Reincarnated as a Son of the Sword Saint and the Sage

328  On Their Way to the City n/ô/vel/b//in dot c//om

Five supremely luxurious carriages marched in the middle of an unnaturally wide road. In one of those carriages, the emperor of the Dixon Empire was blankly looking at the road from the window. The Empire of Dixon had set up a state visit to the latest dungeon city on the continent. To his surprise, the road was so wide that the nearest tree could be found as far as more than two hundred meters from those carriages. The sun was about to set, so the street lamps in the middle of the road had been lit. The street lamps also separated the northbound and the southbound. Due to the vastness of the road, the attacking monsters were easily spotted, and they were instantly subdued by the powerful imperial knights. Only monsters below Level 100 could enter the road, as there were devices that repel monsters installed along the road. Not only was the road wide, but the evenness and compaction of the ground put all the dirt highways on the continent to shame. But even if the road was rough, the magic items of the carriages could make the vehicles run comfortably stable. The total length of the road alone was absolutely marvelous and seemingly impossible to become reality within a relatively short period of time. But even the emperor himself could believe the Raevender family was able to make it possible. (A city inside the infamous Great Forest of Darkness, huh... The supposed capital of their proposed Queendom of Raevender.)

The emperor, Jeffrey Dixon, pondered inwardly as he was staring outside with his elbow placed on the window frame while resting his left cheek on its knuckles. The convoy had been on the road for more than a week, so the emperor was kind of bored seeing, particularly, nothing but trees. "—Your Imperial Majesty, we are only five kilometers from the city." "Oh, yeah?" In the middle of his pondering, a voice reminded Jeffrey that they were getting close to said city. Inside the vast interior of the carriage, a space several times larger than magic carriages, Jeffrey turned his head and faced the man who owned that voice and was sitting at the front seat across a low table. Inside the emperor's carriage, which was in the middle of the column, there were three other individuals alongside Jeffrey. One of them was the slicked-back, white-haired seventy-year-old man who snapped him back, the Prime Minister of the Empire, former Duke Fleder Bruce Fleder. "Did I perhaps distract your sightseeing, Your Majesty?" "No, Bruce. I should be thanking you for that." "If you say you, Your Majesty," Bruce nodded his head once. "But what do you think about the information that our envoy has gathered from the city? Do you think that city, no, that dungeon, is probably bigger than in the empire?" When Bruce brought up that topic, Jeffrey's laid-back expression suddenly turned serious. The other two in the carriage sensed it, and they immediately straightened their backs, preparing themselves to join the conversation.

A few weeks ago, a few days after the Raevender Marquisate appealed for their independence, Jeffrey decided to go to the city and see it with his own eyes, therefore setting up a formal state visit. An envoy was then sent to the said city to inform the Raevenders about the arrival of the emperor. The envoy was not only to relay announcements but also to collect as much information about the city as possible. When he came across the convoy a week ago, Jeffrey and the others were shocked by the details he told them. "If what he said was true, then the dungeon that they discovered and conquered holds more floor than what the first emperor had captured." "The details are quite far-fetched, but he is one of the empire's best scouts," Bruce said as he was rubbing his beardless chin. "So he cannot just tell us exaggerated statements." "A city with pitch-black walls as high as fifty meters, which is undoubtedly higher than the thirty-five-meter walls of the Imperial Capital. The city is apparently surrounded by walls as far as five kilometers from the center. And most of all, it is reportedly said that it has two walls." "Not just walls, Your Imperial Majesty, but those indestructible black walls." "Indeed, Gilbert." The one who chimed in was a robust man who sat next to Bruce. He was Gilbert, the guildmaster of the Adventurers' Guild. As the head of an international organization, Gilbert was invited by the emperor to join them on the visit. "That city has two of those walls—not a man-made structure but a feature of the dungeon itself." After that, Jeffrey turned his eyes to everyone in the carriage and found them seriously attentive to him before he continued his words. "This is supposed to be a secret, but I will reveal it to you. Depending on the size of the dungeon, each dungeon has Perks or features. Dungeons with forty floors or more can erect an Inner Wall on the surface, just like the Imperial Capital and the city of Richtpole. However, if the Raevender Dungeon, that's what they called it, really had a second wall, that dungeon must be larger than the imperial one. Given the dimensions of the city and the walls, I could assume that the dungeon has a hundred floors." "..." As soon as Jeffrey was done with his sentences, the interior of the carriage instantly fell into silence, and they were left dumbfounded. Throughout their lives, they believed that the Imperial Dungeon was the biggest dungeon ever found. But if what the emperor just said was true, it would affect the image that the Empire of Dixon had been upholding for almost a millennium. "Pardon me, Your Imperial Majesty, but it is just speculation, right?" The one who asked Jeffrey was the one sitting next to him, Gavar, the emperor's bodyguard. After the deflection of the Raevender Marquisate from the empire, Gavar was currently the empire's strongest, jumping from the fifth spot. "It is not speculation, Gavar. The height of the walls and the area of the plain above the dungeon are proportional to the size of the dungeon. The scholars have studied the dungeons around the continent and confirmed this theory. So the Raevender Dungeon is likely to be a hundred-floored dungeon." "But the question is, doesn't that make the Raevender family a potential threat to the empire's interest? Considering the location of the dungeon, which is full of resources, that city might rival the Imperial Capital or even surpass it economically someday." When Bruce pointed that out, Jeffrey stared at the window, thinking as he looked at the vehicles and people coming to the city. The Raevender Dungeon was located in the largest forest on the continent, the Great Forest of Darkness, a mother lode of almost all natural resources. However, the forest was the home of the most powerful and vicious monsters on the continent, including the Ancient Dragon of Darkness, so the forest was barely exploited yet. But with the existence of the Raevender Dungeon and the route they paved, it gave others a chance to explore the no man's land. After he let out a sigh, the emperor turned to the men inside. "There is that probability too. That is why we are in this carriage to see and judge the city ourselves, whether to accept their independence or not." "Your Imperial Majesty is right." Bruce nodded in agreement with Jeffrey. "We are about to arrive, so we must prepare ourselves. We should display utmost respect to the rulers of the city so that we have a good first impression." Everyone nodded to the prime minister's words. A few minutes later, the convoy finally arrived at the eastern gate of the city's Outer Wall.  

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