A few days after traveling on the road, Sol could see a high stone wall in the far distance. Beyond those walls stood a castle with the flag of the Kingdom of Crestelia flying at its highest point. Seeing the castle, Sol knew they had reached their destination.
Hughbert saw Sol’s amazed expression and smiled, “First time at the capital?”
Sol nodded, “If it looks big from this distance, how big is it up close?”
Hughbert stroked his chin, “Hmm. I don’t know how big exactly, but it's at least five times bigger than Kerman.”
“Five times?!”
Sol thought Kerman was big as is since it was three times bigger than Initium, but for the capital to be even bigger absolutely baffled him.
“This is the beating heart of our kingdom, so of course it has to be the best. Population, power, economy, you name it, the capital is number one in all aspects.”
As the group neared the walls, its size seemed to become ever increasing, easily reaching 100 meters and spanning around the entire city. Since Hughbert knew Sol didn’t know much of the capital, he felt like giving a small history lesson on how the wall came to be.
“The wall was built 500 years ago, soon after the kingdom was established. They weren’t originally that tall, but giants appeared trying to destroy the kingdom. I believe the war lasted for almost an entire century and only ended because the kingdom developed giant slayer weapons, which led to the extinction of the giants. Since then, the wall has undergone slow but steady improvement. The biggest of which are those faint blue lines, do you see them?”
At first, Sol couldn’t find what Hughbert was talking about, but now that they were closer, he could see faint blue lines that covered the entirety of the wall in a very beautiful pattern. The lines reminded Sol of the big metal doors he saw in the Fort Northwind’s vault.
“Don’t tell me that is-”
Hughbert smirked, “Runes. Engraved through the entirety of the wall. They enhance the wall's defense and dampen impacts. The biggest benefit of these runes is that the wall automatically maintains itself off the ambient mana, similar to the dungeon. This, in turn, halts the growth of the A-Rank dungeon from becoming S-Rank and also benefits the city. It’s truly one of the kingdom’s greatest marvels.”
Taking another look at the impressive wall, Sol couldn't help but agree with that sentiment.
The group reached the entrance of the city where two lines awaited them, one was for carriages and the other was for individuals. While the individual line was shorter, Sol and Amber stayed with Hughbert as it would be rude to just ditch them here. By the time they reached the gate, it was already evening.
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One of the guards approached Hughbert while another entered the carriage to inspect the goods.
“Purpose and Identification please.”
“Trading exotic herbs and some bandit weapons.”
The guard in the carriage opened each box to make sure they weren't bringing something illicit into the city. After a minute, the guard hopped off the carriage and gave his coworker a thumbs up.
The guard made way for the carriage, “You're good to go, welcome to Crestal.”
The carriage passed through the large wooden gate and successfully entered into the city. Once inside, one could see how much better Crestal was to Kerman. Perfectly even brick roads that were wide enough to fit five carriages side by side. Beautiful homes and buildings that had a unique style to them. The most outstanding thing in the city is the regal castle located in the middle of the city, standing tall as a symbol of the kingdom's prosperity.
Hughbert stopped by the side of the road and faced the adventurer duo.
“This is it. Thank you for accepting my quest, Sol and Amber. I’ll send one of my guards to the Adventurer’s Guild so you can claim the reward. But remember if you need anything, feel free to find me. I’ll be in this city for about a week before heading back to Kerman.”
“No problem, I’ll be sure to look for you if I need anything.”
Sol didn’t actually intend to find Hughbert if he needed help but said so to be polite. The duo then parted from the merchant and left to learn more about the city they would be living in for the foreseeable future.
…
The golden light from the sunset disappeared as the starry night took over the sky. Sol had learned as much as he could from asking random passersby about good inns, important locations, and any information they had about the knight tests, which he learned were actually called knight selection.
The knight selection was a yearly event where the kingdom recruited the best and brightest of their generation. To apply was really simple, Sol just had to sign up for the selection in one of the available locations, one of them being the Adventurers Guild. After that, he just had to show up on the day of the selection, where the candidates would go through three tests. The first was a simple identity check by verifying one's status page to make sure they aren’t a felon and also have the stats and skills to meet the requirements. Next was a physical test which changes from year to year. The final test was apparently a tournament where those who performed the best in the second test would compete for the number one spot.
The tournament was considered as a big event and many of the people Sol asked excitedly talked about it. Sol could understand why Hughbert didn’t mention the tournament as by passing the second test he would become a knight. The final test was more of a show for the citizens of the city with the grand prize for the winner being promoted to Knight Captain. Sol didn’t know how strong the other candidates would be but he believed with some training he had a chance of winning.
He didn’t want to win the tournament for the sake of winning but instead because it would make it much easier to make contact with the saintess. A higher position could give him the influence he needed to approach the saintess and get the information both he and Amber needed.
Winning the tournament had now become Sol’s new goal to find his parents and with that in mind, the duo went to a recommended inn to rest for the night.