Chapter 176: Amberhold

“The city is really something,” I said as I looked at the city from a distance, bathing in bright moonlight.

The city is situated on hills with beautiful buildings and lush greenery. Many of these buildings are old, some of them are older than a thousand years.

Especially the amber castle on the tallest hill in the center of the city. It is over two thousand years old, the same as the large amber wall surrounding the city.

The castle is called Blackwell Keep; many people referred to it as Amberhold.

The city used to be called something else, but seeing it rarely, people referred it to by its original name. They change it to Amberhold, which used to be its informal name.

“It is really a beautiful city,” said Leila.

“A work of art,” added Baron Harrods, and it is not empty praise. Especially now, when the city is covered in light snow, it looked enchanting.

“Amberhold is the first city to be built after the creation of Merchant Cities of Western Zenid.”

“It is the place where the last Ired Queen was slayed by my ancestor Seraphina The Valient. Every brick in the city’s wall has dust of Ired’s hive and every brick of our keep had part of Ired Queen herself,” informed Ignatius with pride in his voice.

Seraphina the Valiant, the primogenitor of House Blackwell.

She was one of the continental powerhouses during the last incursion and a founding member of the Merchant Cities of Western Zenid.

“It is a beautiful city she had founded,” said Leila, and Ignatius smiled, but there was no pride or mirth in it.

“It is a regret that we, her descendent, were not able to live up to her hopes and expectations,” he said with a voice full of regret.

Nobody said anything to that and instead turned to the window and watch the carriage descend from the hill toward the city.

The city is huge, with a giant amber wall surrounding it. It could easily house five million people inside those walls, but the city only had a population of a million. It used to have a huge population, but after mines dried out a few centuries ago, people left.

Still, the city is in great condition.

Silas Blackwell might not be much of a warrior, but he is a great administrator. The city was in bad condition when he inherited it, but in a few decades, he changed it completely.

He diversified the economy from mining and reformed many policies.

His efforts had led the city from bankruptcy to stability. Quadrupling the population to nearly a million.

It is quite incredible what he did, seeing in the city is the easternmost side of Oksall, closer to the boundary of the empire. There is not much anything to do other than mining and farming.

There is an extreme magic region, which is a treasure trove, but its trade goes to other cities.

The western side of the extreme magic region close to Amberhold, is controlled by the powerful monsters. Which is a blessing and curse; those monsters controlled other monsters well and didn’t send the horde.

They also kill whoever enters the extreme magic region through the western side, which makes adventurers, very hesitant go through that side.

I didn’t think I read about the monster horde attacking the Amberhold, during my research.

Though it had attacked the settlements in Nakar forests in the past. A few hundred years ago, they had destroyed everything. Those monsters are even more dangerous than the undead when a horde of them is attacked.

Soon, the carriage appeared in front of the big amber walls and passed through the huge city gates.

As the carriages entered inside, I couldn’t help but become impressed. There are wide paved roads and manicured trees, everything so well managed.

“Now, I can see why people call the Amberhold the garden city,” said Leila, clearly impressed, and it is impressive.

“It is all my parents doing; they want Amberhold to become the most beautiful city in all of Oksall,” he said, with pride in his voice.

They have really made something to be proud of; I have given examples to the Count about the city to support my ideas, but he isn’t willing to listen.

To him, the Greltheaven is a temporary thing. A place through which he needs to earn as much money as possible. Before escaping the moment, Navr releases his horde.

If Amberhold had been in the place of Greltheaven; the Blackwells would have been able to achieve far more than what they have.

Currently, Amberhold’s growth potential is at its limit. It is why they are so ready to open the trade route and complete the plan of their ancestors, who also understood, trade is the only thing that could make Amberhold prosper.

It will prosper and so are baronies and Greltheaven with it.

The carriage had reached the base of the biggest hill and begun to climb it and soon the carriage was in front of the giant coppery gates of the castle.

The carriage had passed through them and the amber castle appeared in front of me; it is even bigger than it looked from the distance.

I wanted to get out of the carriage and looked at it more carefully, but controlled myself and stayed,

Click!

Finally, the carriage had stopped, and the door was opened by a middle-aged man, with short black hair, wearing a white uniform.

“Welcome home, my lord,” said the man. “It feels good to be home, Commander Wildewood,” said Ignatius as he stepped out of the carriage.

“Baron Harrods, Lady Leila, Adviser Silver; I welcome you all to the Amberhold,” he said, as we stepped out of the carriage.

“Thank you for a kind welcome, Commander Wildewood,” I replied to the middle-aged man.

He is the commander of the Amberhold’s forces.

“Lord Blackwell wishes to meet you all. Please allow me to escort you to him,” he said, and we walked with him toward the castle.

I would have liked to rest, but meeting Lord Blackwell is also necessary.

The castle was huge and designed magnificently with those large amber bricks. It is big enough that half-giants could walk here comfortably.

It is said, each brick of the castle contains the part of Ired Queen as Ignatius told us earlier. I don’t know whether it is true or not, since the walls of the city had never been breached.

The city hadn’t been attacked many times; even the undead horde didn’t attack it, more than ten times in past millennia.

Whenever it does, it won’t be at full force; just a small part of it.

It is all because of its excellent location. It is a distance away from all the cities and closer to the extreme magic region.

This makes the undead avoid it, as they attack the places where there are large cities close to each other and away from the extreme magic region. The monsters of the petyv extreme magic region seemed to hate the undead.

Whenever the undead forces got too close, they will attack. Even in their territory, Navr keeps its undead away from the petyv extreme magic region.

Soon, we entered the castle, and immediately I felt the faint suppression. It is like the air seemed to have become denser. Suddenly, I found myself taking a little more effort in breathing and walking.

It is not restrictive, just faintly stifling.

“You will get used to the feeling in a few minutes,” said Ignatius, sensing the change in us.

I took a deep breath and followed him while watching the beautifully grand castle. Where every art piece and weapon hanging on the wall, seem to exclude ancientness.

It is more than two thousand years old castle; I am sure some of these things are as older as the castle or even older.

As I walked through the castle, I noticed. There are a lot of guards. I could see them at every corner, looking around for the threats.

While security is always tight, in such places, there are little too many guards.

Even there are guards in the elevator.

I don’t know whether so many guards are normal or because of the Blackwells facing a lot of assassination attempts.

Soon, we appeared in front of the white stone doors, which the guards opened, and we went inside a huge conference room, which already has some people in it.

My eyes immediately went to the pale-looking man sitting in the head chair. He looked to be in his late fifties, and of medium height, with an average face and build, but his black eyes were sharp, and they seemed to look through everything.

Like his son, his eyes also looked faintly glassy, and have red hair that looked like they were made from crystal.

They are hereditary features of House Blackwell and the source of the rumors about their family.

On the other side of the table is an elf woman who looked to be in her late forties. She is a graceful woman with blue hair and blue eyes; Ignatius seemed to have gotten his eyes from her.

It is the only feature he seemed to have from her. Looking at him, one couldn’t guess that his mother was an elf.

It is all related to the mystery of the family.

“Father, mother,” Ignatius greeted. “I am glad you have you have returned safely, my son,” said Adryna Blackwell.

One could see the relief flooding into her eyes as she saw her son.

“Lord Blackwell, Lady Blackwell,” we greeted.

“Baron Harrods, Lady Leila, Adviser Silver. Thank you for coming all the way to Amberhold,” said the man.

“It is our duty, my lord,” replied Baron Harrods.

Of course, it is a duty. I would have been glad if the Count had exempted me from it.

“Take a seat, you all. We have a lot to discuss,” he said and which we did for one and a half hours.

It is mostly about the arrangements for tomorrow. By late morning, we are going to leave Amberhold, with Ignatius Blackwell and his men.

They had scouted the route, and people have been selected. We only need to walk the path, destroying everything that came our way.

If our luck is good, the journey should be smooth, well, aside from being very tiring. We will be riding the beasts instead of the carriage; it will be faster and much safer.

After the meeting is finished, we had dinner with Lord, and Lady Blackwell before they took us to our suits.

“Wow,” I said as I looked at my suit.

It had a spartan feel to it, with a huge stone room and minimal decorations. The one that impressed me the most is the huge window; it gives me a view of the entire city. It is also enchanted, protecting against intruders and cold winds.

The light snowfall is continuing, and I hope, by morning, it will be finished. I don’t want snow on top of the thick forest on the way to Fort Renin.

I looked at the city for a few minutes before turning back to the room. I wanted to sleep, I am tired, but there is one thing I have to do before I could sleep.

“Are there any messages for me?” I asked. “Yes, a few had come; I have noted them all down for you,” she said and handed me the notes.

There are over thirty messages. They are Carla, Locke, and a few other friends and colleagues from the Greltheaven. Most of them are about them, inquiring about the progress.

These bastards hadn’t been this excited when we were dealing with Navr, but Oksall is a completely different thing.

They are inquiring about it, despite knowing. It will take a while before they could trade with it legally.

The new girls reached the Greltheaven in the morning and Carla had given the tour and the stack of questions.

When they are done filling them, we will find the teachers for them. It will be a little crowded, with the addition of one hundred and forty-eight girls, but they will have to manage.

In a few months, this problem is going to disappear forever.

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