Din no Monshou Din No Monshou Chapter 11

Chapter 11:  At the Imperial City

The Imperial City is surrounded by enormous castle walls, well-protected from any foreign attacks.
It’s to the extent of me wanting to say it out loud myself but the scale is large.
However, the reason to that was exceedingly easy.

Several hundred years ago, the entire continent seemed to be engulfed in a war.
That skirmish is well-known as 『The King Emperor’s War』.
At that time, the Kingdom was trying to fend off the invasion of the empire from the north resulting in a b.l.o.o.d.y all-out war.

Throughout the ordeal, these castle walls seemed to have defended this Imperial City.
If you have such a thick wall built, I think it would be hard for humans or even demons to break through the defence.
I’m convinced by it.

We left the central street and entered a street with many n.o.bles around.
Upon entering, a stately mansion could be seen up ahead for the purpose of welcoming the visitors.
That seems to be the place that we’ll be lodging at.

「Building a residence like this here&h.e.l.lip;.it’s a considerably bad thing to do, isn’t it.」
「What are you talking about Regis. The King is famous for being an upright and virtuous wise ruler. 」
「No but I’ve never seen a garden well-equipped with a fountain before. What kind of a super wealthy person is he.」
「The n.o.bles who will be performing in the duel will be staying here, don’t you know. 」
「Hou~」

From what I heard, this mansion is considered as the lowest valued residence in the Imperial City. On the other hand, I am someone who has the experience of stepping onto a creaking kitchen floor.

Seriously, just listening to the story makes me feel like hitting the wall.
I might be the only person who gets the impression of Din family’s warehouse resembling a superior looking property.
How would I ever expect to have this kind of reality shoved right into my face now.

I wonder what kind of life have the n.o.bles in the Imperial City been living.
Just learn the life of the common people. The life of the common people.
Although for the time being I am cla.s.sified as a n.o.ble too.
A ruined one though.

I tried to pa.s.s through the door.
As I looked behind, I caught sight of Shadiverga who was fixing the clothes.

「Eh, isn’t father entering? 」
「Aa, once we leave our luggage, we’ll be going to the Imperial Castle for the greetings. Since the one who will be mediating the fight is the royal family.」
「I see. We’ll be going there to lower our heads to the King. 」

I wonder if it is fine to go without bringing something like a box of pastries.
While I was pondering on useless things in my head, Shadiverga shook his head.

「There will be no way for someone like me to meet the King directly. I will be showing my face to the Minister for a while. 」
「Since we’re fallen n.o.bles. It can’t be helped. 」
「Yes yes. So how about it, Regis? Do you want to come along too? 」
「&h.e.l.lip;.Hmm」

I glanced at the Imperial Castle for an instant.
From the city I would need to pa.s.s through several gates and climb up quite a bit to reach the large castle located at the top of the mountain.
It will be too far to go by foot.

Even so, I don’t want to ride in a carriage anymore today.
I might be attacked by another wave of motion sickness again due to the effect of the semicircular ca.n.a.ls in my ears.
I’ll just hold myself back for now and possibly kill my time somewhere.

「No, I’m good. I’ll just go sightseeing in the city. 」
「I see. Looking around the central city is fine but just stay away from the n.o.ble district to the north side. 」
「Nn? Why is that? 」
「There are a lot of unreasonable n.o.bles there. We’re lucky we’ll be staying in the southern n.o.ble district instead. 」

Based on the conversation, there seemed to be two n.o.ble districts in this Imperial City.
The first one would be the southern n.o.ble district that we’re presently at.
It is the place where the lowest ranking n.o.bles to medium ranking n.o.bles stay.

The turnover rate is intense and the features are quite similar to commoner’s district as well.
Therefore, it’s an area that doesn’t have much exclusive characteristic.

On the complete opposite side, the n.o.ble district to the north is the one that has the worst characteristics.
It is the place where all the obstinate upper cla.s.s n.o.bles gathered.
Incidentally, Horugosu’s villa is apparently situated there too.
Durufu’s not seen anywhere here so he is probably on the north side.

I do not really want to meet him though.
If common people were to enter the n.o.ble district to the north, a felony would probably be imposed on them. That area is something like a totally different s.p.a.ce to the common people.
There could be n.o.bles who hold the authority to collect tax staying there too.

Such group of people might be oppressing the innocent people day in, day out in places that couldn’t be reached by the King’s eyes.
Indeed, ruling a country is seriously difficult.

「I understand. I don’t have the intention to go that far anyway. 」
「Alright, then it’s good. What will Walkins be doing then? 」
「Hmm. Should I be Regis-sama’s escort? 」

She is apparently still in an indecisive state.
I gently declined the offer of this girl.

「You don’t need to do that. I could tell that Walkins hasn’t been getting enough sleep lately. You have been keeping watch outside the carriage the entire journey too so you should take some time to rest now. 」
「You’re really kind, aren’t you, Regis-sama. Then I shall take you up on your kind offer—」

Walkins expression brightened up for some reason as she walked inside the mansion.
Moreover, she’s skipping.
If any other adult were seen behaving like this, it will definitely leave an indescribable feeling but somehow it feels natural when Walkins is the one doing it.
Possibly because she has a cheerful temperament.
And as expected she’s cute.

With her silky luxurious silver hair swaying rhythmically there, there seems to be a distinction gap with her simple looking servant clothing.
It seriously tickled my fancy.
It would be an impossible story not to give her a second glance.

「Then I’ll be going off, Regis」
「Aa, be careful on your way」
「I’ll do that even without you reminding me. 」

*Bi* Shadiverga raised his thumb up.
I’m only saying this judging from Durufu’s notoriousness. We couldn’t deny the possibility that Shadiverga might be attacked by him.
But, the route from here to the castle are bustling with people so it would not be a suitable place used for a.s.sa.s.sination.

If their insolence came to light in this Imperial City, they would be the one most troubled by it.
I guess I shouldn’t need to worry about it.

I left the mansion and visited the central city.
Both Walkins and Shadiverga have always been working really hard so I want them to take a rest once in a while.
I’ll just go shopping in the meantime.

Since I’ve come all the way to the Imperial City, there should be magic books here that weren’t sold in the province.
Should I try searching in the magic shop and purchase a few back?

As I was thinking of it, I wandered around the central city for some time but I wasn’t able to locate any magic shops around.
Majority of the shops here are mostly armor shops and general stores.
There is no other choice.
I gave up searching for it myself and decided to try asking the man who seemed to be tending for the general store.

「Excuse me. May I know if you could tell me the location of the magic shop? 」
「I don’t mind it but&h.e.l.lip;&h.e.l.lip;you, are you a n.o.ble? 」
「Yes, for now. 」

That man took a look at my clothing for a moment and nodded once.

「Then it should be fine. There is a magic shop located closest to the north district. There are many strange ones there so be careful.」
「&h.e.l.lip;&h.e.l.lip;north side is it. Thank you for the information. This wouldn’t be much but I’ll be getting a knife please. 」
「Thank you as always. 」

I bought a small knife for the purpose of hunting demons.
I do have one already but it wouldn’t be much trouble to get another as spare since I have earned a considerable amount of money from my ghost-writing and agent business.

Nevertheless—this knife.
It looks quite similar to the knife that Shadiverga has.
The similarity is so close that you wouldn’t be able to tell the difference just by one glance.
It’s cheap but it has the appearance of a first cla.s.s goods.

The path ahead appeared to be smooth sailing.
But the main problem is the location of the shop.

It’s located close to the north district at the shopping street in the vicinity.

There should be discriminations against common people there.
That said, I shouldn’t need to be afraid of it since my current status is a n.o.ble.
It might just give me an unpleasant feeling though.

「&h.e.l.lip;&h.e.l.lip;well whatever. Let’s think about it as I go. 」

Shadiverga might not be taking that much time in just showing his face to the Minister too.
We did not come all the way here just for fun after all.
We have placed aside our own territory’s work just to come to the Imperial City.
It’s quite a concern actually so I hope that we would be able to end this early and return as soon as we can.

While I was making my way to the north side, I was suddenly concerned of Sefina’s condition.

As I got closer to the northern district, I felt myself getting enveloped in a different kind of atmosphere.
It’s a place where those arrogant n.o.bles could be seen swaggering along the main street.
On the other hand, the common people would be sneaking by the edge of the road to pa.s.s through this place.

In a country’s population, the distance among the n.o.bles and the commoners will usually be quite close&h.e.l.lip;.
However, it seems to be the opposite in the Imperial City.
It’s seriously an excellent ruling cla.s.s.
The n.o.bles are completely looking down on the common people.

The shops owned by the n.o.bles here are seemed to be publicised extensively.
Based on their conduct, the common people appeared to be different than the n.o.bles.

As they are afraid of incurring the wrath of the n.o.bles, they usually start up their shops inconspicuously.
Since it would be unpleasant for me to be involved with those n.o.bles, I used the commoner’s route and walked along the edge of the road.

Just a little to the north, I will soon be reaching the northern n.o.ble district.
The magic shop that I was aiming for is located there.

If you were to ask if the magic shop is run by the n.o.bilities or the common people, it was definitely the latter.
I pushed aside the curtain and went inside.

「Ya, welcome. 」

Upon entering I was greeted by a girl roughly below the age of 20.
Red hair and a dauntless feature.
Her long hair was extended down to her waist and her composed beautiful face seemed to emanate a radiant glow.
The most prominent characteristic was her jet black mantle that would make ones’ eyes drawn into it.

「Judging from your clothes, are you a n.o.ble-san? Has good luck finally fallen upon my shop’s doorstep today? 」

She struck a triumphant pose right in front of my eyes.
She’s somehow an over-familiar person, isn’t she?
However, for some strange reason I don’t feel annoyed by it.

If anything, she’s friendly.
It felt sarcastic but it didn’t feel malicious at the same time.
Before she could continue, I shot her a question, interrupting her.

「How far are the Thunder Magic Books that you have available? 」

When I was asking her how far, I was actually referring to the levels.
The magic book that I had previously was the 『Expert Edition』.
However, in the last 5 years, the kingdom has promulgated the revisions of the magic books in large-scales.
Consequently, the standard ended up changing a little too.

Magic Researchers and Magic Experts have since then invented new spells one after another.
Because of that, the revisions of the magic books were done periodically at once.
By the way, after the changes were made through the previous law, the magic that we have now is considered to be one level lower.

Based on the current standard, the old 『Expert Edition』 is the same as the current 『Advanced Edition』 .
The old 『Intermediate Edition』 is equivalent to our current 『Lower Cla.s.s Edition』.

So the best fire magic that I have learnt, 『Astral Fire』 is also listed under 『Advance Edition』.
This is because the amount of magic consumption is enormous but the incantation and learning degree is not really difficult.

By the way the degree of difficulty in learning 『Mega Telepathy』 is still fairly high so it is still listed under 『Expert Edition』.
The magic book that I was using when I was training with Walkins previously was the one before the revision was done.

That was the reason why I wanted to get the current updated magic book instead.

Magic Book Level:

Expert
↓
Advance
↓
Intermediate
↓
Lower Cla.s.s