From all the buildings Nick and YunYun had seen up until now the only one that was not a log house was the arena. It was build from a dark stone and the castle complex was build of a similar material, albeit some smaller buildings like stables were still built from logs.
The castle was surrounded by a tall wall, similarly built from dark stone and was located at a little elevated position right in the middle of the capital. It looked several centuries old and Nick pondered why it wasn’t built in a more defensive position. The most reasonable conclusion he could come to was that the whole city and its population was the best fortification any ruler could hope for. And if really some day an enemy showed up who for some reason would brave to these harsh lands, the locals would simply grab their gigantic axes and hack everyone into mincemeat.
Thus the castle most likely was just a symbol of status and a home for the most influential family in the north and Nick decided to treat it like a home of any other rich person.
After entering through castle gates, they left the loud crowds behind and were met by the steward. The elderly man was dressed in a thick fur coat like everyone else around here and quickly led the three brothers and the two foreigners inside.
Contrary to Osman’s castle’s interior and the Lori temple this place was not ascetic at all. Large beast skins decorated the walls and beautifully carved wooden furniture was put all around the place. Ceramic and porcelain vases with bouquets of dried flowers on shelves and tables reminded the onlookers that this region had some other seasons than the snowy and cold one currently outside. But compared to the Aurora’s palace, there were very few carpets on the floors. Obviously those were much rarer commodity around here or the practical people of the north simply considered it a waste to use such items in hallways.
After steward took YunYun’s, Oscar’s and Otto’s coats, and Nick’s jacket, they were led into a large hall with few small windows on one wall and, although there was a fireplace and few torches on the walls, most of the lighting here came from few beast core formations. Although the smoke from torches did smell a little, it made the atmosphere feel more cozy and the ventilation was good, thus it didn’t bother anyone.
At the furthest wall there were few armor and weapon stands where several beautiful and, probably, antique items were displayed and, alongside some beast pelts on the walls, made feel like this was a hall where hunters and warriors gathered to talk about their adventures.
In the middle of the hall there was a long, wide table with ten large wooden chairs around it. Similar to the rest of the furniture Nick saw so far, these also had beautiful carvings, mostly displaying wild beasts. Few silver candlesticks were put in between the silver tableware and it was obvious that the host had long been prepared for the event or managed to organize it incredibly fast. Either of options could suit the emperor therefore Nick didn’t think much of it.
Nick felt YunYun poke him and noticed her confusion when she saw the small windows that barely let any light in.
“People use smaller windows in the north because it helps to preserve the precious heat inside. The thin glass can’t compare to the isolation the thick walls provide.” Nick said and the three men behind him nodded. This was a common knowledge, but was foreign to the girl who had lived mostly in a warm climate.
“But why in Aurora’s palace the windows are much larger? They have winters there as well.” YunYun asked.
“The warm currents from the south make Aurora’s winters much milder, in fact, they had never such freezing temperatures. Therefore it had never been a serious concern.” Nick said, “Even though one could use large windows here as well without loosing much warmth, unfortunately people have not figured it out yet. It will take some time.”
While the first part of this short lecture was very logical and understandable, the only one who ‘blindly’ accepted the last part was YunYun. She had long gotten used to Nick’s intelligence and rarely questioned it. The three brothers were different though.
“What nonsense are you spouting? How can larger windows not loose more heat? It’s simply illogical!” The hot headed Oscar instantly became annoyed.
“Just because you don’t know how to do something it doesn’t mean other’s don’t know as well.” Nick smiled back.
“Alright. How would you do that? Or course, if it’s not some secret.” Oliver seriously asked.
“Actually it’s not that big of a deal. Do you know what common substance has the biggest resistance to the heat transfer?” Nick asked. He had to dumb down the explanation a little since this was not modern day physics lecture and didn’t wait for anyone to answer, “The air! You use the air as isolation to prevent the warmth from leaking out and the cold from getting in.”
“That doesn’t make any sense. If it was like you say, outside would never be cold.” Oliver said.
“Your train of thought is correct and incorrect at the same time.” Nick said, “Because it is the way I described, the whole world is not in a constant heat or constant cold. Let’s leave that to the side. I suggest you try an experiment and if it works, you can enjoy the next winter in a room with plenty of natural lighting.”
He went over to the table and pulled a chair to a side.
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“Imagine the back of this chair is a window glass. You put another one next to it, approximately fifteen centimeters apart.” Nick used another chair and put their backs at a short distance to display how the windows should look, “I can guarantee you that your rooms will be twice as warm if you use windows like this even if they are triple the size of the current ones. Not only that – you will burn less firewood to keep the place warm as well.”
Seeing the confused faces that screamed disbelief, Nick said, “It doesn’t matter if you believe me. It’s your butt freezing and not mine. If I were you, I would simply test it out – not like you can’t afford it, right?”
He smiled cheekily at the end. From the moment they entered the castle he finally guessed the identities of these three and understood why they were so ‘resourceful’. And what happened next only proved that.
Three ladies, dressed in long, thick dresses and their hair gathered in beautiful long braids stormed in as if this was their own home. They had the tall build and the large bone structure similar to the other women Nick had seen in the north, but were much more beautiful than the average girl one could meet on the streets.
The first one, probably the leader of the trio, with large strides came in front of Oliver and slapped him heavily on his chest. The latter, despite his remarkable Qi master skills, didn’t even try to evade it, but accepted the ‘punishment’ clenching his teeth.
“You bastards! If it was not enough for you to drink yourselves in taverns to death, out of boredom you decided to brutally assault innocent guests of our capital?” The first one almost shouted. The best three brothers could currently do was stare at their feet and stay silent. Although inside they screamed ‘what assault?’ and ‘what innocent?’ - the kid wasn’t any weaker than them, but they knew it would be a grave mistake to even utter a word in these circumstances.
The angry lady suddenly turned towards Nick and YunYun and her expression completely changed, “I’m sorry you had to see this and I’m sorry those three put you through all of that. My name is Maja and I’m cursed to be Oliver’s wife. This is Klara and Astrid – the poor souls who became wives of the other two drunkards.”
Although Nick had never heard introduction like this before, he did his best to keep himself together and suppressed the urge to hysterically laugh, “Nice to meet you, I’m Nick, this is YunYun.”
The three ladies obviously just came from the arena – their rosy cheeks were the proof of that, but, contrary to all the other spectators, they didn’t enjoy the event at all. Last night Nick already had a hunch the three brothers were not the first day in the tavern and Maja’s words now only confirmed it.
“Please don’t be that hard on them – they were set up.” Nick tried to ease her wrath.
“If they weren’t drunk they would’ve thought of that themselves!” Maja argued and then turned to YunYun, “It’s good that your man can’t drink! Otherwise you had the same trouble I do!”
YunYun looked back at her blinking her beautiful eyes in confusion. Why would she had such problems? Neither her mother nor her sister had any.
“Be as it may, it was a great spar. Don’t tell me you didn’t enjoy the show at all?” Nick said.
“Hmpf!” Maja snorted, “The part where you whipped their asses was good!”
Nick sighed. There was no way he could reason with an angry lady.
Luckily two more people came in and the atmosphere instantly changed. The emperor, dressed in white leather armor, followed by his empress in a similar attire, entered the hall. Apparently the couple really liked this color and not only their coats were made of white fur.
YunYun’s eyes glistered. Other than her and Nick, this was the first couple she saw who wore clothing of similar style and it looked really nice. Even though they were an elderly couple, they obviously cared for each other and she hoped that hers and Nick’s relationship would age this admirable as well.
“Good. I see everyone has gathered and already acquainted, and we can directly start our meal.” Emperor said and beckoned at Nick and YunYun, “You two, come, sit beside us so we can chat meanwhile.”
Emperor sat at the end of the table on the main seat and his wife right next to him to his left. Nick and YunYun took the spots to emperor’s right and the rest sat around the table with the three dames sitting next to their husbands while giving them the ‘angry silent treatment’.
“Let’s introduce ourselves properly.” Emperor said, “As you heard, I’m the boss around here, emperor Ivar Alpin and this is my beautiful wife, Elsa.”
“Nice to meet you.” Nick smiled back, “I’m Nick and this is my fiancee, YunYun.”
“How do you like our capital?” Empress Elsa opened with a small talk. Her voice was deep, but very melodic and pleasant to the ear.
“It’s beautiful. But very different from the capitals we have seen so far.” Nick said.
“How many capitals have you seen?” Oscar couldn’t hold back and asked the logical question.
These two were really young, but Nick said it as if they were some elderly who had traveled the world. Although the question was logical, his wife immediately stomped on his foot and the poor man grimaced in pain. Apparently he shouldn’t have interrupted emperor’s conversation or simply she currently found him annoying.
“Let’s see. Aurora, of course, then Olava, but YunYun didn’t see much of it. Then we were in Xian, but at that time I didn’t have much time to enjoy the sights, although we did spend few days there. Afterwards we traveled to Selva where prince Andew showed us around and then went to Moira, but there we mostly went out at night and only spent one day observing the central temple.” Nick reported.
The eyes of most people around the table grew almost to the size of the silver plates that lie in front of them. Even emperor was surprised by what Nick said, but for different reasons.
Seeing his reaction, Nick continued, “You didn’t expect me to lie to you, emperor, did you? I respect your intelligence and don’t intend to insult it.”
“Hahaha!” Emperor laughed, “Good! You guessed it correctly. I came late because I checked on some older reports. You are way too eye catching to be some random nobodies, young master Nick and princess Li Yun.”
Since the eyes of the other people around the table couldn’t enlarge anymore, their jaws dropped wide open with the shock increasing. Of course, that was the reaction of the three brothers and their wives. Empress mostly sat with the same slight smile and YunYun was not surprised at the emperor’s knowledge at all since she knew her mother also would’ve ordered extensive background check on anyone suspicious.