As I stood in front of the gates of Oniphia, I was having conflicting feelings. I was in awe as I looked at the giant walls, even the outermost layer tall enough to create a claustrophobic feeling. It was hard to argue against the impressiveness of the city.

Yet, I was still disappointed. The more impressive the city was, the more it contrasted with the rest of the border, showing just how easy it would have been to build the rest up to a similar level. The more I learned about the world and the capabilities of magic, the more I realized just how much their traditionalism held them back.

I sighed. It was not a new feeling. Earth hadn't been too different in that aspect, just not as exaggerated. After all, back on Earth, the rich only had laws and traditions on their side, which restricted them … to a degree.

Here, the nobles had also managed to monopolize high-end magic, skills, and even personal prowess effectively, making the gap even bigger.

I shook my head, dispelling the gloom and replacing it with enthusiasm. Ultimately, a bigger city meant a larger gray area. My favorite playing field.

Too bad all eyes would be on me, too much attention to do anything worthwhile during my current trip.

I dismounted and walked toward the line, toward the soldiers manning the gate, ignoring the long line. "Hey, what are you doing—" someone tried to say, cut halfway as I hit him with a suffocating pressure on command field.

I might find nobles annoying, but as a high-ranking church official, I was expected to act similarly to keep people from underestimating me. The humility of Euon would have caused such a reaction, which would have been a pity after my spectacular display on the battlefield.

No one else interrupted until I reached the gate. The soldiers tensed as I approached, but I ignored them, turning my attention to the officer that moved to greet me. "Lord Steward. Welcome to Oniphia," he greeted as he bowed.

He was a minor knight working for the city lord, but even then, him greeting me at the gates was a significant show of respect. It didn't surprise me. We might be the city lord's enemies, but there was no official declaration due to the complex nature of the political intrigue.

And, I suspected that, even if there had been an official declaration, after my battlefield display, they would have been very careful not to insult me.

An army killer was no joke.

I just nodded along the stream of meaningless pleasantries delivered by the knight as he walked next to me, while four other guards followed us.

I was more interested in the way mana closed in around me as I passed the gate, recording my presence and linking it with the name-tag, making it difficult to move around with it. The protective measures weren't as bad as I feared, there was no city-wide detection field, for example. Still, there were enough arcs spread around the streets to have similar detection, checking my identity as I moved deeper into the city.

It made any infiltration attempt very difficult to pull off.

I had a talk with Zolast, about why the flying castles didn't have the same security measures. He explained to me that something in the castle's flying core interfered with most detection methods. A happy accident. Without that, I could never have escaped from Toross once the castle fell into corruption.

I took another deep breath, and focused on my surroundings instead. Magical or not, it was a city. Wide, crowded, bustling…

My adventures — both here, and back on Earth — often brought me to the wilderness. I could function there, especially after my enhancements, but that didn't change the fact that, ultimately, I was a creature of the city.

As people moved around, trading, shouting, bargaining, I felt a weight I hadn't even realized I had been carrying melt away, the chaos of the city finally allowing me to feel at home. It didn't matter whether people were shouting about TV deals or discounted mana stones.

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This was my world.

Of course, that didn't mean that the challenge was easy. Every city had its own heartbeat and secrets, and digging them up would take a while. Oniphia was not Town Maell or Town Yoentia, crowded with a rush of opportunistic third-rate operators that had no choice but to risk themselves in order to leverage their first-mover was an established operation. I couldn't just walk around and discover its true face.

It required effort. It required finesse. And it required risk-taking. Most of all, it required expertise.

Luckily, I had all of those in spades.

I started examining the outer ring of the city in more detail. It was fast moving and chaotic, with carts filled with various products moving back and forth, people loading them non-stop. My surroundings got filled with warehouses stores, most of them geared for wholesale. Though, everything that was on sale was vitality products, and with no sign of even a mana stone.

Every single one of them crowded to the limit, with people bargaining aggressively. After all, ultimately, Oniphia was the sole port in the region, and the recent growth of the region meant it was working to the limit.

The princess might have been blocked from accessing strategic, high-value products, but the same didn't apply to the baronies that were aligned against her, which meant a huge trade volume for the city. There were many such baronies in the region still.

Not for a moment, did I think that the three that attacked us were the only ones that were arrayed against the princess.

"An interesting place," I said to my escort. "Can we have a walk?"

"It would be improper, my lord. The city lord already arranged a time from his schedule to meet you," he said, looking distressed. I could imagine him receiving some strict orders in that regard. I could have pushed it, but I decided against it.

I was curious about exactly how the City Lord was going to greet me.

Soon, we passed through the second gate, which brought us to the middle layer, which, unlike the outer layer, was much calmer. The population was lower, but more affluent. Several workshops were already in my line of sight. Forges, wood shops, and other products, every single one of them magical if the wares that were displayed was any indicator.

It was clear that the workshops didn't have the scale necessary to support the region even before the proliferation of the dungeons, leaving it reliant on trade. A smart choice to dissuade some ambitious city lord from trying to overreach.

He wouldn't get dangerous ideas if he couldn't trade. And, since the royal family controlled the trade, it was a good way to maintain loyalty, showing that the royal family didn't just focus on the financial benefits of the trade.

Though, the amount of workshops wasn't the only difference. I could see that the middle ring occupants had better classes, and, overall, had better stats. It was hard to assess them from a glance, but I could confidently say that, other than a few children, everyone had cleared their second promotions, and a considerable minority cleared the third one.

It represented a mighty military force … one that didn't even bother stepping out even when the region was threatened by the cultists. What a waste.

I said nothing as the knight escorted me through the third gate, which finally brought me to the inner ring, once again different from the first two layers. The buildings were taller, made of mana-reinforced marble. There was much less movement, and most of the movement was military.

There was still some commercial activity … likely several times higher than the other two rings combined as far as monetary value was concerned, because the few stores I could see either had high-grade magic weapons on display, or skills.

Unfortunately, they couldn't be purchased without a significant hassle. At a distance, I could see a soldier exchanging not just money, but also several documents authorizing his right to purchase an Expert skill. Some distance away, a similar process was going on about purchasing a magic weapon.

The trade of high-value goods, the kind that was useful for — and could threaten — the noble houses was strict and limited.

"An interesting place. When may I get some trade quota for our church?" I asked. "I don't want to waste much time."

"I don't know, my lord. It's not my area of expertise."

I knew that already, but once I arrived at the inner ring, I could finally sense several observers watching me, and I wanted to show them my interest. It was for the best if they thought they knew what I wanted. "And whose responsibility is it?" I asked.

"It's the responsibility of the Royal Chamber of Commerce, my lord. They deal with the allocations of the various resources. I can arrange a meeting if you'd prefer."

"Doesn't matter. It's not critical," I said, letting just a sliver of nervousness slip out even as I said so. Not exactly the greatest subterfuge … but every fake story had to start somewhere to look convincing.

"As you wish, my lord," he said as he brought me to a large mansion, one that was reinforced with several dangerously powerful wards. "Would you prefer to meet with the city lord today, or should I arrange a room for you first?"

It looked like he had already forgotten about using the meeting as an excuse to prevent me from walking around the outer ring, which gave me some interesting inklings about their priorities.

"Let's meet with the city lord today. I'm a busy man."

"As you wish, my lord. I'm sure the city lord would have time in his schedule for such an exalted guest."