Before long we were already approaching the end of the commercial street, arriving at a group of large buildings, these causing several forks of narrow streets, this was purposely prepared so that large armies could not move freely through the city, plus they would be drowned in a hail of arrows from the rooftops.
Not just arrows, rather magic in narrow areas can become terribly deadly.
As we wandered through the narrow streets, Gong began to tell us about the layout of the districts.
This city, it's quite sensible and interesting.
The noble districts are not in the core, as in most medieval cities on earth, and in some places in LAZ, they occupy a strip that divides east and west, living in both the north and south, that's because the nobles of LAZ, usually are faction leaders, that means they knew how to defend themselves and always have henchmen with them, becoming an excellent militia in case of attack.
On the other hand, the west, the area farthest from the gates and especially from the largest gate, the one occupied by the commercial area, is where the common residents live, being the safest and always having a place to escape.
Then there was the area where we were headed, it was the inner wall, it is where the castle of the little emperatrix and all the government buildings were located.
In a few minutes walking, we left behind the narrow streets and reached the inner wall, just as high as the outside, but easily tripled the magics inscribed on the walls, it seemed that they would use it as a last redoubt in case of invasion.
From the door we could see the hustle and bustle, it seemed that we had returned to the market street, everyone running from one side to the other, but instead of goods, papers were being transported from one side to the other, the terrible bureaucratic bustle was giving them a magnificent fitness class.
We continued on our way without any interruption, again being checked by the citizens, but the same as always.
On the street we could no longer see guards that did not belong to the little empress, it was a way of showing that this was her garden, a place of the Sirenoids.
We could also hear the shouts of soldiers training, the main barracks was just to the left of the door which we had just crossed. On the other side we also found beings of various races entering a huge building, this one was exuding magic, we lived in a cave filled to the limit with magic so we could easily notice it, it seemed that it was a magic school, I could already imagine the self-control that Balthazar was using to not get out of formation and run to school.
I'm sure that if I gave him permission, he would simply disappear for weeks, although I don't intend to give it to him, at least for now.
We arrived at a square with another fountain, in this case the figure was different.
The same mermaid, but this time with a crown, her arms crossed, holding a spear stuck in the ground and a book on a pedestal, finally, her eyes were blindfolded.
Behind the fountain a castle, which was in full expansion or construction, was rising, that was the place where our retinue was going, obviously there was the little empress, I must admit I'm a little nervous, but in the worst case we will simply teleport to the surface and if they have caused any trouble, we will help the black carapace to enter the city.
In no time we arrived at the entrance of the castle, where several guards stopped us.
All sirenoids with good armor and good quality tridents, obvious for a castle guard.
The one who stopped us was a corpulent sirenoid, the sirenoids as in myths of the earth, have the ability to transform their tails for legs and vice versa.
- Gong, chief of the surface guards, what is the reason for your visit to the palace with these strangers - The voice of this guard was quite powerful and resonant, it seemed quite intimidating, although not compared to the huge Bull.
- I bring some possible allies to the queen, they have been recognized by us and their abilities are terrifying, plus their leader is an immortal- Gong was obviously not intimidated by the sirenoid at all, he answered truthfully and his voice was dozens of times more resonant than the guard's, standing out excessively.
I was sure that even those inside the castle had become aware of our presence due to his monstrous voice power.
The guard looked somewhat astonished, then gave us a long look and nodded.
- In that case wait a moment, I will send someone to inform my lady, in the case of being accepted your presence in the castle, you will be assigned a room while the necessary charges are gathered in the throne room, then you will be taken and the meeting will begin - The guard seemed to be knowledgeable of all the procedures, surely many have wanted to come to create alliances with this kingdom, either to become allies, vassals or simply to maintain an embassy.
The guard to his right, ran inside, following the order of his companion.
The wait did not last more than 5 minutes, the same guard next to a sirenoid, with silk clothes, this one named himself as a butler of the castle and asked us to accompany him.
With that Gong said goodbye to the guard at the gate and brought us inside the marble and azurite castle.