Chapter 17 - Banquets and appetizers
The game world of 'Chronicle of Realms' had been large, even for an open-world RPG. It covered the entirety of the Graenal Empire, and many of its cities—such as Freybrook and Kilsfell—were almost wholly traversable, each impressive in its own way. Trekking across the whole map on foot in the game took hours in real life. That's why all means of expediting that movement—such as mounts and fast-travel using the Kilnstones—had been an important part of the game. While those two were the most common methods, there were others. One Scarlett herself had used on several occasions were boats.
The entire southern border of the Empire touched what was known as the Innisling Sea, a rather tempestuous ocean with lots of interesting locations such as the Rising Isle or the Forgotten Tower in it. In the Empire's southwestern region, not far east of Freybrook, began an estuary—that is, where a river meets the ocean—known as the Mouth of Graenal. It branched out into the river of Three Streams; both the largest and longest river in the whole empire. It continued all the way to the center of the Empire's lands and split into Rellaria Lake, where the Imperial Capital Elystead was, and a delta of three smaller rivers. And to the east of Elystead, at the end on one of those forks of rivers, was the city of Ambercrest.
The whole width of the river could be seen from the hill they found themselves at and its length spread out far into the distance. In the game one could just barely see Rellaria Lake from here, but even as she gazed out the carriage window in that direction Scarlett couldn't see anything but water and land. She'd already felt it with Freybrook, but this really made it all the more clear how large this world actually was compared to the game. She looked away from the distant horizon and towards their new location.
The city of Ambercrest was a walled city built at a point where the end of the river met a high and rocky cliffside. There was a fair distance down from most of the city to the water underneath. Jutting out from the cliffside were two outcroppings—cliff hills, really—that towered over the rest of the city. The hill they were currently on was one of those, while the other outcropping housed a large fort-like castle of almost tan stone. Not far from that was another piece of land that jutted out into the water but down towards sea-level rather than up. From their current vantage point, Scarlett could see a large number of ships anchored in the water around that little island. Ambercrest's harbor wasn't quite the size of Freybrook's, but Ambercrest also wasn't as much of a maritime city as Freybrook was.
After a man in a black uniform similar to that of those men in charge of the Kilnstone back in Freybrook walked up and performed a quick inspection of their carriage and the black carriage that had arrived with them they were given permission to leave. Much like in Freybrook the Kilnstone here in Ambercrest had a large open circular structure around it that was supported by marble pillars. As their driver steered their carriage behind the other carriage and through a large gap in those pillars they passed by a group of guards in red and started leaving the large square where the Kilnstone was behind. Soon they were descending down a broad stone road towards the city itself, passing through an open gate and inside Ambercrest's walls. The coachman seemed to know exactly where they were going as their carriage soon deftly moved through the packed streets of the city. Unlike Freybrook, where many of the buildings were built out of wood and cut stone, the buildings here in Ambercrest were made of light brown and red bricks with colored roofs. All in all the city was much more colorful than Freybrook was, that was certain.
It took around ten minutes before the carriage entered a part of the city that was plainly more well-off than the rest. Mansions began surrounding them left and right, as well as there being a clear difference in the quality of the road they traveled on and the clothing of the people she sometimes spotted. Although unlike Freybrook, where there was enough space in the richer district for almost all the mansions to have large estates attached to them, here all the buildings were built tightly next to each other. There weren't many gardens or other empty areas that she could see from the buildings' facades.
Soon enough the carriage drove up and stopped before the gates of a particularly large mansion which actually had a short walkway up to its entrance. Scarlett only had to wait for a moment before the coachman had moved back to open the carriage door for her.
"We have arrived, my Lady," the man said. It wasn't the same youth who she'd grown used to when she went out on excursions around Freybrook with Kat. This man was much older and more used to these kinds of events. She did wonder whether the Hartford family employed its carriage drivers full-time or if that was done some other way.
Turning her head towards Kat, she spoke. "I will take my leave. The coachman will take you wherever you wish in the city. I trust that you will be fine on your own." It would be a shame if she brought the woman just for her to get lost in the city.
Kat grinned. "I'll manage. I've been to Ambercrest before and know some of the local Guild members. It'll be fun to meet up with them."
"Good." Scarlett gave Kat a short nod before rising from her seat and stepping out of the carriage.
"I will bring Miss Breedan to her desired location and return immediately, my Lady," the driver told her. "There is a spot for the carriages nearby. I will wait there for when you wish to leave."