Chapter 51 - 50: The City of the Seven Powers

Chapter 51: Chapter 50: The City of the Seven Powers

Chapter 50: The City of the Seven Powers

The next morning, Noah followed the map until he reached one of the transport stations near the outer edge of the Academy. Charles had told him earlier about the roads and the caravans, but Noah wasn’t willing to spend a whole week on horseback just to save a few mana stones, on top of factoring in the possible risks. The Academy ran regular trips to a number of important areas beyond its borders, and among them was the market of the seven powers.

A long black carriage waited inside the station, and it reminded him of a train from his past life. Its length came to about three times an ordinary carriage, a row of narrow windows down each side, and there was no horse in front of it. Instead, several metal plates were fixed under its frame, faint magical lines covering them, and at the head sat a blue crystal the size of a fist inside a thick metal frame. The closest thing to it was maybe a steam train from the age of the industrial revolution.

Beside it stood a wooden board that read: Market of the Seven Powers — Academy.

Noah’s eyes paused on the price a moment. He had only five mana stones left. Even so, he drew out three and handed them to the official. If his plan worked, three stones would no longer be worth mentioning.

The official checked the metal Academy card, wrote something in a ledger in front of him, then waved him in.

There were more than twenty people inside the carriage. Most looked like Academy students, though Noah noticed two older men carrying sealed boxes and a woman wearing the badge of one of the Academy’s labs. No one paid him much mind. He picked a seat near the window.

The carriage moved off a short while later. There was no crack of a whip or sudden jolt like with ordinary carriages. The magical lines under the floor lit one after another, then Noah felt a low vibration running through the whole frame. A moment on, the scenery outside the window started sliding backward. Then it picked up speed.

The magic carriages were about twenty times faster than an ordinary horse in normal conditions. A trip that could take close to a week by caravan now needed only about eight hours, with no stopping to rest or feed the horses or spend the night on the road. For the time it would save him, three stones was worth it.

Noah spent the first part of the road watching the scenery outside, since this was the first time he’d traveled through the Academy’s outer grounds. The mountains dropped away bit by bit, then wide roads appeared, ones that looked kept up constantly for the sake of trade. The carriage passed several caravans through the day, and from inside, the ordinary carts seemed almost still for a moment before vanishing fast behind them.

They passed several checkpoints too. Nearly every time, the guards did no more than look at the Academy crest carved on the side of the carriage before raising the barrier. That caught Noah’s attention more than the road itself. The three stones hadn’t paid for the speed alone. They’d paid for passage as well.

As evening started to draw near, the carriage began to ease its speed. Noah expected it to stop before the city’s outer wall. But it crossed the gate through a private entrance and kept on until it reached the barrier of the main inner city. Each time, the guards looked only at the Academy crest before letting it through.

Noting the details and the huge entry signs at each wall, Noah started to understand how the city of the seven great powers was laid out. It was split into three enormous zones.

The outer zone wrapped around the whole city like a wide ring. It was packed with cheap inns, storehouses, craft workshops, caravan yards, food stalls, and long rows of modest residential buildings. Entry cost a single silver piece.

After that a larger wall separated the inner zone from the outer. One gold piece to enter. A hundred silver, in other words. The streets there were wider and the buildings better, and shops for weapons, magical materials, medicines, and other goods showed up, things no longer meant for the common crowd alone.

Then they reached the last wall. Far fewer people waited at its gates. This time the entry fee was no longer written in gold or silver. One mana stone.

Noah’s eyes stayed on the board while the carriage passed straight through the gate. No one asked the passengers to pay. The three stones he’d given the Academy had covered the whole trip, passage through every entry point included, and arrival straight at a station inside the core zone.

Noah leaned a little toward the window. This wasn’t the first time he’d seen a city split up this way. Charchal had been similar. Back then he’d thought it tied to the Charlemagne and their way of controlling the city. Now, he wasn’t so sure. Maybe all the great cities on the continent were built like this. Or maybe this was simply the way the noble houses preferred to organize their cities. The poor outside. The rich inside. And the ones who could use mana at the heart. He didn’t know whether it was better called a security arrangement, an economic one, or just an elegant class divide.

But from his view as a noble, this system suited him first and foremost. The rich didn’t like eating in lavish restaurants and paying steep bills for the quality of the food alone. Most of them saw the low-earners, the uneducated, the rough in manner, as disgusting things they didn’t even want to lay eyes on, things that might spoil the rare outings they had in their narrow free time.

The carriage finally stopped inside a wide station built from dark grey stone. Noah got off with the rest of the passengers. He didn’t look too surprised. The city wasn’t that different from the Charlemagne city, but unlike the Charlemagne’s inner and outer districts, this time, in the core zone, the place was strangely clean, rare trees and ornaments everywhere, while nobles and some mages walked around in fine dress. Spotting platinum crests and the odd low-grade mage now and then wasn’t strange at all here.

Even as night drew close, the movement went on in every direction. Carriages and carts arriving from different roads, workers pushing carts loaded with sealed boxes, nobles walking with guards at their side, and mages crossing the streets without anyone coming too close to their path. A low-grade mage was no more than someone passing through.

Noah slipped his hand into his pocket and felt what was left with him. Two mana stones. That was everything. He’d walked into one of the biggest magical markets on the continent with barely enough to rent a room in an inn. He was like an Asian migrant in Dubai, where the important thing to him was getting there and trying. It was almost laughable.

For some reason, that made him smile a little.