LIGHTNOVELONLINE Ch 25. Whitestone, The Big Capital
I kept on patting her for a while. No, it was more than just a while, because when she spoke, the sky was starting to turn yellow and orange, the sunset was near.
“How long are we going to stay like this, huh?”
“Whaa!”
I was scared by her voice, I hadn't expected that. The place was completely silent before that, the only thing you could hear was her breathing and the breeze that time to time whispered in your ears.
She looked right into my eyes with a smile drawn on her face. If I could choose to stay here, like this, a little longer... But she is a busy person, so we must make the most of this date.
“W-Well, I think you already took your well deserved rest, right?”
“Uwhaa! Yeah, but I almost never leave the castle, so let's go somewhere interesting!”
She was stretching herself while saying those words. I couldn't help but shiver when I heard them.
“W-Where do you want to go?”
She smiled, then stood up and dusted herself off. Of course, there was no dust on her clothes, but instead of that, there were a lot of petals, so it wasn't a wasted action. She spun on the place and looked at me, smiled again and offered me her hand.
“Take my hand, and you’ll see. Whakaka~”
I stood up, and mimicked her actions, and no, I didn't spun on the place. I doubtfully grabbed her hand, it was cold, but she wasn't freezing, just a little bit more cold than her normal temperature.
She squeezed my hand and pulled me closer to her. After she did that a thick dark veil surrounded us again.
“Aren't you being really bold today, my Lady?”
“W-What?! N-No, It's just… This is a date, right?”
While she was blushing and looking away we arrived at our destination, I was frozen, it was the worst case scenario.
In front of us, white, high, thick walls were rising. The place looked like a fortress, but it was a city, a big city, even more than Riverfall. We were clearly really far away from the Demon Lord’s castle, but there was a castle inside this city, I can't help but worry about what are going to be her next words.
“This is the capital of the country, the biggest of all the cities. The King lives here, you know?”
“Wha… Why did we come here?!”
“Whakaka~ I haven't been in a place like this in years, I want to taste and see new stuff”
She was really happy about this adventure, like a kid waiting for a candy shop to open its doors. She put her hand on the gigantic wall and opened a path for us to enter the capital.
“Aren't you coming with me? Come on.”
“Y-You… You just! How?!”
I was puzzled, I can't even start explaining why all of this is wrong. She looked at me clueless about my thoughts, so she spoke with her heart.
“Whakaka~ I’m the Demon Lord, entering through the front gate could be a problem, don't you think?”
“That might be right…”
No, she must be right. I don't think the soldiers of the capital, the most important city of this country, could be as useless as the ones at Riverfall.
I didn't know that at this time, but they are indeed more capable than any other soldier I've met so far. They even have some priestesses with them so they could detect the flow of dark mana on the bodies of the people entering Whitestone. But that's not a problem for the Demon Lord, indeed she didn't want to go through the front gate because of the long line of people trying to enter the place. She is a busy person, you know?
I entered the Whitestone following my Lady. There were a lot of people around, but somehow no one noticed us. In the middle of the city was a big mountain paved with streets and white buildings. In the middle of that arquitectonic mess there was the castle where the king lives. It somehow remembered me that famous white castle of Gon**r, from that famous saga about some jewels, dragons and rings.
We started walking through the streets. Most of the buildings were made of a white stone, so I could guess where the name of the city came from, but I proved myself awfully wrong.
“Oh no, if the name was for that, it would be so dull, don't you think? Whakaka~”
“But almost every building is made of white stone, if that's not the reason please enlighten me.”
“Think about it a little, you can't put a name of the city after it's already built, it would be really weird, naming a city for their color or shape. Whakaka~”
“Then the buildings are like that because of the name of the city?”
“Ding ding. Thats right! If you think about it, Riverfall doesn't even have a fall on its river, but that's another story…”
Now that she mentioned it, even if Riverfall has a river, there's no fall nearby. Why is it named like that?
We kept on walking, looking at the stalls guided by the sense of smell of the Demon Lord, buying every different thing that she wanted to try, she was really happy. Cities are different from towns, even this late, there's a lot of places that are still open and you could see people walking everywhere, like if it was the afternoon.
“The royal family has this white jewel. It's really unique, very polished and inside of it there's something like mist, it have been on their family since ancient times, so I don't think they could came with another name instead of white stone, and since the royal family rules this city, it's called Whitestone’s City, or Whitestone for short. Of course both names are misleading if you look at the buildings around.
I'm not quite convinced that that's a good way for naming a city or even a stone, but since we are talking about old times, I think I could accept that bad naming sense.
“Yeah, it's quite boring, maybe your explanation was better. Whakaka~”
“And what’s the reason behind Riverfall’s name?”
“Well that's because…”
When she was about to give me another history lesson, her attention was caught for a pastry nearby, they were selling a nostalgic dessert, Parfeits.