It was only when they had actually entered the city did Amanda, Emily, and Lizzy fully understand that Maria’s underground secret city was incredibly huge. The city actually had 3 levels. The upper level, which was visible from when they were descending from the surface inside of the elevator, the level below that, which was something like the ‘inner’ city, and the lowest level, which was still mostly under construction.
They had arrived at the inner city area and they needed to take a separate elevator to head to the upper level. A city of this scale required a lot of gold and human resources for its development, but even until now, Maria had been able to keep it all a secret, even from most of her subordinates and those she trusted completely with her nation’s secrets.
This was a secret project that not even Carmilla or Elizabeth knew about. Maria was going to tell them about it once the entire city was complete, so for now, only she, her friends, a very select few of her subordinates, the dwarves, and anyone who was working on the project knew about its existence.
She didn’t know why she was keeping it a secret, but Maria had a gut feeling that she should and there was also an element of excitement and mystery in keeping such a project a secret from everyone.
At the start, the Undercity was only just a project that Maria did because she thought it was cool and she wanted to help out her vampire residents who couldn’t tolerate being out in the sun during the day, but now it had become a much larger and more important project. There were so many advanced magic technologies implemented into the city’s infrastructure that it was actually the Dire’s true capital city instead of Transylvania.
Many of the advanced structures and blueprints that she obtained during the course of her gameplay had been used in the Undercity, so there were a lot of unique buildings here.
While there were still a lot of unique buildings in Transylvania, the Undercity had more of them, so this said a lot about the amount of resources Maria had put into the development of this secret city.
If she hadn’t kept this place a secret and recruited a lot more workers, the city would’ve long since been completed, but since she wanted to keep it a secret, its completion would take a longer amount of time due to the limited number of workers here.
Maria guided her friends around the city’s upper level and let them take in the sights it had to offer. Amanda, Emily, and Lizzy were truly mesmerized by the city’s uniqueness because it was something that they could never see even in the real world.
“Finally, this is what the game’s supposed to be like! There shouldn’t be any modern stuff here like there is on the surface city!” Lizzy exclaimed as she raised her hands into the air. "Even it ain't fantasy stuff, but at least it's sci-fi!"
“Pipe down, Liz. You’re making all of the people here stare at us! Also, you’re embarrassing Maria right now. Her citizens must be thinking ‘why does her Imperial Highness–or something–have such a weird friend?’ Is that the kind of image you want Maria’s people to see us as? Her weird friends?” Amanda said as she tried to restrain Lizzy from acting out anymore embarrassingly than she already was.
“Ahh, come on. I’m sure I’m not the only one who is thinking like this! I bet anyone else who saw this Underground city would think the same as me! I bet you guys do too, right?!”
“We do, but we’re not voicing out our thoughts as embarrassingly as you are. You’re causing a scene in the middle of the city and making us become a spectacle.”
Lizzy looked around and after she did, she began scratching her head apologetically and embarrassingly once she saw that her friends’ words were indeed right. A lot of the workers nearby and ordinary people that were passing through had stopped what they were doing and were looking over at them.
Maria had been stifling her laughter earlier but she suddenly began bursting into a fit of giggles and tears after seeing her friend’s incredibly embarrassed expression that made her face go all red.
“Kukukuku, now I can finally say it! Man, you sure are a bumpkin, Liz!” Maria said in between her giggling.
“Oh, shut it. You’re used to this kind of scene, but for me, this is the first time I’ve seen such a place. You put this on the surface and everyone would be reacting the same because it’s such an incredible city, but then you add the underground factor, it becomes all the more amazing!” Lizzy exclaimed as she tried to justify her earlier outburst.
The girls began moving again as they continued their tour and all 3 of her friends couldn’t help but continue being inwardly or outwardly amazed at the things in the city.
“How did you even think about doing any of this?” Amanda wondered, while Lizzy turned towards Maria and directly asked her, “Be honest, you had one of your subordinates draft the city’s blueprints, right?”
The person who answered Lizzy’s question was a voice that came from behind them. “No, my Lady. It was all Her Majesty’s idea.”
“Hm?”
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Maria walked over to Danor, a bit surprised at how fast he got here to the Undercity, and said, “Hey there, Danor. I’m surprised you came here so early after I sent you that message.”
“It’s only natural that I respond to your summons post-haste, Your Majesty,” Danor said matter-of-factly before bowing and asking, “Your Majesty, how can I be of service?”
Before Maria could answer, Lizzy came over and praised her, “Dang, I can’t believe you’re really the one who thought of all this. I can understand the surface city, but this place as well? You’ve certainly outdone yourself this time, Mary!”
“Yeah, I guess you’re right,” Maria said with a thoughtful expression before continuing after a short pause, “Well, my genius knows no bounds when it comes to making people amazed at me.”
“Gross. Stop being so narcissistic.”
“I can’t help it, I’m just that great! Hahaha!”
Amanda looked at her friend with an amused smile and said, “...She’s changed a lot, hasn’t she?”
“Definitely. She’s more outgoing and easier to get along with now. If only she could bring this side of her to the real world. I bet she’d make a lot more friends,” Emily said as she agreed with Amanda.
After bantering a little bit more with Lizzy, Maria finally turned towards Danor, who was inwardly shocked to see a different side of his usually cold-mannered and stoic Empress. He quickly perked up as Maria’s attention was turned to him and received her orders, or rather, her question.
“Danor, how long will it take to complete the Undercity if we continue at this pace?”
“Hmmm, I’d say another year, Your Majesty. After all, we did just add the lowermost level only recently,” Danor answered after thinking for a moment.
“Another year, huh? Well, that’s fine, but how are our defenses holding up against those underground monsters?”
“They’re doing well, Your Majesty. Recently, we just had a breakthrough with our defensive technology. We finally figured out how those underground creatures track us down and we’re using that to add a homing effect on our cannons’ attacks!”
“Oh, that’s good! Now defending the city against those elusive creatures has gotten easier?”
“Yes, and thanks to this breakthrough, we’ve also managed to create a radar that can effectively detect their presence from a long distance so we can now implement the early warning system that you’ve always wanted, Your Majesty.”
“That’s awesome!” Maria was excited when she heard that but then realized something else, “Oh, wait! Now that we have a radar, doesn’t that mean we can proceed with the exploration?”
“Yes, we can do that. I meant to report this directly to you today, Your Majesty, but since you had something very important to take care of, I decided to postpone it for another day once you finished your business,” Danor said.
“I see.”
When Lizzy heard something about an exploration, she immediately smelled something fun about it so she walked over to Maria and wrapped an arm intimately around her friend’s waist before leaning in and asking, “Mary~ what’s this about an exploration? Are you going to explore the underground or something?”
Maria turned to Lizzy and quickly noticed that she had changed gears all of a sudden. She knew that whenever Lizzy was like this, she’d become a persistent mule that would continue asking for something until she obtained what she got, so Maria didn’t hide anything and replied truthfully, “It’s as you’ve said, I’m planning on exploring the underground soon with an expedition team I’m setting up.”
“Oh!”
Lizzy’s eyes were sparkling and Maria could see that her other 2 friends seemed to also be interested, so she asked, “Do you guys want to come?”
“Yes!”
“Sure.”
“Since you’ve asked, okay.”
Three immediate responses came and Maria began giggling again, “Wow~ that sure was fast.”
Amanda and Emily cleared their throats and began looking elsewhere, while Lizzy was the only shameless one that began asking for the details.
“Let’s talk about it at my underground palace. This is hardly a topic to talk about while we’re in the middle of the road.”
Maria dismissed Danor, who quickly went back to work in Transylvania, while she and the girls moved to Maria’s underground palace, which was actually one of the large floating structures that was on the city's upper level.
“Woah, such a nice view!”
“Awesome, right? Unfortunately, I don’t spend too much time here, so it’s more of a decorative building for the city than it is my home.”
Lilah made them all a few cups of tea and snacks before Maria finally started.
“You guys are not to share this with anyone, alright? This is extremely confidential information and I’m only sharing it with you guys because you’re all my best friends.”
Seeing as her friend was suddenly all serious, Lizzy dropped her playful manner and responded in a serious manner as well, “Don’t worry, we won’t be saying this to anyone. You have our word, Mary.”
Amanda and Emily both nodded, which made Maria smile as she began explaining, “First of all, Vanhal is actually a world that has 2 faces. At least, that’s what I call it.”