While Meia marveled at the landscape, the convoy continued to move onwards. Beetles buzzed in the air. In the distance, a lake shimmered between fields. Ducks dragged long trails on the surface and swung gallantly into the air from the water. A little further on, near a wooden house, children were playing with an older girl.

Meia recognized the game. She had often played it as a child, but in a slightly smaller group... of two people... and one of the people was a deer... Fine, it was a plush deer. Meia didn't want to remember it. In her new enhanced memory, it was a real deer. Also, it could talk. It wasn't about Meia's tragic childhood anyway. The game was not a game like tag. The children were playing characters from a children's book series. The book series was called 'Tin, the heroine'. The books were always called 'Tin and ...'. The omitted part was something like: '... the sunken city'. The older girl was Tin, the heroine. Meia recognized that because she pretended to have two daggers. That were Tin's weapons. The other children played the companions and villains. The children's playing made Meia think that it would have been wise if she had taken a book out of her suitcase, so she could read something.

The convoy had left the bridge over the river behind and was soon at the innermost city wall. The closer the convoy got, the more houses there were and the closer together they were, but the fewer wooden houses were to be seen. Every now and then there was a half-timbered house in between, but there were no longer any full wooden houses, like the one where the children had been.

The innermost city wall was better fortified than the last. For example, it was higher and had watchtowers at regular intervals. A simple roofer's ladder was no longer sufficient. You needed a special storm ladder or you could simply use one of the panoramic windows... Meia was a somewhat puzzled. There were huge windows built into the wall. The windows were almost as high as the floors and wider than the length of a carriage. Behind the windows were corridors with doors. Behind one of the windows on the right were people in suits and in the corner was a grand potted plant. It reminded Meia of the financial court in Kiras, or in other words, it looked like a government office.

"Are ya surprised about that? They built offices in there. It's already been a while though."

"It's just unusual."

"At some point, the city council thought, why should we leave this empty when we can rent it out. The upper windows used to have balustrades for the marksmen. The lower ones didn't even exist. They tore everything out, slapped offices and stores in and gave the rest of the space to us. They even tried to sell me a room. No, thanks. I've got a house." The commander kicked the front bench where the young man was sitting, whereupon he turned to him. "Didn't you get a room?"

"Yes, small as shit and in the middle of nowhere, commander."

The commander kicked the bench a second time.

"Hey, watch your language."

The young man looks at Meia briefly, then nods, intimidated.

"Is that in the second wall?"

"Yes, over by the east gate, that's why I was late."

"You were late because you set off too late. Do you at least like the view?"

"Mine is at the ground floor, commander."

"Well, that's too bad. And how's it otherwise?"

The young man thought for a moment. "It's free..." It sounded like it was the only thing he could think of. He then turned back to the front.

"Well, as ya see, my guards are very satisfied with their work place." The commander nodded assuringly. "Well, it turned out pretty. At least the walls serve a purpose, right?"

"Mhm."

Meia agreed. She wasn't good in this kind of situation. The commander came to terms with the fact that nothing more was coming back. He continued talking to the other two.

Even apart from the windows, the difference in security to Kiras was astronomical. Kiras had a 12 meter high city wall with a watered moat. The entire length of the wall had battlements and overhangs. There were towers at all corners. There were also towers on all long sections. Many towers had another tower with a perforated overhang on top, from which the top floors of the lower towers could be seen. At the main gate was a gatehouse, which itself also had two towers that were higher than all the previous ones. The path to the main gate was challenging. It first led over a bridge that could be erected over the moat, then through a gate with two barred gates, then around a corner and only then through the main gate with two more barred gates and the gatehouse. The whole time it went uphill and on both sides there were cannon towers and walls with embrasures. The corner to the main gate was a death zone. It was called a zwinger. If, despite everything, you managed to take the city wall, then you would reach one of the outer districts and the next city wall.

The narrative has been illicitly obtained; should you discover it on Amazon, report the violation.

This city wall was 18 meters high and lined with cannons. If even that one was taken, it would still not be the last. Kiras had a total of five city walls, which were getting higher and higher. As Meia had learned, even modern explosives could not blow their way through, because all five city walls and the palace had an iron core.

Kiras also had a harbor that was not protected by any walls, but trying to conquer the city through it was no easier. After the harbor came a wall and behind the wall was a cliff. The only ways into the city were narrow stone stairs. There were also elevators, but they could easily be destroyed from above. In the country's history, the harbor had been destroyed dozens of times and the fourth city wall had also fallen once, but no one had ever gotten further than that. This was because Kiras was a city on a steep coast.

In the meantime, the convoy entered the passageway. On the left-hand side, there was another wagon like the one Meia was sitting on. There was a smell of hay. There were probably horse stables nearby. The passageway looked completely different to the previous two. The walls were half-timbered with bright beams. It had the feel of a wooden workshop. There were wooden superstructures, weapon racks, cupboards and shelves. All sorts of random items were hanging from the framework. For example, a scythe hung on the right-hand side and not far from it was a measure stick for horses. On the right-hand wall there were also tables and a workbench with a vice in between them. There were files, papers, writing utensils and tools on the tables. The things were not clearly organized by table, but appeared to be where they had last been used. On the first table facing the street was a brass cash register. The chair at the table was empty. Nevertheless, the cash register was not unguarded. Two city guards were sitting on chairs in the passageway, just not by the cash register.

"Does Aoka cost admission?"

Meia asked this question almost automatically when she saw the cash register, as she already had this assumption.

"Yeah, 3000 fee per guest per month, possibly plus additional fees for transportation, horses, weapons and so on. The city council doesn't want tourists that don't have the pocket money. The entrance fee is paid here or at the other gates of the first wall. If ya wanna stroll around, you'll have to get a ticket from Minister Schoppe, otherwise you have to pay."

~So it was admission.~ That they had paid admission was a bit odd, considering who came into town with this convoy.

"What kind of ticket?"

"It's just the receipt." The commander forced himself to smile for a second, which was probably meant to say that it was only a receipt in principle. "You wanna explore?"

"I don't know yet." It wasn't a bad idea, but... " Can I go onto the outermost city wall?"

"The outer ring is not closed off. It was only built to keep animals out of the fields, which is why it only has a wall-walk* and watchtowers. If you want, you can go up there."

A wall-walk was probably what Meia always called a walkway. At the end of the day, she was just a layperson. What she knew on the subject, she had mainly picked up from soldiers.

"Can't animals get in? The gate is open, or is it not?"

"Yeah, but there are holes in the wall anyway." The commander laughed. "There are no fields in the outer ring either. It's no longer worth it nowadays."

"Why not?"

At the question, the taller man looked behind him at Meia, then straight ahead again. It seemed like a look to assess what kind of answer he should give her.

"The soil quality is no longer high enough. Rivers flow differently today than they used to a hundred years ago. We get less mineral-rich water from the mountains and less water in general. For example, the second city wall used to have a moat, but at some point the water level was so low that the river arm had to be filled in. The area has been cultivated and deforested, which is why the moat is now filled in due to erosion. There is still a dip here and there in the east, but nothing else can be seen. The earth around Aoka is rising, so the whole delta is actually shifting southwards. One day, Aoka will only be the Blue City in title."

"The future won't be that bleak. In the end, they'll reroute a river or something, even if they have to dig up half the country to do it."

"The only question is whether the other prefectures will be happy with that."

"They will, and if they don't, you'd better quit, hahaha."

The commander laughed wholeheartedly. The conflicts of the future didn't seem to worry him.

Meanwhile, Meia was already imagining herself climbing up one of the towers, but it would certainly not happen that way. According to the commander, she was allowed on the outer city wall, but she might not even be allowed to go there. After all, she had been under curfew just last week. In Kiras she had a superior she could turn to, but he wasn't here. According to her current knowledge and much to her regret, her new contact was probably the queen. So the queen would have to allow it...

*TL-Note: In German, the commander uses a technical term, that does not exist in English (Wehrgang), while Meia uses a self-created term (Laufweg). Wiki gives the French term in English: Chemin de ronde. But the term the commander uses is not THAT technical and I would never translate it like that again. In German, you always merge nouns to create more specific compound nouns. In English you more frequently use individual words that only have one use. One of the results of this is that many technical terms are intuitively understood by non-professionals in German, whereas in English you sometimes have to look up what something is. This starts at the simplest concepts: glove = hand boot (Handschuh), and goes all the way up to medical terms: Conjunctivitis = Conjunctiva Inflammation = Binding Skin Inflammation (Bindehautenzündung). Entzündung is inflammation, while Zündung by itself is Ignition.

.../ End Part