Solera tried to continue on the conversation for sometime, but naturally it fizzled out. He sighed, gazing outside the carriage. They were outside of the Grove now, so the fields had been replaced with endless forests. The reindeer was running next to the royal highway. The highway was paved with cobblestone, but on each side of the highway would be eight meters of grassy dirt for animals such as the reindeer to run on. Every several kilometers, Solera would see a small village in the distance, with houses constructed from dead wooden logs.
Occasionally, he could see messenger imps and birds flying through the skies. These birds were part of Eden’s royal transportation service. Officials usually used them, but adventurers and merchants could also pay to ride atop them, if they were in a hurry. Of course, some of these birds could also be the monsters of a summoner!
Behind him, he could hear Pinot chatting to her friends.
“I like sunshine, and I also like moonshine too, but the Halo shine is the prettiest. I like it more than sunshine and moonshine,” she was saying.
Solera looked up at the Halo, a light blue ring hovering in the sky. The sun, the moon, and the stars changed their position, but the Halo never did. It hovered over the north pole, glimmering with bright light.
“Of course!” Merlot said from two rows back. “The Halo is the castle of the Siehnti Ents, who were left behind by the Ancients to protect us! If you liked the sun or the moon more, that would be horrible!”
“Not this again!” Pinot huffed. “You’re always talking about your Halo stuff!”
“You’re not even right.” Another girl, Cassady, sniffed. “What’s the Halo protecting us from?”
Solera rolled his eyes. He was the very definition of not social, yet he had heard this argument a million times between over a million people. People really liked to argue over religion and mythology.
“The Titans, the Immortals, the Locusts, the Psychals, the Makers and their Drones-”
“That’s not right.” Cassady said. “The Ancients killed them all, and then made this land. How can your Siehntients protect us from something the Ancients already beat?”
As the argument raged on, Solera turned back to Chianti. “Hey, do you believe in the Halo?”
Chianti glanced up at the Halo, before smirking at Solera. “Well, it’s right there. How can I not believe in that?”
Solera was flustered. “Well, I mean-”
“Not really.” Chianti shook her head. “I don’t believe in the Ancients, either. But Halo Blessings are very real. One Blessing landed in Sundan, causing a huge battle to break out between experts from the Bloodsand Dominion, Sundan, the Pantheon, and the Chen Clan. Even the bandit leader of the Threeclaw Mountains gave it a shot.” She laughed. “I was on duty in Spirit Woods back then, so I couldn’t personally watch, obviously. In the end, an expert from the Pantheon got it.”
“Oh.” Solera was not sure what else to say.
“The Blessing was a small rod of some sort. Nobody can figure out how to use it still.” Chianti laughed. “A lot of people died trying to get it, too. Last I heard, it was given to the king of Opportunity as a wedding gift.”
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“Okay.”
They lapsed back into silence. After a while, Solera got tired of gazing at the endless landscape of trees and dozed off. When he woke up, the sun had nearly finished setting. A pungent odor filled his nose.
Solera looked at his surroundings and blinked. The environment was no longer the deciduous trees near the Grove, but rather a lush jungle, teeming with chittering animals and tropical plants. The air around them was hotter, as well. The reindeer was running through black mud, which had splattered all over its legs.
Covering his nose, Solera turned to Chianti, who was reading a book. “Is this Peat city?”
Not looking up from her book, Chianti nodded. “Yup. Stinks, huh?”
“Yes.” Solera said, grimacing.
“They bury dead bodies from all over the continent here.” Chianti said. “The bodies turn into power-infused tar, which can be used to make a lot of things. The expandables you’re using are made out of tar.” She laughed. “I wonder if any of that used to be alive.”
Solera looked at his backpack with wide eyes. It had an inky green color, and was smooth to the touch. How could it possibly be made from dead bodies?
“Well, there’s a big marketplace here. I needed to go shopping, so this is a pretty great time for me.” Chianti smiled.
Solera nodded, sinking back into thoughtful silence. Peat city was the closest city to the Grove, a mere six hundred kilometers away! Every season, the Grove would sell its highest quality produce in Peat city’s vast marketplace to merchants who would pay high prices for foods with denser concentrations of power, for resale to adventurers going on expeditions into Spirit Woods. It was supposedly a huge source of revenue; Solera had heard of Peat city many times. Only, he had not expected it to smell so bad. Why would people do business in such a dump?
Another hour passed, and Peat city finally came into view. A short wall appeared, no more than thirty meters tall. Behind it, Solera could see marble buildings, sanded by the wind and dirtied by the dust. There were no fancy high-rises or gleaming towers, only these old-fashioned stone structures. Peat city had existed for a very long time, and it showed in its architecture. The city gate, five meters tall, wasn’t even able to take the reindeer in.
The children dismounted, taking their baggage along with them. Chianti stretched for several minutes as they waited. After twenty minutes, a troupe of soldiers came to take them into the city. They walked down the streets, passing block after block of orderly stone houses, each only two stories tall.
“We’ll be staying the night here at this villa, guys.” Chianti announced to the children in front of a gated courtyard. “This is a military outpost, so you all better behave!”
Inside the walls were three long, four-story buildings forming a U shape around the entrance. The middle of the courtyard was barren. Clearly, it was used as a training ground for troops.
“Your rooms are in the West Wing,” Chianti said after consulting with an official. “There’s still some time before the sun sets, so if you guys wanna go shopping with me, be back here in the courtyard in fifteen minutes!”