Heisen's Eye

Chapter 53

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Ryu's POV
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We were out of town soon after waking up, taking some of the knights' horses to go back to the Captial, since ours probably returned after we left them at the gate.

The military horses are supposedly trained to be able to know where the Capital is no matter where they are and be able to return, but I'm not entirely sure how true that is.

We leave through the ever-crowded east gate, where we came in from yesterday.

It's surprising how many people can conform to a single etiquette of not being in the middle of the street to let horses and carriages pass. I'd imagine that at least a few people would ignore it, but apparently not.

As for our travel back, it was entirely uneventful, to the point where I can't differentiate the days in my memories of the trip back.

It took about the same amount of time as the trip to Alzibria, but it felt shorter to me, for some reason.

When we reach the Capital, we enter through the military's personal gate, so as to avoid the mass of people at the main gate, since it was 10 times worse than Alzibria.

And, even though we had just been on a week long journey, we didn't get anytime to rest as the King had requested our presence as soon as he had heard us arrive.

So, without even letting me see the room that was given to me, the squad and I were taken by a royal servant in an extravagant carriage all the way to the Palace.

Looking at it from outside its gates, it looks slightly... Divine? As if it had its own glow around it.

The bricks it was made from seem to shine their own light, as if being compared to the sun.

The flowers that were being presented in the courtyard seemed fake, considering how well raised they were.

Not even mentioning the size of the building. Having seen the Count's Manor a week before this, it was still fresh in my mind, yet this overpowered that memory with ease.

This Palace was easily twice the size of his Manor, possibly even triple.

Hopping down from the front of the carriage, the Royal servant seemed to do the same as the Count's servant and sped up slightly to walk in front of us.

I couldn't seem to take my eyes away from the glow of the Palace, as if my eyes were attracted by some kind of force, though it made my eye feel like it was being slightly burned.

The Palace had a large, open space instead of a front door, and instead led into a lobby sort of area where several sets of stairs twirled into different areas of the building.

It seemed way too grand to be efficient, but this was the way nobles were, so it wasn't much of a surprise for the King to be so keen on extravagant designs.

The servant in front of us led us towards one of the sets of stairs and we started climbing, entering a large corridor.

Along the floor was a long, red carpet with gold embroidered along the edges, as well as several sets of armour along the side.

Hanging from the roof, chandeliers threatened to fall under the weight of the gold and silver they were made with.

One side of the wall had several panes of glass all the way down, while the other had doors leading to different rooms, to which I couldn't even assume what they would be used for.

As if the servant knew where he was going, he led us down the corridor and around corners with ease, only stopping at a glamorous door, which seemed more like a gate.

Lions were engraved on either side of it, with the Royal Symbol etched into the middle, comprising of a shield in front of two rapiers and a bow.

If it wasn't engraved into a door, the shield would have a golden border with a mythril-like colour for the middle. The two rapier would be clad in silver, and the bow would be covered in marble.

It was made with colours from valuable metals, making the country seem more like a nobilic state, rather than the militaristic powerhouse that it was.

As far as I know, the Kingdom of Reichtum is the most powerful of the 6 countries that rule over the continent of Acho.

After the Kingdom, it'd be the country of Jaird, an imperial state with their Emperor being heavily focused on wealth, but that may also be the reason why they have so many soldiers.

In terms of numbers, I don't think Reichtum would win, but in terms of combat power, I'm pretty sure that Jaird would lose quite easily.

As for the other four countries, two of them aren't in contact and have completely shut themselves off. Those countries would be the country of the Elves: Alfenhiem, and the country of the Spirits: Viernem.

The other two are the countries of the Dwarves and Beastmen: Dawi and Naem respectively, in which Dawi supply the other countries with metals and goods, whole Naem offer their labour services, sometimes in the form of slaves.

As I was thinking, the servant pushes the door open and announces our presence,
"The Knights are here, Your Majesty." (Servant)

His voice echoes throughout the room, reverberating along the marble walls of the throne room.

Large paintings of the previous monarchs were hung up, each holding some look of wisdom in their eyes, despite being a painting.

The path towards the throne was layed out with a single red carpet of a simple design.

Pillars extruded from the ground up to the roof, curving slightly as if to match the flow of the ceiling.

Large stained windows were on either side of the room, giving the area a mystical look as different colours trespassed their way onto the floor.

"Your Majesty." (Captain)

As we reach the end of the path, several small steps were in front of us, yet we never climbed, instead bowing our heads just before them.

"Raise your head." (King)

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Author Notes
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Another chapter done.

This was surprisingly fun to write, but that may have been because of the final few sentences, and the description of the world.

I was starting to think that I needed more description of the areas they were in, so I've started doing that more, and hopefully it's enough so that you can properly imagine their surroundings.

Also, world building. Incredible. I've started to expand the world that was just a small country in my mind to now a full continent. It's actually something I find surprising, since I can't usually visualise stuff in my head, but I can do it with this.

And, sorry for a sudden dump of the content in the final parts of the chapter, but I thought it worked quite well.

Anyway, thanks for reading the chapter!