Entering the Capital
The throng massed before the gates was exactly what Catherine had guessed: a welcome the King of Seophon had prepared for Alfred.
Why the people inside the walls were cheering, though, remained a mystery. Even when they tried to catch the words, the near-shouts of welcome drowned everything out.
"Still, they're throwing flower petals. Doesn't look like anyone forced them into it."
"It's loud. Close the window."
"Yes, ma'am."
Once the window shut obediently, Catherine reopened her book. Judging by the capital's scale from the outside, they still had a long ride ahead; she clearly meant to fill the time with reading.
"This place is bigger than Coldon, but it doesn't smell like Borderster at all."
"Same reason as Coldon."
"Same as Coldon? So... sewers?"
As the thought left his mouth, Mary nodded. She pointed downward while packing the luggage she had loosened for the arrival.
"An ancient Palatino Empire sewer system built into catacombs as vast as the city itself. The people of the old empire were famously obsessed with cleanliness."
"Hmmm. But hasn't there been a city here for ages?"
"Not on this scale, but yes."
"And they still built sewers?"
Architecture was never simply a matter of raising buildings and calling it done. Even in the modern world, protests and complaints poured in before a single brick was laid. So what of old Pen Draig, where people were already living, when a new sewer system was forced in?
In a neighborhood where killing someone under the right conditions carried no guilt, the residents would have attacked the empire's builders without hesitation. Noise, property values—there were plenty of excuses.
"The opposition must have been insane."
"I wouldn't know about that."
"You two get curious about the strangest things."
Catherine cut into the quiet conversation between her two retainers.
"They designed the city as it stands today. Almost nothing has changed. More to the point, the very word 'catacombs' means underground tombs—it's Palatino Imperial, which is now the Serbianus tongue."
"Ah... so they world-treed the original city and its people?"
Catherine paused, swallowing a breath.
World-treed? What in the world.
"...What kind of description is that? The elves of Berseingeto would grab skewers and come running if they heard it."
"I meant they burned everything down and slaughtered the residents."
"...Let me correct two things first. They neither burned Pen Draig nor slaughtered all the residents."
"Oh. That's unexpected."
Even if Iceland's climate had later driven them half mad, any people who had once conquered island nations in antiquity ought to have been thoroughly warlike.
"I figured the Palatino Empire would have gone all-out the way they did when they burned the second World Tree during the conquest."
"No need. Berseingeto was mired in civil war at the time, so it cost them little effort."
Catherine regarded Karem's half-lidded misunderstanding, then shook her head as if she had given up on him.
"Never say that in front of a Berseingeto elf. Not unless you want a duel to the death."
"Hmm. How do you even tell Berseingeto elves apart?"
Aside from dark elves and gray elves, whose skin tones differed, he honestly could not tell them apart.
Reading his thoughts, Catherine jabbed a finger into his chest.
"So don't even think about it."
"A city bigger than Coldon, complete with catacombs and sewers. Their architecture really must have been something."
"Thanks to that, every city touched by the ancient empire is unusually clean for a city—but that doesn't mean there are no drawbacks."
"Drawbacks?"
He could imagine sewers backing up, but that was more a capacity problem than a true flaw.
"Catacombs, being vast and enclosed, are perfect breeding grounds for monsters. The sewers are the same."
Monsters breeding and spawning.
One possibility immediately came to mind.
"So... a dungeon?"
"Correct. As a reward, here is a shelled walnut."
Mary held out the kernel of a walnut she had cracked to quiet her restless hands.
"Not just rats, bugs, and stray dogs—slimes, undead, black dogs, kobolds, goblins, sahagin, orcs, and more all appear."
"Which is why adventurers of every stripe camp out in this city."
"Beginners come to build seed money; those with some skill come to hone their edge and instincts. Or so I've heard."
"Wanted criminals and madmen drawn in for every reason under the sun, plus bounty hunters and adventurers after mid- and high-tier monsters."
As the two retainers recited the various horror stories about the catacombs and sewers, Karem's face went blank with dismay.
Good grief.
A city that looked complicated yet smelled of nothing turned out to be that dangerous. In practice, the capital had been built on top of a dungeon.
And that city was the capital of an entire kingdom.
Yet if the capital was that dangerous...
Does it even matter?
A sudden memory from his previous life surfaced: a country that kept the entire population ready for total mobilization, where any real war began with the capital going up in spectacular flames.
Maybe it wasn't as dangerous as it seemed?
"No. It is dangerous. What am I even thinking?"
"It's obvious what you're thinking. It isn't quite as dangerous as you imagine."
Catherine waved a hand dismissively and turned a page.
"Well, it is a final destination for every sort of wanted criminal and madman, and mid- and high-tier monsters nest here for every reason imaginable, so it isn't risk-free either."
Scratch that thought.
It was dangerous after all.
"Stop fretting over nothing. The carriage is about to stop."
Mary was right; she had already finished packing, even neatly putting away the book Catherine had been reading.
In any case, Karem was a personal chef. He was also, as a bonus, a page, so he normally stayed at Catherine's side with Mary.
And Catherine was an archmage.
Any danger present simply ceased to exist around her.
The moment he stepped down from the carriage, however, every thought of sewers and quasi-dungeon catacombs vanished completely.
The castle at the heart of the capital, Pen Draig.
Winchester resembled Winterhome in Coldon.
Fitting a royal capital—and a city said to have felt the hand of the famous ancient Palatino Empire—its clean lines and lavish ornamentation left a strong impression.
Tall spires of differing heights that looked nearly impossible to assault, complex walls linking spire to spire, and a royal keep in the center as tall as the towers themselves.
Karem offered Catherine his hand to help her down, then blinked rapidly as he took in every corner of Winchester.
"What are you staring at?"
"Nothing. Just... it looks like Winterhome?"
Catherine firmly dismissed the castle servants who tried to help, watched Mary work alone for a moment, then glanced over Winchester.
"My lord used to stay in the inner castle of Pen Draig. After he grew close to the King of Seophon he moved into Winchester, so perhaps that influence shows."
"Now that you mention it, the layout is similar to Coldon."
Outer castle, inner castle, main keep, and underground sewers.
The broad structures of the two cities were carbon copies.
"Coldon feels a bit more systematic, though. No—I should say Pen Draig's layout is similar to Coldon's."
A sudden doubt struck him.
"Why did we come all the way into the royal castle, anyway?"
"You're only wondering about that now?"
Catherine asked with an incredulous look, but he could hardly help it. The sight of Winchester had stolen his attention; nothing else had registered.
The outsiders hired as escorts had apparently been dismissed at the outer castle.
Most of the remaining guards were staying in the inner castle, so the duke's party that had entered the royal keep itself was only a handful.
Including them.
"Duchess Atanitas. Allow me to show you to your rooms."
Unable to overcome Mary's stubborn refusal of help, the steward dismissed the servants and led them through the castle. Eyes followed them wherever they passed.
"Mary. Let me take some of that."
"It isn't particularly heavy."
"Which means absolutely not."
They crossed the courtyard and gardens into the main keep. After climbing stairs and walking corridors until a faint pressure settled into their calves, the steward stopped.
"These three rooms, with the one assigned to Duchess Atanitas in the center, are yours to use."
They saw the steward off as he took his leave. Mary carried the luggage she still held into Catherine's room first.
"Certainly. A room worthy of a palace—plenty to clean."
Mary's words meant the room was extremely large.
And she was exactly right.
Compared with anything he had seen in Winterhome, the wardrobe, desk, vanity, and other fine furnishings, the bed, and the crystal-clear glass windows were all far more luxurious.
"Hmm. The magic-stone lamps that light the room can adjust brightness by thought alone."
"Weren't magic-stone lamps the kind you clap or snap your fingers to turn on and off?"
"I understand they allow various customizations depending on the enchantment. And a lamp that adjusts brightness by thought... that is the highest difficulty of all."
Catherine's room was the finest, but the two flanking rooms were luxurious in their own right. The bathroom and bath, finished entirely in pure white marble, looked almost modern at a glance.
And above all...
"...What is this."
A modern toilet and sink.
A modern bathtub and shower.
"...Come to think of it, reincarnators are rare, but—"
Not nonexistent, Catherine had said.
Winterhome's bathroom and bath had held similar fixtures.
But unlike those elaborately decorated pieces, the ones before him were pure white ceramic—exactly the kind found in a modern bathroom.
I never thought I'd run into proof of other returnees here.
And of all places, in a bathroom.
Welcome recognition and pure absurdity collided so hard he could not speak.
"Karem Hubae? What on earth are you doing standing there staring into the bathroom?"
Mary's head tilted in the smooth, clear modern mirror, and he finally snapped back to himself. He locked the room with the key and returned to Catherine's chamber.
"Hmm? Why do you look so out of it?"
"I just confirmed physical proof of another reincarnator besides me?"
"Karem Hubae was looking around the bathroom and bath while grinning to himself."
Mary's report left Catherine equally at a loss.
Her face twisted into a strange expression.
"Bathroom? Bath?"
"It was identical to the bathroom from my previous life—like someone copied and pasted it."
He was not joking.
"Well, the real schedule starts tomorrow, so until then you're free."
"...Then I should go look over the kitchens."
Karem pulled out a chair to sit, then pushed it back in.
Unlike the rooms at the Obsidianberry hotel, these chambers had no kitchen in sight anywhere.
As a chef, he needed to see with his own eyes the workplace he would be using for a while. He also needed to grease the wheels so he could work comfortably.
"Ah. Perfect timing for a snack, too."
"I don't know about Kingsland in general, but we should be free to use the kitchens."
Karem asked Mary, whose eyes were already shining.
"Want to come check it out with me now?"
"Quite an enticing proposal."
"Then shall we go see just how fine and grand the royal kitchens are?"
"Not immediately, however."
Mary's reaction was not what he had expected.
"I need time to unpack my contractor's belongings and the rest of the luggage in each room, then finish up."
With that she immediately began cleaning.
Karem understood at once.
She must have been itching to get started.