer a few questions here and there with me, but you kids can just go inside."
"I'm not particularly worried, just curious honestly. But if they ask me something that I want to answer, I can, right?"
"Sure. As far as I'm concerned you can say anything as long as it doesn't require me to cover up for some atrociousities you said. That's probably not going to be the case for you though."
"Yeah, you definitely don't have to worry about that one…"
And so eventually, at around 6 and a half in the evening, we finally got out of the carriages that were parked just in front of her mansion. It was definitely dark outside, as we saw earlier… but that was when we were in an outer region of the capital. There were so many street lights around, that it almost looked as if it was plain daylight, unless you looked up to the sky to remind yourself that the sun had already set.
As soon as we got out, flashlights or cameras which apparently are indeed a thing here, and countless voices started overwhelmingly taking over the surrounding area. Nala had walked up to Rune and grabbed his hand once mom put him down, smiling proudly for some mysterious reason. Well, of course the reason was because in her head she was probably showing off our clothes, albeit I'm not sure if anyone here even knew they were her creations. Regardless, contrary to her, Rune was just… Rune. But honestly? I expected him to be a lot more nervous than this.
Besides being silent, he didn't have a plain uncomfortable expression on his face or anything like that, it was fairly neutral to some extent. Iris and Ivy then grabbed each of their free hands, and they walked behind us. Aldric who was holding his daughter and Lysanna were the first ones to just enter the mansion's gates, meanwhile behind them and leading us were our parents, followed by Maia, myself and Luna, and the twins behind us.
And just like Maia said, there were already a ton of reporters and journalists waiting for us right there, as our parents stopped to talk to them for the time being. Honestly, I was a little curious about what questions they'd ask… not to mention that i'd probably not be able to be bothered with checking the official possibly altered result either way, so in a split second decision, I also stopped next to them, Maia doing the same, while Luna decided to just go inside and wait for us.
Ivy and Iris seemed to be planning on just taking the twins inside… but our little prodigy had other plans in mind, so they also remained behind.
"Sir Ashford, how are you feeling after returning to the capital?"
Surprisingly though, they were a lot more composed than I expected. It seemed like they were genuinely going to just ask one question at a time, and let them speak.
"I'm feeling… normal? To begin with, it's not like we hadn't been here before in our adventuring times."
"Does that mean that you had previously been to the capital as an adventurer, while concealing your identity?"
"Me and my wife, alongside Aldric and Lysanna, were all part of a fairly known adventuring party created by us. Though it's not like we were particularly trying to hide our identity past the need to avoid drama, yes that's true."
"What do you have to say about that, Miss Ashford?"
"I'd say he's said most of what needs to be said? Though for the record, we won't be telling you the name of our former party. We're gatekeeping those memories for ourselves."
She smiled in a teasing way while answering that one.
"Then how about at least a time period? Maybe some people could figure it out on their own, even if you don't straight up tell us?"
"Hmm, well… we retired a little before Maia was born, so around 17 years ago? Though my memory could be deceiving me… who knows?"
I have a feeling that she definitely remembers the exact day they retired, and just doesn't want to say it outright… Maybe all of us are a little twisted after all.
Even the journalist was a little taken aback by her vagueness, but she seemed to also be pleased about that answer for some reason. Maybe it was like a "I see that you're not an amateur" type of thought process?
Another journalist then took the lead as the first one stepped aside.
"Sir Ashford, it is very clear to everyone here that all of you seem to be wearing nothing short of some particularly special designed clothes. Could you tell us more about it?"
"Hmm, well, as you can see, both me and Cael's pants have built in sword belts, and though he already went ahead inside as we discussed it previously between ourselves, Aldric's own suit was designed specially for his archer nature. Besides that, I don't really think I need to point out just how beautiful my wife looks with her dress, do I?"
"No… that's definitely something we can all see…"
"But if you're more curious about the origins of everything we're wearing, you could ask the designer herself. She's right next to us after all."
The poor journalist looked confused for a moment. The first person his eyes landed on was actually Maia, but when she shook her head and pointed towards Nala, who was smugly grinning as if waiting to be spoken to, our eyes met when he briefly glanced at all of us as if to confirm whether dad was joking or not. I nodded as well, with condolences in mind.
"Uhm… little miss Ashford… are you perhaps the designer behind your clothes?"
"Hu-hum! Yes, I am! I'm glad you asked! What do you think? Doesn't mommy look like the most beautiful woman in the world?! And daddy and Cael always carried some ugly sword belts over their pants, so instead of having those ruin the design, I fused the pants and belts together! Isn't that a great idea?! Oh and also, also, I didn't have a lot of time to think about my dress, so I just kept it simple, because now I look like a mini mommy, but with a simple white dress, and I'm also matching with Rune, because we're both wearing the plainest clothes, but we still look cute! And also-"
"Alright, I think he gets it, Nala."
"B-but Maia-"
"You can tell him more about it later. Why don't you guys go inside now? We're also going to just answer a few more questions then go."
She didn't seem fully convinced… until Maia used her ultimate skill.
"I have a few mandarin trees, you know? You can grab as many as you want."
And before she could even be bothered with replying, Nala dragged both maids and Rune inside, leaving just our parents, Maia and myself behind. Judging from that journalist expression as he stepped back, he was having a pretty hard time processing the rant that was thrown against him by a literal kiddo, but that much was expected. Luckily for him someone else had already stepped out next.
"Miss Lieutenant-"
"Just call me Maia. It's easier for everyone here."
"Then, Maia. What are your thoughts now that your family has finally ended their month-long journey?"
"Of course, I'm happy about it. After all, we still have around 2 weeks or so before the trial even begins, so I can live with my family peacefully until then… who wouldn't be happy about that?"
"I see, it seems like you're not all that worried about the trial whatsoever? Though you have previously been displaying the same confidence, may I ask what allows you to simply enjoy your time with your family, in spite of the trial that could potentially get them found guilty being so close?"
"The answer to that is simple. I know we're innocent. That's all. I've already mentioned before that I won't be the judge of the trial either, so if anyone thinks there's any possibility of it being rigged the day we win, I'd like for you to take your complaints to the real judge, at the Sentinel's Headquarters."
"…"
He then stepped back, as another journalist started talking, this time however she was directly addressing me.
"You're the eldest after Maia, right? Do you mind if I just call you Cael?"
"I don't mind…"
You know how sometimes you can genuinely just feel whether someone is a good person or not? Either from their body language, tone or simply their expression? All of the above were indicating a single thing regarding her for me. She was one of the few people that was genuinely convinced that we were innocent, and was probably going to ask something she was genuinely curious about, instead of trying to instigate drama, or getting some juicy information. The main thing that separated her from the rest, is how she had that same unjudiging eyes that someone like Layra would have while looking at us, unlike the others that couldn't really put on a proper poker face, and they were still slightly showing off their prejudice against us.
"I see that you're also carrying a sword with you, although it's a different type than your father's."
"Ah, yes… I'm also a swordsman."
"That type of sword, though I'm not an expert in the field, I've heard it originated from the dwarf kingdom?"
"I think that's the case? I'm honestly not 100% sure either, sorry… it was a… 'gift?'"
I'm not really sure if I can call it that, but it's the closest thing I can think of…
"I see. Do you plan on continuing down the path of your sister and becoming a recruit, if not more? Or do you just enjoy swordsmanship and want to keep it as a hobby?"
"It's neither actually. I don't think I can treat swordsmanship as a hobby honestly. It's something I enjoy from the bottom of my heart, and I'm also really good at. But I don't want to become a recruit either. It's just not something I plan to do."
"I guess it's all subjective to each person in the end haha. Then, do you have something in mind that you want to do when you grow up?"
"Yes, I do. The minimum age for signing up as an adventurer is 10, right? I plan on doing that on my very own 10th birthday, and become an adventurer."
"Is that so? Then I guess our current and future adventurers that are trying to rank up in popularity and strength will have a formidable rival to look forward to."
"Ah- uhm… thanks."
"Haha, it's nothing."
I'm not used to someone that's not a friend being so nice to me… which is why, I decided to just excuse myself after that, and also go inside the gates.
Maia and our parents did end up staying a bit longer than expected outside, but after around half an hour since I left, they had also wrapped everything up, and joined us in. Frankly speaking, the mansion was… huge. It was comparable to that where we stayed until today, but more modernized design wise. Well, of course when I say modernized I don't mean 21st century level of designing, but still if the previous one was something you'd see in the 15th century, this was close to the 18th or so. I guess it was fit for the Commander's Lieutenant and the Eldest Ashford sibling.
After a quick tour of not just the yard but also the backyard, Maia then showed us where our rooms were, and we wrapped up the day just enjoying each other's company, while eating a borderline feast, and just finally resting from our long journey that had now officially ended.