Chapter 33 - The Capital
"Gods, that's a lot of people." Kat's words filled the small carriage cabin they were in.
"Indeed it is," Scarlett agreed, looking out the carriage window at the masses of people, wagons, and carriages that filled the enormous circular plaza they found themselves in. Like them, many of the people here were moving away from the center of the plaza, where there was a large half-open structure surrounded by lines of people. The structure bore some resemblance to the building in Freybrook that housed the city's Kilnstone, but this one was much more extensive and elaborate in its design. If Scarlett were to just describe its appearance, she'd call it something like a neoclassical mausoleum. It also just happened to be called the Mausoleum, so she wasn't the only one who thought so.
Additionally, it was home to the Imperial Capital's four Kilnstones—Elystead was the only city that had more than one of the old Zuverian artifacts—making it a very busy spot now during midday, just two days before the Light Fest begins. They'd traveled through one of those just a few minutes earlier.
Scarlett's eyes carried across the whole plaza and its surroundings, taking in the views. It was one thing seeing it in the game, but seeing Elystead in real life was a completely different experience. Although Freybrook and Ambercrest had their own charm, they couldn't match up to the capital's grandeur. She knew it wasn't the same over the whole city, but all of the buildings encircling this area had a very old, but pristine, look to them. Much like the Mausoleum, they were all very Roman-esque, with a lot of open spaces, neatly filed trees between buildings and in the middle of the streets, with small ponds here and there. It was very clear where the original designers for 'Chronicle of Realms'—if they actually existed—had gotten their inspiration from for this part of the city. She was pretty sure the whole of Ascendant Court, which was what this district of the city was called, was filled with buildings like this.
The sight actually filled her with a sense of...reverence? Pride? She wasn't sure exactly what it was, but she had a suspicion it wasn't actually from her. Nonetheless, it still left her wordless for a moment.
As their carriage started nearing the edge of the plaza and began moving along the street that encircled it, Scarlett's eyes shifted towards the other side of the Mausoleum from where they'd exited. A long rectangular pond with still, blue water stretched almost a hundred meters from the Mausoleum, surrounded on both sides by circular collonades that were placed in lines. At the far end of the pool of water stood an incredibly large structure that curved slightly, like a half-moon, towards the pond and the plaza, its white marble walls and pillars resplendently reflecting the rays of the midday sun.
That had to be the Ustrum Assembly. The foremost authority of magic in the Empire—if you discounted the Rising Isle, which didn't technically exist in the Empire—and a major faction in the game. She'd also been part of it in her first playthrough.
It almost looked like some kind of ancient dam, now that she saw it like this, towering over the plaza and all the nearby buildings here, reaching about the same height as the Mausoleum. Her view of the grandiose building was eventually cut off, however, when the carriage moved further away from it and turned off onto another much bigger road. It pointed away from the plaza and towards the south, where it went on through the rest of the city all the way to where it cut off into a large body of gleaming water. That would be Rellaria Lake, 'The Jewel of the Empire'. And off into the distance, a short stretch into the bay, Scarlett could see the remote facade of an extensive and faintly red castle that stood like a mountain unto itself in the lake. And that'd be Dawnlight Palace. Home to the imperial family, and the heart of the Graenal Empire's power.
Their carriage started traveling down the bustling street, which Scarlett remembered was called 'Sunset Walk'—there were too many places to remember around here—on the in-game maps of the city, surrounded on both sides by large buildings of all kinds. This was the main thoroughfare of the central parts of the city, and seeing it like this really lent to the effect of impressing how large Elystead actually was. Freybrook was a decently large city—she'd read in a book somewhere that it was the third-largest imperial city area-wise—but the city she had seen in this world had been mostly similar to what she'd known from the game, with only some parts having changed, or increased in size, or opened up where they had been locked in the game. Elystead, however, was much larger here than in the game. It really couldn't compare. Just from what she was seeing right now it looked like it could compare with some of the smaller capital cities in the modern world when it came to size, which was impressive considering the world they were in.
"It's good to be back," Kat said. Scarlett turned to see the woman looking out at the passing buildings.
"You have been here before, then?"
The Shielder nodded her head. "I grew up here."