Frederick walked with purpose along the cobbled sidewalk, his boots clicking faintly against the stone.
The city was alive with its usual chaos, merchants calling out prices, commoners hurrying to their places of work, and carriages clattering over the broad thoroughfares.
The streets of this capital had their own peculiar order. Down the very center stretched a carefully marked lane, painted and reinforced, reserved solely for the nobility and members of the royal household.
Carriages belonging to Duke and the Palace rolled there with impunity, while the common folk crowded the wider sections on either side. The separation was not enforced by barricades or soldiers, but by nothing more than painted markings on the stone, and yet everyone respected it. No one dared to trespass into the center lane uninvited as such arrogance would quickly invite punishment.
