As they rode through the bustling city, Lily and Lam stared wide-eyed at everything they saw. Everything was a hundred times bigger than it was in the village they grew up in. There were several market places, each of which were several times larger than the single market place their village possessed. And the people here were very elegantly dressed.
"This place is gorgeous!" Lam was in deep awe of everything he saw, and Ivor smiled at his naïve expression. Seeing Lam looking left and right with an insatiable expression on his face, Ivor smiled broadly as if the city was his.
"It is several times larger than the village!" Lily was just as smitten as her brother, if not more so by what she was also seeing. Her eyes sparkled delightfully as she watched the sights around her. Everything appealed to her. The precious stones, the jewels, the beautiful clothes, and the grand buildings. Most buildings were two stories tall, and there were some that had three and four floors. This was fascinating to Lily because her village only had one building with multiple floors – the Village Head's building – and it had just two floors. Although the reason behind the village's decision to avoid building high rise structures was sound (to enable the Village Head accurately see everything happening during an invasion), it didn't change the fact that they didn't really have any high rise buildings. And seeing so many tall buildings had Lily gasping in praise.
"How do they identify invaders then?" Lam wondered out loud. Seeing the tall buildings he was curious about how the city was able to identify threats from afar.
"What?" Mane asked. He had no idea what Lam was thinking. Hildegarde who was seated on his shoulder was yawning widely. It was very cute, but no one could see it.
"The buildings. They are all tall. So how do they identify intruders?" Lam elaborated, and Mane finally understood.
"Have you forgotten already how tall their walls are? Even if they built ten story apartments all over the place, the walls would be too high for them to see anything past them." Mane laughed softly and teased Lam. His friend was so fascinated by what he was seeing that he had already forgotten about the really high walls around the city.
Lam blushed slightly and laughed embarrassingly after hearing Mane's words.
"Well, the warriors on the walls serve as scouts as well. But they can only see invasions pretty close to the city. It doesn't give the city enough time to prepare to receive enemy forces." Ivor who had been silent all this while stepped in to explain.
"So how do they identify invasions earlier?" Lily had long been distracted by their conversation and was listening all along. She ignored the sights around her and asked Ivor a question. In fact, if she didn't ask, Lam would have asked this question.
"There is a watch tower at the centre of the city, close to the City Lord's Mansion. It is the tallest building here and almost two times taller than the City Walls!"
Hearing Ivor's answer, the twins were stunned. They had seen how tall the City Walls were, and didn't even dare to imagine that there would be taller structures in this city or anywhere else in the world. Yet Ivor was telling them that there wasn't just a taller structure, but there was a structure that was two times taller than the City Walls! This was indescribable to them.
Mane smiled as he watched the people of the city going about their business. He felt an upliftment in his spirit seeing a bustling city one more. As someone who grew up in a city, this was a very welcome sight. As for the tower Ivor was talking about, it didn't surprise Mane in the slightest. This was because it was normal for cities to have Watch Towers. The only surprise was the fact that he hadn't seen this structure when they were approaching the city.
"Can we see the tower?" Lily asked Ivor with hopeful eyes. She looked like a little girl eager to do some sightseeing.
"Of course Princess! We still have a few days until the Semi Finals and we aren't in a rush to see the members of the Orange Team either. So we can do some sightseeing." Ivor laughed happily and agreed almost immediately. Although Mane would have to go through some procedures to become a part of the Orange Team formally, it wasn't going to take up much time. Lily laughed amusedly, and Lam had a cheerful smile on his face hearing that there was no need to rush and they could spend some time seeing this Watch Tower.
They rode their mounts towards the Watch Tower, under the direction of Ivor. As they moved around, Mane noticed something.
"What is your status here, Ivor? We have barely seen anyone else riding a horse here. And the guards we have come across immediately turn away when they see you."
This was what Mane had observed. The people of the city had strange expressions on their faces when they saw Mane and the others riding on horses. And those who recognized their mounts as Red Maned Horses all avoided them. They had come across a few guards, but unlike the guards at the gate they seemed to know who Ivor was. In fact, over 70% of them would turn pale in fright whenever they saw him. Mane was able to make a few conjectures from his observations.
One, average people weren't allowed to ride horses in the city. Two, Ivor was more feared than he was respected. And three, the guards at the city gates were new and didn't know who Ivor was but everyone else seemed to know this.
Initially, when Ivor recommended that Mane join the Orange Team, Mane assumed that he was affiliated to the City that the Orange Team represented. But he realised he was wrong. What if Ivor was a wandering Expert who had connections in most parts of the world? Since Ivor was an Information Peddler, this wasn't strange.
Lam and Lily were enlightened by Mane's words, and they realised that Mane was right. There really wasn't anyone riding horses around. They had only seen one or two chariots with strange emblems on them, but that was all. No one else was brazenly exploring the city with horses like they were. They looked at Ivor with sparkling eyes, and were highly impatient to hear his answer.
"I am just an Information Peddler! Hahaha!" Ivor laughed heartily and replied.
"Just an Information Peddler my foot. Which Information Peddler has such a high understanding of the Laws of Space?"
Hildegarde who was seated on Mane's shoulder scoffed and said with a lot of scorn in her voice. Unfortunately, Mane was the only one who could hear her. She didn't believe Ivor in the slightest, and neither did the twins or Mane. In fact, Lily pouted when she heard Ivor's answer. She thought she was finally going to learn something about Ivor, but the man was like a deep well. No matter how much they threw inside, the water didn't rise up.
Soon they reached the Watch Tower. It was the tallest building the twins had ever seen. Even Mane was fascinated with what he saw.
"This is amazing!" Lam immediately sang songs of praise when he saw the magnificent structure that was the Watch Tower. Lily was so stunned by what she was seeing that she had her mouth wide open. When she came to, she saw Mane smiling playfully at her and she blushed in shame and quickly shut her mouth.
The building was slender, yet well made so that it didn't collapse. Mane could tell that the stones used in its construction were high quality and capable of withstanding even the blow of a Peak Thrasher! That was an outstanding level of defense, and Mane was impressed by it. Zandor didn't have such a high structure. And that was why Mane hadn't seen it before. The tower was built so high that it stretched into the clouds and beyond it. Because it was concealed by the clouds, it would be difficult for people outside the city to see this well-hidden tower. There was a defense perimeter around the tower, and several guards manned this defense perimeter to prevent anyone from getting close. Several people passed by the Watch Tower, but no one dared get close to it.
"They are all Thrashers. They really take this place seriously." Mane was quick to identify the wielding level of the guards. There were ten guards protecting the tower, and all of them were Above-Mortal Realm Body Wielders, or Thrashers as the people of this world called it. Even a First Class City would have only about 70 to 80 Thrashers on average. The City Gate was protected by Two Thrashers, but this tower was protected by ten Thrashers! It went to show how important this tower was to Asher City.
Right when the group was about to leave, a luxurious carriage stopped right in front of them, and a Thrasher fully decked in armor jogged to them and said to Lily, "Miss, Our Young Lord would like to have dinner with you."