It was a golden light.
A sea of illumination brimming over from the opposite riverbank. When the carriage began crossing the bridge, it consumed Kia's sights as it lined both sides of the streets.
Terrestrial light more powerful than the light of any star—and like nothing she had seen in the Eta Sylvan Province.
"That's amazing…! It's like it's still daytime out!"
Kia leaned her tiny body out of the carriage so far she nearly toppled out of it. The nightscape reflected in her turquoise almond-shaped eyes like a mirror.
It was unbelievable. All this light shining up into the dark night sky, long past sunset.
Everyone was still awake. They were working. What in the world could they be doing?
"Ha-ha-ha. What d'ya think, lassie?! Aureatia's impressive, ain't she?" Though her reaction would have certainly earned her a scolding from Elea,
the elderly driver responded in good faith. He must've felt a sense of pride for dazzling Aureatia himself.
"You know what those lights there are burning? It ain't animal fat or firewood, I'll tell ya that!"
"Gas! They're gas lamps! Air you can set on fire without Thermal Arts! Through pipes from the Mari Landburrow… Pipes of iron! They're burning those! That's what it is, right?!"
"Well, well, what's this, lass? You're still a wee girl, and you know a whole lot more than me already! Ha-ha-ha! Even I didn't know that much!"
Golden light. To think there could be such a big difference between here and the lamps in the towns she had passed through before now.
It had to be because they were gaslit.
"Elea… Er, Professor Viper was the one who taught me! She's the one who saw me off in Gimeena City!"
"Ah, that jaw-dropping beauty, eh? Now you're making me jealous, lassie. If I could do my life over again, I'd want to have a looker like her teaching me, I
tell you what!"
"Well, I'm suuuuper glad she didn't come along! If that woman was here, she'd just be annoying me nonstop!"
The carriage continued to run forward, and before long, it flew right into the middle of the otherworldly light.
Unlike the previous dirty roads, they were now on a neatly arranged straight brick road.
This had to be the marketplace. Red. Green. The numerous colors illuminated in the golden gas lamplight, as well as the voices of the people, flowed in from each side of Kia, too many for her to pay attention to each and every one.
"Deluxe Caidehe sheep meat, today only! You won't be able to buy it any cheaper than this!"
"Have you ever seen these?! The true, genuine article! The latest new machinery from the Beyond! Try these 'binoculars' today!"
"Are there any who wish to spend the night at the Blue Beetle?! Come one, come all, we have a real bard from Minatsu Wellspring City performing!"
Everyone shouted in an almost obnoxiously loud voice, asserting their own existence.
Though completely opposite from her quiet and peaceful homeland, the hustle and bustle was still wonderful.
"Hey, are these…? Are all of these actual shops?!"
"Dang right, they are! You ain't see any in the other cities?!"
"But there's so many… W-won't they run out of customers?! Even a whole small month wouldn't be enough to look through them all!"
"Ha-ha-ha-ha! They've got plenty! This city here, it's got a whole bunch of people living in it, see! Forget a small month, you could spend a whole year and still not have enough time to see all of Aureatia!"
The carriage stopped. When Kia once again leaned out and looked around, she saw an iron pillar with a small flag projecting out of it.
The checkered flag made a loud clatter as it was lowered with a pendulum mechanism. With this, it guided the flow of carriages going lengthwise and horizontally through the crossroads.
"I-I've never seen anything like that…! Not even in class!"
Indeed. Kia's carriage wasn't the only one. Many carriages were coming and going down the alleyways.
Roads wide enough to allow four carriages to pass on both sides stretched out wherever she looked.
The rare carriage not pulled by a horse passed by Kia together with a puff of white smoke, startling her.
"Aaaah…!"
Said carriage entered into a section lined with residences that towered high up above her.
The appearances of the people living there were all different. The difference didn't come from their diverse range of dress, though. Minia. Elf. Dwarf. Leprechaun. Zmeu.
Were all the minian races in Aureatia…here in the world's largest city?
It was more than just what she had heard in class. This place was filled with the unbelievable and the unknown.
"Look, missy! That there's the royal palace! Queen Sephite's palace!" "The royal palace…?!"
The carriage had come out into a noticeably larger road. She looked at the building that towered up ahead of her.
It was a very big, very beautiful castle illuminated in white.
All the blinding lights turned the large moat into a mirror image, as if lining the palace with a multicolored sun. A beautiful sight to behold.
A symbol of absolute royal authority, bestowed on the minian races.
A history of radiance and authority, looking down over the ocean-like expanse of business and activity.
It was the lone royal palace in existence, in a world once brought to the brink of annihilation by the True Demon King.
Aw. Kia pitied Elea. She wasn't able to be here next to Kia, looking up at this heavenly palace rising into the darkness of the night sky.
"Wow..."
The admiring sigh was all that slipped out of her mouth.
Kia was going to be spending the next year in this preposterous city. How much excitement, how many unknowns, could she look forward to?
Before she departed the Eta Sylvan Province, had she imagined this sort of spectacle she was faced with now?
"Sixways Exhibition! Sixways Exhibition! Arrangements are still available!
Come to us at Insa Moseo Co. for your tickets!"
"What do you say, miss? How about a Hero commemorative coin?! It'll be the pride of your family for generations to come!"
"Now then, surely you want to save the once-in-a-lifetime sight of the Hero's fighting prowess, right?! Come to Melora Imagining to order your daguerreotype
now!"
Along the main road in front of the palace, merchants equally as industrious as those in the market had set up street stalls, and the surging wave of people all but stopped the carriage in its tracks. The words that seemed to be the main focus among all of them were completely new to Kia's ears.
"Hey… Hey! What's this Sixways Exhibition?!"
"Well now, the knowledgeable little lass doesn't know about the Sixways Exhibition?! I'm in shock, I tell ya! It's the biggest Royal Games the palace has ever held! It's a fight, see! A huge true duel tournament, like back in the times of myth and legend!"
"Wooow…! Who's supposed to appear in them, then?!"
"Ha-ha-ha! Why, the Hero who brought down the True Demon King!"
The driver's speech was filled with passion, making Kia think that, even in this amazing city, it had to be something truly special.
She wondered if she'd be able to go and see the games herself. Elea would probably scold her and tell her she couldn't go watch something so barbaric.
I'll go and see them; just watch me.
It would be too boring to come to such a wonderful city like this just to study.
She was going to slip out of her classes, walk through this bustling city nightlife, and witness things she had never seen before.
All sorts of things and events, so many that she'd be recounting them all to Yawika and Thien for the next ten years and still have stories left to tell.
"The winner'll get any wish of theirs granted! That's how incredible the prize is! That's why the strongest champions around are all gathering for it!"
"Seriously?! Then maybe I'll take part in them, too!"
"Whoa now, ha-ha-ha! Didn't know I was carrying a tiny little champion in my carriage! But…it's probably best you wait for another ten years, lass! When I say strongest, I truly mean the strongest now! Even Rosclay the Absolute himself's gonna be appearing in 'em!"
"Well, I'm the strongest there is!"
A breeze passed through the alley and then through the passenger car.
Kia's golden hair fluttered, dancing on the wind and glittering in the starlight. Then it flapped violently in the breeze from a deafening explosive rumble.
She reflexively looked in the direction of the roar. Overtaking the carriage at a terrifying speed was what seemed like a colossal iron wurm.
"Amazing."
It was Kia's first time seeing the steam-powered vehicle, known as a steam
locomotive.
An incredible machine like that, and it was in motion every day. Inside its massive frame, a large number of people were on board. The fuel used to power it was being gathered from all across the land.
People. An innumerable amount of people, keeping all this activity in motion, were living here in Aureatia.
"Aureatia…!"
Kia muttered as she watched the rear of the steam locomotive pass them by with its far greater momentum.
She was positive that there were things beyond her wildest imagination waiting for her.
"This is Aureatia!"