They passed through the ginormous gates and arrived at a long and wide corridor. So long that they were all looking at the exit from a faraway distance, small to the eyes.
Conan looked at the dimly lit corridor that was built in the ginormous wall. Surely it wasn't the work of humans, definitely immortals, or even gods.
Back then, followers of Gods were rare as people became gods, but that doesn't seem to be the case with Tianah, who proclaimed to be a disciple of Athan, Goddess of Aether.
Things have changed and Conan hadn't known how much things have changed, which put his unease.
Tianah led them to a door situated on the left side of the corridor "How about you register as citizens here? we can do it in the city, but..."She tentatively suggested but trailed off in the end.
"It's okay, well do it here," Conan replied and followed her into the room, followed by his babies—Liam, kitty, Zoe, and Loki.
The room was lit up with a chandelier filled with precious shiny stones that illuminated the room with perfect brilliance.
There, a bearded man sat behind the counter, leisurely reading a book and eating snacks away.
There, they registered as citizens of Morntelle, the human kingdom. It was a long and tiring process full of questioning and answerings and lying—storytelling.
...
After hours in the registration office, they finally came out. Zoe sighed and grumpily walked towards the exit of the corridor on her own, leaving others behind.
'I want to see new things, not the face of a perverted mortal.'She grumbled and continued walking without waiting for the others to catch up.
Meanwhile, Conan couldn't keep his curiosity in anymore and reached his breaking point "Tianah, I'm curious about this wall."
Tianah flinched a little as she heard her name being called like he always knew her. Or perhaps, she was just overthinking.
"Oh! Yes, this wall is a fortress built for us by the gods, it was the day humanity was offered salvation I tell you."Tianah started narrating and she looked happy talking about it.
"Thousands of years ago, the forces of humanity had started to decline and got weaker till nobody has the talent to cultivate spiritual energy anymore. Our ancestors of that time were overpowered by the more endowed races, and we were oppressed."
"But then, the gods showed us their helping hands and grace. They helped us gather, built this fortress, and put us under a king. Till today, humanity worships these gods and in return, they give us a fraction of their spirits and a fraction of their divinity. The amount depends on the talent a person possessed, that is to say, not all followers have the grace to receive power from the gods and become disciples."Tianah explained enthusiastically. The topic of Gods seemed to be what she likes.
"Overpowered?"Conan asked in confusion.
"Yes, due to a war between races, it caused the demolition of sects and extinction of cultivators. But as you know, humans are physically weaker than the majority of the other races and we were at the brink of extinction, thanks to the gods, by their mercy, our ancestors were saved from their doomed fate."Tianah narrated, even more enthusiastically this time around, hoping to get a good reaction from the listeners, but she was disappointed in return.
Kitty was kicking lone rocks and wasn't even listening while Loki was leisurely looking around. Not to talk of Zoe who was walking ahead of them without a care for the plane.
Only Liam and Conan seemed to be listening and even they seemed too confused.
"So Orcs and Elves worship gods now?"Conan asked, his eyebrows knitted in utter curiosity.
"Sort of..."Tianah answered with a shrug, before answering "Yes... Honestly, I'm not sure."
Conan sighed and thought 'The celestial wasn't joking, things have changed a lot. Existence has gotten older, it doesn't need gods anymore and now the gods are at work, keeping mortals and immortals in check.'
He looked at Liam who was all pumped up and thought 'We'll find a place to stay first to tell them to be careful, or the gods will know about us. Hopefully, they'll heed.'
They exited the corridors amidst the wall and saw a long, barren two-lane bridge above a huge body of running water. The bridge connecting the wall to the nearest duchy.
Zoe stood with nothing but annoyance showing on her beautiful face "How big is this kingdom?!"She asked Tianah, who flinched a little on hearing how harsh her voice sounded.
"I don't know, all I know is it consists of fifty-one duchies..."Tianah shrugged.
"Arr, there any other human kingdom apart from this one?"Conan asked.
"Ah... Yeah, there are humans of impure bloodlines called Pseudohumans and even Monsterkins by some, because, they possess monster bloodlines and have humanoid forms. They were slaves of this kingdom before the first king died."Tianah narrated.
"And they rebelled after the first king died?"Conan guessed because that's what most do, in the stories he had read that is, and from experience. But mostly from stories.
"No. Nathan, the second king, freed them. Told them to go to their settlement and make a new kingdom for themselves. Now, they are formidable forces to be reckoned with and their kingdom flourished about five hundred years ago."
"Ew, human bloodlines are adaptive to anything, to be able to create beings called Pseudohuman? Oi!"Liam scoffed, earning a look from Tianah and a slap to the back of his head from Conan.
"Aren't you a human?"Tianah chuckled as if asking the obvious.
"I'm not..."Liam smilingly said, making Tianah burst into laughter. Liam laughed it off as well and Conan shook his head and smiled wryly.
They walked over the long bridge on foot but they didn't get tired. They walked for hours as Liam and Tianah talked about random kinds of stuff and laughed boisterously.
Like that, they got to the city, passing by a sign board that said; "Welcome to kramdery city"
The city was bustling with life— or mortals in the immortal sense. Shops and stalls were opened, and most had their stalls in front of their residences, while the more extravagant ones stood out, like the one Conan spotted; "Mr. Abeddon's Alchemies."
There were many things to be bought here and kitty was especially pointing at the sweets on display. A shop owner even gifted her a jelly sweet, saying "The gods have blessed you with such cuteness, why won't I leave this for you, so my children would be blessed as well?"
Conan on the other hand was thinking, 'The building structures were amazing but not that impressive. It has the same splendor as the ones at the citadel. But back then in the cultivation days, humans build their homes out of wood, now they use marble and other materials, it's impressive. Only the sects were built extravagantly."
Liam and Tianah were talking, and Zoe came towards him "What now?"She stolidly asked "What currency do they use now? I need to buy new clothes, I'm interested in the styles."
"I don't know."Conan said as he looked around to ask Tianah but she and Liam were nowhere to be found "Where'd they go?" He looked around frantically as he asked himself.
"Wait, what? You don't know the currency?"Zoe asked, her difficulty in showing her emotions acted up, she was concerned but sounded like she couldn't care less.
"Let's wait for them, perhaps they went to do something," Zoe suggested and went to sit in front of a counter, startling the trader in charge.
Conan walked around, searching for Liam, kitty, and Tianah. Soon, he found them standing in front of a shop and buying things "With whose money?" Conan wondered.
He moved closer to the three and was surprised to see kitty with varieties of sweets. Liam paid the trader by handing out papers to which the trader thanked him for his patronage.
Liam laughed as soon as he saw Conan "Ol' fath- ..."He was about to blurt out something suspicious, earning a glare from Conan "Ol' brother! I'm rich!"
Conan looked at Liam in disbelief "Did you steal?" He looked at Tianah before adding "Did you teach him to steal?"
To which she denied immediately "I didn't..." She said before proceeding to explain the situation "Apparently, he has Spirit Crystals with him, so I took him to sell it to get money, now he's got about a Million Mornt Notes."
"Mornt Notes?"Conan asked, he was confused with this new money system.
She brought out an off-white note, which has the Coat of Arms of Morntelle imprinted intricately on it from her silk vest pocket "This is a Mornt Note, a normal one."
Meanwhile, Liam retrieved another note from his spatial ring but golden "This is a golden Mornt, equivalent to a hundred mornts, And I have millions of them."He smugly proclaimed and his Aura brightened.
But Conan only smiled and said, "Let's meet Zoe, she's waiting."
"Hmm, these sweets have good packaging but aren't that sweet."Kitty gobbled up the sweets, which were packed in a paper bag. "I hope Ol' papa brought my sweets."
Thus, the group made their way back to where Zoe was, to plan their next course of action. But on getting there, they didn't find Zoe where Conan left her.