It has been three days since the blizzard ended. A day was lost due to a wheel malfunction.

Today, the sun shined above the horizon unobstructed, lighting the plains up in its warm gaze. It was winter though, so even in the sun, men shivered in the cold.

The convoy already rode for about 4 hours today, as it neared the Capital.

"Wow, It's as you said, beautiful." Said Adam while looking out of the window.

In the distance, high walls presented themselves. They were built out of wood, with the foundation made of stone. Towers presented themself in regular intervals, sticking out of the walls. Above the walls, there were visible roofs of high, wooden houses and a few stone buildings, towering above the others. The most eye-catching was a tower, a beautiful one, with carved sides, made to look like one big sculpture, at its top was a clock, it presumably was on all four of its sides, but from this perspective, only two were seen.

'That's probably the tower mayor talked about. It was supposed to be beautiful, but from the distance, I can't really see it that well.' The newbie in magic thought.

It was the highest building in the city, but it didn't seem to be the most important. Next to it, stood another building, big in all directions. Wide, high and long, it had a highly situated roof, full of windows and a few smaller towers on the sides. What was below the roof could not be seen from Adam's perspective.

"I assume that the big one is the king's castle, but if that's the case, what is the big tower for?" Adam asked Max, as the latter had been here a few times before.

"You are right about the big one, as for the tower, it's called 'Magic Tower'. The Magic Tower is a place made to please all the magicians in our kingdom, it serves as a luxurious accommodation and a research facility. Every mage that is currently in the Capital, lives there. Well, apart from the royals, as they live in the castle that is next to it."

"What if there were more mages than there are rooms in the tower? Would they sleep together?" Wondered Adam, sharing a room with a pretty sorceress would certainly be interesting.

"No, the highest ranking ones would stay in the tower, while the king would need to find a place to stay for the rest. But such a situation will likely never happen. While only a part of the kingdom's mages stay in the capital, with most of them staying in big towns and cities, if there were too many mages in the capital at normal times, without any occasion, the kingdom would probably build another tower. If there were so many mages, the royal treasury would definitely have the funds for that.

By the way, we will also live there."

"Won't you go to the castle?"

"No, I am not in the direct line, so, the Tower is a place for me. or I will go to my mother, I don't know yet." Uncertainty tinged his tone.

"..Well, anyway, Do we have any plans today, or am I allowed to just go exploring?"

"Nah, we will join the army the day after the party, as for the days before, you are free to do anything you want."

"Nice!"

As they neared the gates, some guards came out to inspect them. The Kingdom didn't have any war ongoing, as it didn't have any real neighbours. The nearest country was across the mountains. But still, in the Capital, to enter you had to go through rigorous checks at the gate. It was made to lower crime activity in the city, control contraband, and search for wanted criminals.

Guards checked the carriages and wagons with baggage, but kept it simple, as the group was led by the king's nephew, and no one would want to make someone like that to be angry at them.

After crossing the gate, Adam saw the main street. In the distance, there were seen silhouettes of the Magic Tower and the castle. The street was wide, enough to place four carriages side to side across it, and still have some space for pedestrians to walk thru. The sides were occupied by stalls, that were placed before resident's porches. Buildings along the way were mostly built from stone, unlike the rest of the city, with beautiful carved figures and faces placed on the walls. Most of the buildings were townhouses, where the richest citizens lived. Among them were other structures, one of the nearest to the gate, for example, was Adventurers Guild's main branch.

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People on the street were mostly walking around, minding their business, buying from the stalls or returning from work. Some were hurrying somewhere, but most were walking calmly. Among them, from time to time were seen groups of guards, waking in teams of four, patrolling the street.

On the road, there weren't many carriages or any kind of wheeled forms of transport, which could be attributed to the late time. The day was nearing its end, after all.

Sometimes, a smaller road branched out, clearly less luxurious, but still well maintained.

The convoy was met with curiosity, a lot of people looked their way, taking amongst themselves and pointing at the crest of Steelarm's that was adorning the outer walls of the carriages.

When they neared the Magic Tower, some of the tower's staff came to greet them.

"Good evening young master Max, young master Adam, we will take your luggage to your rooms, but please wait for the tower administrator to greet you. He will be here in no time." The one who talked was a middle-aged man, in a butler's uniform. When he was talking to them, he performed small bows in their direction.

"Young master?" Said Adam, flabbergasted.

"That's a title non-mages are supposed to call us, it will change to master when we reach the Advanced realm or we aren't young enough to call young." Answered Max, he wasn't surprised about Adam's question, as if he got used to his curiosity.

"How did they know about me? We just arrived?" Asked Adam in confusion.

"Dad sent a messenger as soon as we started to delay the journey, The messenger must have told them about you. A shame, I would like to see you sleeping on the street." Answered Max.

"Huh???"

Max didn't respond, and soon a young man walked out of the building, looking as if he had run a marathon.

"Hello Max, nice to meet you." The man greeted briefly with Max, then took Adam's hand. "I am sorry for being late, in my defence, I can say that master Galeb had some matters to discuss with me." Said the man, supposedly a tower's administrator.

"Hi, Steven, how have you been?" Asked Max.

"I have been great, as you see I've become the tower's administrator. we can go to my office and I will tell you everything, but firstly, would you introduce ourselves?" When Steven said that, he looked at Adam and greeted him with a firm handshake.

"It's nice to meet you" Stated Adam while returning the gesture.

"Oh, yes.... right. This is Adam Axigna, my friend and a talented mage who will serve in the army at my side for the next six months. " Max told Steven while slightly pointing at Adam with his hand, then he turned around and did the opposite." This is Steven Steelarm, my older cousin from my mother's side. His talents lay in administration, so he was put in the position of tower's administrator."

"Could we leave you, we have lots of things to talk about. The staff will help you with your baggage." Asked Max, he was trying not to sound rude, but he failed miserably.

"Ok, I don't mind." Adam didn't hold a grudge, he understood that there was no place for him in their conversation.

As Max and Steve were heading into the tower, Derek came to Adam's side.

"So... do you have any plans for today? Because I would like to go and see the city." Derek couldn't hide his excitement, which was painted on his face.

"I changed my mind, I will go to bed earlier, but you can go yourself. Maybe you can find some pretty lady if I am not by your side, stealing all their looks." After a conversation with the nobles, Adam finally felt his tiredness, which accumulated over the whole journey.

Derek said his goodbyes and went in the direction of a restaurant he saw while going thru the city, not bothered by Adam's bullshit.

Adam on the other hand, started looking around the tower, curious about its surroundings. The Magic Tower was located in the main square, surrounded by it. Next was the castle, which was.. underwhelming. When someone thinks about a castle, a stone structure, made by connecting a few big blocks and dozens of high towers appears in their mind. The castle on the other hand was.. bland. If not for its decorations it would look like a table with an extraordinarily thick countertop, flipped upside down.

After looking around for a while, Adam headed to the tower. On the ground floor, there was a reception with a few attendants waiting. One of them took Adam to his room.

Adam's chamber was located on the ninth floor. Walking upstairs was an excruciating task. He understood why Steven looked like he ran a marathon.

The chamber was luxuriously decorated. Pretty flowers stood by the walls and carpet lay on the floor. In front of the door, there was a big bed, above which light came to the room through the windows. There were two other rooms connected to this one. One was an office, filled with blank bookshelves and with a desk in the middle, situated so that light shined on the table from behind. The other one was a washroom. Within it was a tub of water, for some light cleaning and a bucket under a seat. An emergency toilet.

After looking around Adam lay on his new bed and fell asleep immediately.