It was such a waste of money to construct a wide highway that barely received any traffic, but I couldn't really care less since I wasn't in charge of anything here. It was thanks to this massive construction that we were able to cover the 90 kilometer distance between Suva town and Mitana city in just four and a half hours, as opposed to six or seven hours if the highway wasn't there.

Although we shortened our travel time by a significant amount, we were still not inside the city yet. Our carriage was the only one that traveled from Suva town, yet for some reason there was a line of six carriages ahead of us waiting to be inspected at the city's eastern gate by the time we arrived. I figured these carriages might have originated from the city itself, traveled a short distance, and turned back; or perhaps the carriages were from other towns, and the other gates weren't functioning. In any case, the inspection process was horrendously slow, since the guards had only finished inspecting three carriages after half an hour. Thanks to someone in the carriage in front of us playing a flute to pass the time, I wasn't too bored of waiting.

Eventually, our turn came after another twenty minutes in line.

"You don't look like merchants."

"We're here to go sightseeing."

"Sightseeing? In this city?"

Was it a bad place for tourism or something?

"Yes. General Denato invited me."

I took out the letter that the general sent to me and gave it to the guard.

"This is…!"

After taking a quick look at the letter, the guard quickly ran back to the gate. Shortly after, the gate was opened, and two guards were standing on each side of the gate, all saluting us. A fifth guard, probably the supervisor of the group, walked over to our carriage.

As to why I figured this one was higher ranking than the others, all five guards were minor devils wearing the same light armor, but this one had an armband on his left arm.

"Good afternoon, and sorry about the slow inspections."

"Good afternoon. It wasn't too boring thanks to the guy playing music."

"Please allow me to guide you to the state guesthouse."

"State… guesthouse?"

Without waiting for me to respond, the guard captain promptly handed back the letter I presented earlier and took Amber's place at the carriage driver's seat.

After Amber moved to the back of the carriage and sat down next to me, I leaned over a little bit and whispered to her.

"The general didn't give weird instructions in this letter, did he?"

"Let me check… No, it just asks any officer in charge to arrange a good reception for you while he's out of town."

"I see."

The fact that this officer was already arranging for us to stay at a state guesthouse was probably over-the-top, but at least we won't have to worry about finding a place to lodge tonight.

While the carriage traveled through the streets, the guard captain introduced the city to us. As the capital of the southwestern province, Mitana was the largest city and was the center of trade in this region. To make it easier to move goods around the province, the "southwest highway" project was initiated to connect major towns and cities with flat wide roads to significantly reduce travel time. However, due to the project only starting recently, construction was only finished for the roads between Mitana city and three other towns: Suva, one town to the north, and one town to the west. There were plans to further extend the western part of the highway another 250 kilometers to reach coastal towns, and extend the eastern part about 450 kilometers in the northeast direction to connect to the royal capital. Given the lack of traffic on the current highway, and the fact that traveling on it only saved about thirty percent of time, I felt like this was a complete waste of money. Maybe someone was planning on siphoning the project funds or something.

The population of this city was somewhere around 100000, and it was the most diverse place in the southwestern province, with no race in particular being the majority of citizens here. The affairs of the city were managed by the local army, with general Denato as the head of government. Due to his lack of experience on politics, however, the general was actually in charge of just the army, while the management of the provincial matters were handled by a close group of advisers. He wasn't entirely powerless, either, since the infrequent directives and suggestions given by him were still honored and executed.

When I asked about why there were military officers patrolling the streets, the guard captain said that this was a necessary measure to maintain order in a city this large. There were too many different races living here, after all, so tight surveillance was conducted to prevent unfair duels and harassment from stronger individuals. I couldn't help but wonder, though, if the citizens here minded the fact that there was at least two officers every 20 or so meters. This place really gave off the vibe of a militarily occupied city…

Due to the large diverse population, all the buildings in this city had multiple floors, such that they could house as many people as possible. Some buildings were made with stone and marble, some with wood and straw, some with bricks, and some with sod and clay. The buildings were all painted with different colors, and even among buildings with the same material, the architecture, shape, and paints used varied. It was as though I was looking at an overly vivid painting, and there was no way to designate any single building as a landmark. Because of that, I was quite certain that one could easily get lost in the streets here, since there was no way to tell for sure where one was located.

There was a relatively high amount of foot traffic on the long road we traveled along, so the carriage moved at walking speed, and it took about twenty minutes for us to reach our destination.

The state guesthouse was located within a 150-meter long fenced lot, and its facade was that of a 60-meter long large mansion with three floors. Given its proximity to busy streets, there were guards stationed at every 10 meters of the fencing, and at least six patrolling the mansion's grounds. From the fence gate to the mansion itself was a 30-meter long path, with a large water fountain in the middle that we had to go around.

"This… bothers me."

"Is this place not to your liking? We can arrange for you to stay in the governor's mansion instead."

"Ah, no, it's not that. I just think this is a little too over the top…"

"Hm?"

"We're just ordinary citizens with no role in the government, so I feel like letting us stay in this mansion meant for state guests might be too accommodating."

"The general is the type of person who would complain if I didn't give you the best reception possible, so please stay here for the night. If you want to move somewhere else, tell him that tomorrow."

"We can't go anywhere else tonight, can we…"

"Not at all. The guards will stop you."

"…"

The floor and walls of the mansion were tiled with white marble, which made it appear cleaner and brighter under the light. The furniture and carpets had light colors and were lined with gold, and several paintings were hung on the walls of every room. I did not have the ability to appraise the value of everything I was seeing, but I could at least guess that this so-called guesthouse was constructed at an extremely high cost. Since important guests did not visit that frequently, the city did not employ maids in this mansion. Instead, petty officers in the army would be tasked with running errands, and there was one full-time butler who looked after the place.

I was assigned a large room to myself, while the two girls shared a large neighboring room. Since we didn't bring anything other than some changes of clothes, we simply tossed our bags into our rooms and followed the guard captain to the dining room since it was already a quarter past seven, and he said that dinner was already made.

No matter how I looked at what was in front of me, the food just looked like glorified military rations. We were given a blob of yellow stuff that was probably mashed potatoes, steamed vegetables, and some kind of mystery meat with brown sauce drizzled on top. The soldiers working in the kitchen probably tried their best to make it look appealing, but I reckon nobody actually had experience working as a professional cook or chef.

"I… um… like the plating."

Unfortunately, that was the only good thing about the food served to us. It was horribly bland and dry, and I had so much trouble swallowing it that I probably drank more water than the amount of food I consumed. Amber also seemed to have trouble, while Lica gobbled up everything without issues, so I secretly moved as much food from my plate as possible over to hers when nobody was watching. Since we still had some snacks in our luggage, I asked to be excused from dinner after making it look like I ate a full meal, then retreated to my room. Before leaving the dining room, I gave the guard captain the letter that the vice-chief of Suva town handed to me, and asked him to pass it along to someone higher up.

Bored, Amber and Lica came over later that night so the three of us could ask for permission to go outside and see the city at night, but the guards wouldn't allow us to leave the premises, just like the guard captain said.

"Curfew hours."

Why would someone even invoke curfew hours in a large city? And who in the world has curfew at eight o'clock, anyways? Thankfully, some of the guards were bored enough that they invited us to play cards with them to pass the time.

* * * * *

After eventually managing to swallow some unrecognizable mush for breakfast, the guards at the mansion informed me that a carriage had been arranged for me to go anywhere I wanted in the city. The only problem was that nobody in our group had knowledge about any location in this city, so I ended up talking to one of the guards to find a place of interest.

"You're a mage, right?"

"That's correct."

"Then, would you like to visit the city's magic research academy?"

"Research academy?"

"Yes. There are too few people that can use magic in this territory, so we built a research academy with the goal of finding a way to make it easier to learn."

"That sounds interesting. Please take me there then."

Maybe I'll get to learn an interesting thing or two from there. And maybe I'll be able to buy some new robes along the way, because I still have nightmares about the large bull from two weeks ago. I turned towards the two girls, who were following me out to the main entrance.

"You two don't have to come with me, you know. Feel free to go sightseeing or shopping without me."

"That fairy lady said I'm not allowed to wander too far from you."

"It's boring going sightseeing alone."

Well, I don't mind having Amber coming along, but I hope Lica doesn't turn into an overly attached person like Hanung.

* * * * *

"Why are we going through the gate?"

I found it strange that we had been moving for a little over twenty minutes, but even stranger that our carriage was now going outside of the city, through the northern gate. After all, I thought that something like a research academy would be located reasonably close to the city center.

"We have… reasons for that. You'll know when you get there."

After traveling another fifteen or so minutes, the carriage veered off the road towards a fenced area.

"The academy is in this area?"

"Yes."

"This isn't a joke, right?"

"It's not."

After passing through the fences, we moved through a lightly wooded area. The dirt road was relatively uneven, and the moss from several trees had started invading into the road. What kind of academy has its perimeter neglected like this?

A minute or two later, something resembling a building eventually came into our view. Just judging by the exterior, there was no way one could ever think that this was a research academy. It just looked like a cracked giant stone dome.

"Is this really an academy?"

"It is."

"Why does it look like that? I would have thought that this was a coliseum if nobody told me what it actually was."

"Well…"

"And why is it so far away from the city, anyways? Are you trying to ostracize researchers?"

"We're not. It's just… for safety."

"Safety?"

"Yes. Would you please wait in the carriage for a while? I'll get someone to guide you."

Before I could respond, the officer immediately jumped off and ran towards the academy's entrance. I turned over to Amber, with the hope that she might be able to explain more to me.

"Do you by any chance know what he meant by 'for safety'?"

"Nope."

"What could be so dangerous that they'd have to build a dome-shaped building this far away from the city, I wonder…"

As soon as I finished stating what was on my mind, there was an small sound of an explosion coming from the dome. The ground shook lightly, and several bricks flew off of the dome's wall. Consequently, it was now possible to faintly hear someone shouting from inside.

"How dare you distract me like that! Look what you made me do!"

I think I understand what the guard meant by 'safety' now. If the research they were conducting in this place could explode like that, then it certainly would be bad to let this academy be located inside the city. The dome structure was probably the best design for keeping damage to the surroundings minimal, and for holding the building up even after some holes appear.

"And why the hell are you even here? I told the army my magic isn't suited for warfare already!"

I suppose the person that the guard went inside to find ended up blowing something up, and was probably trying to vent his frustration by yelling at the guard.

A minute or two later, the guard came out of a dome with another person walking behind him. It was a minor demon whose appearance was very similar to humans, with the exception of having short horns on his head and pale blue skin. He looked rather exhausted with his baggy eyes, and as though he cared more about his research work than appearance, his short hair was unkempt and clothes were all stained and wrinkled.

"Hi. Yequa. I'm supposed to be your guide, apparently."

"Um… you don't sound very happy, Yequa…"

"Sigh… what's the point? I can't even get good results, and every time visitors come, they're just a bunch of people who can't use magic and can't appreciate the work we do here."

"I'm an archmage, though. I'm sure I'll be able to see the value of your work."

"Oh? Well then, welcome to the Mitana city magic research academy! Please follow me so I can show you some of the amazing research we do here!"

At least he's motivated now.