CH 158

Episode 158 – Labyrinth City, Landaust

We were currently standing right in front of Landaust. After arriving right in front of the walls, I couldn’t help but marvel at the abnormal height of them. When I stood directly next to the wall and looked up, I couldn’t even see the top of the wall.

What was even more astonishing was that there was another wall on the inside of that tall outer wall, forming a double-layered structure. When I saw how securely this place was built, I felt like it resembled a prison.

“It’s really amazing in so many ways. When I first moved to Grezesta from my home village, I was surprised by so many things. I must say, I’m just as astonished as when I was at that time.” (Lewin)

“It’s certainly true that Grezesta is different from most places. Grezesta is among the five largest cities in the kingdom, but Landaust is among the five largest cities in the world. You’ll be even more surprised when you see how crowded the area around the Dungeon is,” Edward added as I looked at the high, double-layered walls. The area around the Dungeon was crowded…? This kind of raised my expectations about the place.

We waited for about an hour in the long queue in front of the gate. Finally, it was Edward’s and my turn for inspection. Between the first and second gates, there was a room set up for confirming peoples’ identities and performing body searches. When Edward and I stepped into the room, we were carefully examined by three inspectors. The inspectors were high-handed and serious, which made me uncomfortable. I couldn’t help but compare it to the sloppy, cursory inspection in the villages where we stayed throughout the journey which could hardly even be called inspections in contrast.

Even though we were a pair consisting of a child and an old man, we were intensively investigated before finally being permitted to enter the city. Thanking the three inspectors on my way out, we walked through the second gate and stepped into the city.

“Oooh! What a beautiful and well-maintained city!” (Lewin)

The first thing I noticed when I stepped into the city was how beautiful it was. The townscape of Grezesta had a tasteful air of antiquity to it, but Landaust was built with state-of-the-art craftsmanship. The buildings were uniform and tightly spaced, not leaving any wasted space in between. There was no trash or excrement to be found anywhere, so the city was remarkably clean as well.

I had heard there were a great number of adventurers gathered here, so I imagined the city to be a symbolic extension of the dirty interior of an Adventurer’s Guild, so this spectacle was quite a surprise to me.

“Landaust has a strict policy against littering in the city, you see. If a person gets caught littering three times, they get banned from entering the city, so I guess that’s why the city is so clean.” (Edward)

“Hoh… so littering is strictly punished. I can see how that would make the city this clean.” (Lewin)

Chatting with Edward while looking at the beautiful and clean streets of Landaust, I followed Edward to the Main Street. The gap between the beautiful city and the Dungeon within it was amazing.

When we soon arrived at the Main Street of Landaust, I could feel my excitement growing with each step I took. The Main Street was packed with so many people that it couldn’t even be compared to Grezesta. Most of them were dressed like adventurers, but unlike the Adventurer’s Guild in Grezesta, there were men and women of all ages and also a strange race called demi-humans.

“Hohoho. There’s a crazy amount of people here. The last time I was here, there weren’t nearly as many… Perhaps this is what they call the passing of the times…” (Edward)

“Yeah, what an amazing crowd. Is the Dungeon ahead of us?” (Lewin)

“That’s right. If you keep going straight, you’ll see the Dungeon, but… do you mind if we go to the Adventurer’s Guild for now?” (Edward)

“Of course! We have to report that the quest commission was completed successfully.” (Lewin)

“Sorry, I know you want to see the Dungeon right away.” (Edward)

Thus, we turned right on Main Street and headed for the Adventurer’s Guild first. As we walked down the Main Street of Landaust, I couldn’t help but notice all the interesting-looking stores lined up. Perhaps it was due to the sheer number of them lined up in a row, but all of them were designed in a way that caught my eye, so I felt the urge to look around each and every one of them.

Making up my mind to take a look after I got settled, I tightly reined in my temptation to browse the shops as we walked down the street. Eventually, a huge building came into view in front of us. In the middle of the building was a large sign that read ‘Adventurer’s Guild’, and there were crowds of adventurers standing in the front.

This is the Adventurer’s Guild of Landaust.

My heart began to race at the thought that I might be able to see Ahmed again once I entered the Adventurer’s Guild.