Percy had never been in a city before, but the most recent events tormented his mind, diminishing the magnificent experience as they reached the closest city with a Portal.

The city was enormous. Its pristine walls stretched far and high, filling Percy’s vision with its grandeur. Yet, instead of looking at the six-meter-high walls surrounding the city, Percy entered the city through the massive gates. The men and women guarding the city gates greeted the caravan in an overly polite manner. That pulled Percy out of his train of thought.

I wonder if you guys would behave like that if nobody were a knight, noble, or Ego. Would you treat us with this exaggerated, fake friendliness?

He sneered inwardly and turned away. His time in the Wintermoon estate taught him a lot. Even if he felt more respected and valued in Raewood, Percy’s short life as an Ego in the village didn’t reveal much about the real world and the gap between nobles, commonbirth Egos, and knights.

Nobles were considered as the kingdom’s pillars of support for a reason. They were the strongest. Yet, Percy was unsure if giving them so much authority alongside the power they’d inherited was a good decision.

They might not be lazy and didn’t shy away from fighting the demons, but the personality of half the heirs sucks. And that is not even the worst… I can tell how their behavior – the sudden change of behavior – influences me. They treat me differently now that they have no clue whether I am an anomaly or some lost noble son. The sense of power to control and influence the nobles is…addicting.

Percy sighed inwardly as his thoughts tormented his mind. They traveled through the bustling city streets, which were said to have close to 100,000 residents. That was a considerable number, which Percy couldn’t even imagine. It was already hard to fathom what it would look like if 1,000 humans were to gather at one location, but 100,000?

Even though his Ego forced Percy to learn more about numbers to understand the value and price for each consumed object and each Ego-enhancement, Percy was more challenged imagining so many people in one city.

“It’s amazing, isn’t it?” Erik exclaimed next to Percy.

Erik was still seated on his Crimson Wolf, which stared at the horses pulling the carriage with uncontrollable hunger. It licked its lips, which scared the horses even more. Still, the coachman had everything under control. He was the best at his job.

“The city? It sure is. I wonder how strong I can grow in a city like this,” Percy responded, imagining opening a shop and earning a fortune with his Ego’s support.

“Is thinking about your Ego and how to grow stronger imprinted in your brain, or can you stop that?” Erik asked half-teasingly, half-seriously.

Percy shrugged, “The last few months of my life have been a dragon ride, and I only survived this long because I kept growing stronger. Maybe my goal is not as great as your vengeance and the desire to stop Monster Rampages before they can cause any more harm to villages like yours, but I want to survive. I encountered an Infernal Lair in the middle of nowhere, where no Infernal Lair was supposed to be. If not for the Glacia Knights, my village would be no more either. I was too weak to do anything too. That was when I decided to put more effort into growing stronger.”

He sighed deeply, “The incident in the Wintermoon estate showed me the dangers of the seven hells and that something is about to happen. I want to be prepared for it.”

Erik raised an eyebrow, but he didn’t say anything. He was known as the happy and optimistic brother, but his attitude right now was more like Tarlek’s seriousness.

“We arrived at the Portal, sir.” The coachman said politely, resulting in a silent curse from Percy.

Can you not behave like you did before?

Percy was distracted by the massive foundation located in the city center. Eight humongous pillars, obsidian-black and coated in countless silver lines – runic engravings – unfolded before him. The pillars were connected by the silver lines, which created a cobweb of engravings around the center of the foundation, where Percy found a large, silver shimmering ring. The ring was more than six meters in diameter and made entirely from the silver shining material that had also been used for the runic engravings.

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Percy made out several layers of silver runic engravings on top of the silver ring’s surface. [Hawk Eyes] helped him with that.

As the caravan approached the Portal, Melissa and some of her friends approached the guards. They exchanged a few words, and the guards bowed even deeper than the batch at the city gate. The guards turned to a cloaked man who retrieved a translucent orb. He channeled mana into the fist-sized rob, which activated the Portal.

The silver lines all over the foundation started glowing as they absorbed the surrounding mana. Percy twitched in surprise when the suctioning force reached him. It threatened to suck him dry for a moment, only to wash over him without doing anything. Percy sighed in relief and glanced over to the ring’s center, where mana gathered and compressed. Percy could only see it because the mana was so densely compressed it transformed into liquid.

The liquid mana stretched thin, forming a paper-thin mana membrane that covered the ring’s hollow interior.

The blue liquid membrane shifted slowly as the silver glow in the surrounding pillars diminished. The silver tone of the runic engravings dispersed, dying the mana membrane silver.

Imagines flickered in the silver membrane, revealing what was on the other side of it.

In the images, guards rushed closer, their bodies tense and weapons unsheathed.

“Did nobody tell them we would arrive soon?” One of the younger nobles nearby complained.

Percy ignored him and stared at the scenery unfolding in the images’ background. New details were added to the images, and it didn’t take long before the connection to the ‘other side’ was completed. Melissa approached the Portal and pressed her hand gently against the silver membrane. The membrane rippled, which resulted in a faint curse from a handful of nobles, but Melissa wasn’t bothered. Or she acted like it didn’t bother her.

“What’s the problem?” Percy asked, trying to understand what the problem was.

“The ripples are the problem. It means the Portal Guards do not accept our verification, sir.” The coachman explained, glancing into Percy’s utterly confused face before he continued, “The Portal Guards deny Lady Reeze’s identity. I sure hope this is only a misunderstanding, otherwise, heads will roll. Maybe some heads will roll even if it is a misunderstanding…”

The coachman swallowed hard while Percy’s attention averted back to Melissa. She tensed up but stepped through the ripples in the Portal nonetheless.

One or two surprised gasps resounded, but Percy ignored them. He focused on the images of the other side as they returned. The ripples were no more, revealing the massive structures in the background. However, the place Percy focused on the most was behind the oldest knight among the Portal Guards. It was a massive palace surrounded by acres of wood.

“Is there a forest in the capital?! Why in the seven hells would anyone kee—...” Percy couldn’t finish his sentence when the coachman grasped his shoulder tightly. He looked at Percy with terror in his eyes, “Please don’t speak like this, sir. The forest belongs to the royalty. Questioning their actions… I wouldn’t do that if I were you, sir. Please, for your sake…”

The coachman had more to say, but Percy waved dismissively at him.

“How about you calm down a little? I won’t talk badly about their little forest. But do you know why they keep the forest? It doesn’t look like a large piece of land compared to everything else, but isn’t it dangerous?”

The coachman looked like he was about to faint, forcing Percy to retract his question.

Is asking questions a taboo now, or what? What is going on in the capital or with this forest? Or the royalty if ordinary people are afraid to talk about them.

Percy shrugged and pointed at Melissa, who returned from the other side of the Portal. She waved in their direction, motioning the caravan to follow her as she turned around to step through the Portal once again.

The caravan jumped into action, and the small army of commonbirth Egos, nobles, and knights approached the Portal. They stepped through without hesitation, even though a glimmer of doubt flickered in the eyes of many.

It didn’t look like many had used the Portal before.

Percy was a little tense but remained seated in Lady Reeze’s carriage even as the horses disappeared from the portal. They were also dragged through the silver liquid, but the sensation was different than expected.

It was almost like a quick, disgusting shower as something slimy and wet washed over Percy. However, he didn’t get wet. The silver liquid washed over him, swallowed Percy, and spit him out on the other side.

That was disgusting…and a little, just a tiny bit, amazing.

Percy thought when he opened his eyes to the majestic sight of the Kainesh Kingdom’s grand capital!