Let us wind the clock back half a day.
There was a five-storied luxury guesthouse on the edge of Lancaster which stood in a U-shape when viewed from above. Its center, which points to the north was a courtyard, with another lush garden in the back.
The luxury guesthouse was usually empty. Still, one would learn just be asking nearby residents that the owner of the guesthouse was no other than Corinth, mayor of Lancaster.
In fact, it was the guesthouse that Corinth arranged for his private guests to stay. However, the nobles of the Valla Empire had distanced themselves from him, 'a remnant minister' following the fall of Tierra and would never visit Lancaster, just as allowing unimportant nobles to stay in the luxury guesthouse would depreciate its value.
That was why Corinth rather kept the guesthouse vacant but ready to operate at a moment's notice, and even though its yearly maintenance cost was expensive.
