Chapter 214 (1/2)

Chapter 214 The travel to King’s City

The merchant fleet followed a branch of the Redwater River on its way north and after passing Silver City entered into the Grand Canal to King’s City.

Theo remembered that he had once read in the “Chronicles of Graycastle” that two hundred years ago, everything around here had been a wasteland. In order to transport the mined silver in the nearby mines back to King’s City, Wimbledon I had summoned stonemasons and nearly ten thousand handymen. After 20 time-consuming years spent digging, they finally opened a direct connection between the silver mines and King’s City. However, during the construction process a new city had also gradually formed itself around the silver mines, which was then later named Silver City by the late king.

But the scene that unfolded itself in front of him was completely different from the view of 200 years ago; this was no longer a wasteland. Instead, both sides had now been covered with lush farmland, that slowly transformed itself into a village. Seeing this scene made Theo think of the Kingdom Avenue which connected Border Town and Longsong Stronghold. When that road was finished, he believed that the surroundings hills would also become more densely populated.

“I heard you that you have previously already lived in King’s City?” Suddenly a woman’s voice sounded from behind him.

When Theo turned his head, he saw that the voice belonged to Margaret, the owner of the caravan, he nodded, “Before I became a palace guard, I have been living in the inner city.”

“How do you feel about returning to your old home?”

“Honestly speaking, not bad,” he said, “if it were not for the order of His Royal Highness, I’d rather stay in Border Town. Although King’s City seems to be such a lively place, it makes people develop a suffocating feeling living there.” Which is particularly the case because of the lower nobility, Theo thought.

“Is that so?” Margaret smiled, “how much do you know about His Highness Roland?”

“What’s going on?” Hearing this question let his heart slightly shiver with cold.

“I think he is really an incredible person. Of course, many bad rumors are flowing around in King’s City, you also should have heard a lot of them. However, in Border Town… it is nothing like those rumors said, his behavior and ideas are unpredictable,” she paused, “If the steam engine was accomplished through his knowledge and skills, why then, are even the soldiers trained by him so out of the ordinary?”

Speaking of the First Army, Theo glanced in the direction of the soldiers who were sitting on the deck – taking into account that their activities in King’s City had to be hidden as much as was possible; they were not equipped with guns, nor were they wearing a unified military uniform. Instead, their armor had been replaced with all sorts of different leather armors, and the only weapons they carried were the wooden spears on their back, they looked just any other caravan guard. For most of them, it was the first time that they were away from the Western Territory, and because of this, they were all curiously looking around and talked with each other about what they saw, but no one had yet taken off his shoes or laid down on their arms.

On the other hand, the mercenaries of the caravan, to avoid the sun many of them had left the deck and went into the cabin, leaving only three or four people behind on the deck who in turn have taken off their shoes and laid flat in the shade with their hands stretched out beside their body.

“I am not quite clear,” Theo reluctantly answered. It wasn’t that he was trying to hide something, it was simply that he didn’t know the answer – after coming to Border Town, the 4th Prince had become very different compared to his former self, “Probably His Royal Highness from before was just a disguise.”

“Is it…?” Margaret said nothing more, keeping silent for a moment and then she suddenly reached out with her hand and pointed in the distance. “Look, that’s the city wall. We will be arriving soon.”

At the end of his field of vision he could make out a fuzzy natural gray, just by standing here and looking, he could already feel the magnificence of the city walls – the city walls were the most outstanding work of the stonemason guild before they were dissolved. Both its height and thickness were second to none in the Kingdom of Graycastle. He had even heard that the walls had rooms and channels that offered places for nearly a thousand soldiers to rest. Making it possible to guarantee an uninterrupted patrol and fast support.

When the walls became clear for Theo to see, the figures of the fugitives also entered his field of vision.

A large number of civilians had gathered in the outskirts of King’s City. They had built simple sheds along the walls. In front of those sheds, many fires were burning, sending white smoke into the air, they were all seemingly boiling rice porridge. For now, these people had not yet run out of food, and their facial expressions were also still good. But King’s City would certainly not support them with free food forever, as soon as the aristocrats had selected their workforce, they would send their troops to drive these people away.