While I didn''t really have any reason to mistrust Chirio''s words, I didn''t really take his warning seriously either.


    Yet, pretty much the very moment I pulled the window shades aside and took a look outside…


    Gulp.


    Swallowing down a mouthful of saliva was the one and only action I was mentally permitted to do, stunned by the sight outside.


    If the border city already gave me some insight into the main differences in architectural thought between the two parts of the world, then the Corian estate took it to a whole new level.


    The very first thing I noticed was just how expansive the estate was, stretching over no lesser distance than the already impressive border town. Contrary to that city we departed from, however, it was much less upied by buildings, with massive chunks of gardens, fields, and tranquil ins stuck in between.


    Up ahead, I could see a slightly different part of this private province no less, where the green of nature gave way to much denser construction, spreading roughly as far as a standard old-town of the older cities back in the modern world.N?v(el)B\\jnn


    ''I guess the rules that dictated the size of the cities in the past still do apply here,'' I thought, gulping my saliva down once again.


    The rtionship between the number of buildings one couldfortably cram into a limited space, a sort of city-nner-specific kind of geometry, decided how big a town could be before the rising cost of erecting long-distance walls to protect it would grow beyond the point of benefits from handling more space.


    And this town''s center of the Corian n was right in the sweet spot for an architect—just big enough to fit all the necessary buildings, institutions, housing, and private factories, while squeezed in an extremely clever way to limit the area within the innermost section of the n''s walls.


    For now, we were still quite a bit too far from the town''s center for me to see any details, pushing me to look over the rest of the estate instead.


    It was a precisely marked-out area, consisting of a total of five tiers.


    The first tier would be the town''s center out in the distance, surrounded by the second tier that still served somewhat of a residential role, judging by the type and shapes of the buildings splitting the outermost walled-off area between the structures and nature roughly one-to-one.


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    The third tier of the estate was guarded by what I could onlypare to some sort of solid-iron fence, while the tier itself was filled mostly with either crops or open fields, each upied by a small group of peoplezily rxing as they basked in the sun''s warmth amidst the chill, moist grasses of the in.


    The fourth tier was where the buildings slowly started to fully give way to nature, guarded by a ring of sparsely set, tall stones.


    ''They must be like, what, five meters high? Six?'' I thought, unable to ascertain that much of a fine detail from the height we were currently traveling at.


    Beyond the fourth tier, however, there was still thest part of the whole estate. It consisted of nothing but empty, deadnd and remains of a burned-out forest, creating a huge, open area where no enemy or monsters could find a single ce to hide.


    In the fifth tier, all the boulders were removed, all the trees burned down, the soil turned over and then covered in salt to prevent anything from ever growing on it again. Yet, while it was a massive scar on this otherwise beautiful ce, it didn''t take a genius to figure out the justification for its existence.


    ''This is the only way to keep the insides of the estate safe from whatever woulde from the wild,'' I thought, looking beyond the limits of the fifth tier of the estate, toward an expanse of thick forest greater than anything I''d ever seen in my life before.


    ''So this is how it feels to look at the forest from high above, yet still be unable to see its end,'' I thought, gulping my saliva for the third time as I suddenly felt… just small.


    What was my cultivation worth in the face of such a mighty, primordial presence? To the monsters that lurked in the depths of those woods, all my breakthroughs, all my achievements and ideas—they were all meaningless, pointless, and outright worthless.


    The scale of the tiered defenses ire''s maternal n constructed only served to indicate the level of predators they were dealing with, revealing the locals of the cultivation world in a whole new light to me.


    "We are getting closer," Chihiro called out from within the carriage. "You will only have a moment to look at the city before we get down to the ground, so make the most of it!"


    This time, I dared not to doubt his words, instantly turning my head… only for something to pull my body away from the window for a bit, quickly followed by that foreign yet familiar presence letting go of my arm, only to sneak over my side before squeezing in between the carriage''s doors and my chest.


    "It''s over there," I pointed out with my hand at the town''s center we were nearing. In my excitement, I practically forgot that while this ce was all new for me… the same was unlikely to be the case for ire.


    "Damn, from up close it looks even better," I muttered, enclosing my left arm high up over ire''s chest, hugging her from behind as I adored the sights.


    The town itself was like a mix of vors one would neverbine themselves, only to never find out just how well they worked together.


    There were quite a lot of obviously oriental influences in the general shape and openness of the buildings, making them as grand as they were impractical when it came to heating, cooling, or even defending them.


    ''In a sense, building something like this is a statement all in its own right,'' I thought, squeezing ire down to my chest just a little bit harder as my eyes moved on from the buildings'' general shape to the finer details we were now close enough to actually see.


    Contrary to the oriental look of the general structures, their decorations were much closer to what I would call a ssical era of the part of civilization I hailed from, ranging from great, life-like sculptures, through works of art disyed directly on the streets, all the way to intricate carvings filling the faces of every column I could see.


    Combining the general decor of the whole city with theplex implementation of greenery amidst every part of the city—from streets, through the facades, to the building roofs—ire''s ancestors managed to cultivate a ce that looked like either an ancient paradise, or…


    "It looks like a period drama movie set," I muttered, greatly impressed by all the sights.


    "That''s not really surprising," Chihiromented, causing both me and ire to look away as we turned our eyes toward the man. He returned the nce only to shake his shoulders and add, "that''s because they often rent the ce out to filming crews. Apparently, the filming rights make up a good chunk of the estate''s ie, allowing them to keep it asvish as it is often impractical."


    Hearing this, I squinted my eyes and looked back toward the city. Now that I knew what to look out for, however, the whole ce left me with yet another, different perspective.


    The estate''s streets were a thing of beauty, pulled directly from a director''s script on how to arrange a scene to give it a rich—luxurious even—kind of vibe. Those streets consisted of two walkways made with polished marble and a row of interchanging trees and flower bushes, splitting the whole thing into practically two separate roads.


    ''It''s an experience all in its own right to walk down this road, I bet,'' I thought, only to then squint my eyes a little bit further. ''Not much for a good logistical route for cargo, though.''


    Now that I stepped back, the beauty of this sprawling estate was there mostly to hide the ugly truth. A truth I could see because Chihiro''s remarks allowed me to switch my mindset from adoration to scrutiny, to a critical look only someone who wasted nearly a year of his life ying city-builders would be able to develop.


    The streets were too narrow to allow any sort of heavy traffic. Heck, as we got closer and closer, the city proper soon filled my entire view, also allowing me to take a closer look at the actual state of affairs within the city. And that alone was enough to further reinforce my new outlook on the area.


    The streets were not practical for moving a lot of cargo, not when both flights of the beautiful roads were used by pedestrianszily walking in both directions. Heck, there was no need for those streets to support heavy traffic, simply because there was no heavy traffic on them or anywhere near, with people moving stuff not by the ways of trucks, cars, and trains, but limited in their choice to hand-drawn carts and, in a few spare cases, a horse-drawn carriage.


    Squinting my eyes to the point I could hardly see, I shook my head and moved back to my seat, only to then catch ire''s curious look.


    "Your face changed," she stated, only to lean her head over her arm. "What happened?"


    I looked at the girl, only to let my eyes drift toward the window before bringing them back ahead and opting to drop them to the ground.


    "For as beautiful as this ce is, now that Chihiro mentioned it, I just can''t appreciate its beauty anymore," I revealed, shaking my head right as the carriage shook heavily, only to then quickly go back to a smooth drive.


    ''Did wend?'' I thought, looking toward the window, only to then stop myself and look away from it instead, not ready to face the harsh reality of the fake luxury outside.


    "And why is that?" Genuinely curious, ire left the window and sat right back by my side, leaning forward just enough to catch the corner of my stare.


    "Because this ce is a hell," I threw silently, daring not to even look to the side. "A ce designed to look beautiful, regardless of the cost," I shook my head. "A town built by those with means, who never spared a single thought to the fates of all those who would end up living and working in it."


    I took a deep breath before turning my face up and locking my eyes on the ceiling right as the carriage started to slow down, indicating we were now reaching our destination.


    "A ce that disregards practicality in favor of beauty?" I shook my head again. "Don''t you guys see that it''s one hell of a red-g for how the society works in here?"