At this point, the sun was already beginning to set on the horizon when Abby and Eda were escorted to Minos' mansion in the central part of the Dry City.
The street lights were already on, and many people could still be seen coming and going through the essential parts of the town. After all, with more than 100 thousand inhabitants, this place would only slow down the movement a little later at night, when many people went to sleep or cultivate.
The Dry City could still be considered small by the standards of the Spiritual World. For this reason, the typical activity of the city was concentrated during the day and not at night. This effect was quite common in places with weaker populations, who needed to rest for a longer time and could not ignore the effects of the night.
Anyway, while the two unexpected visitors from Minos passed through the city's streets, they both could reach the various services available in this place.
The Cultivation Tower, the local academy, the library, and several stores that didn't exist in the Dry City before. Upon seeing this, both women from the Miller family were shocked, considering how expensive it must be for this city to maintain such services!
But the two of them also saw other exciting things about this place. Like, for example, the groups of soldiers that could be seen from time to time, as well as people from the public cleaning of the city!
For any city, even in places where the population is particularly hygienic, there was no way to avoid the dirt if no one did the public cleaning. For this reason, the government of Dry City had already set up a local public cleaning service, which hired people to maintain the good condition of public places in this city.
The city's 'caretakers' took care of simple services daily, such as cleaning the streets, avenues, public restrooms, parks, public squares, etc. After all, the climatic conditions, as well as the inhabitants and their spiritual beasts, brought dirt to the city, which could attract insects and diseases, as well as worsen the structural beauty of the current Dry City.
As a result, this was an essential service in any city, and Minos and his subordinates had not forgotten that.
Each caretaker received a salary of 40 low-grade spiritual crystals per month and had flexible working hours. Because of this, many people who worked in other areas, such as agriculture, also made themselves available to do these complementary services, which could help these families get more resources!
In fact, there was a lot of employment in the current Dry City and few people to hire! Because of this, many people had two or even three jobs!
And it was not difficult to do that.
In agriculture, there was generally not much work to do during the planting months, with only more work during the harvest and planting seasons. Of course, during planting, there was a need to take care of the crops, but cultivators could quickly do this.
And with the time that was left, some people went hunting, others did public services, such as janitors, bricklayers, carpenters, etc. There was a constant supply in the construction sites of the Dry City, which increasingly progressed in number.
And with that, people like Lee's older brother worked in more than one area, earning more spiritual crystals for their families to reach an even higher level!
As for the soldiers patrolling the city, this was one of the temporary functions of low-ranking soldiers. An army could not cope with trivial activities like this. However, the Black Plain Army was just beginning to develop, and there was still no territory other than the Dry City for it to defend.
Because of that, it didn't make sense for Minos to create a police force at this point, as long as the army was not strong enough and doesn't have much to do!
For this reason, low-ranking soldiers were playing the role of local police temporarily.
'Not bad!' Abby thought to herself, looking at all these details of the Dry City. She was happy for Minos and even felt relief for him.
She was not sure why Minos wanted to stay here, and because of that, before visiting the Dry City, Abby was a little worried about her friend. She thought that perhaps the young Stuart did not want to go to the Flaming Empire because of Maisie!
But if it were just for that, then for Abby, Minos would just be throwing his life away because of childishness!
However, seeing how well the Dry City was doing, she was convinced that Minos wanted to develop with this place.
He was not a disillusioned madman, due to a remnant of immaturity, but a man with a realizable project!
Abby didn't know how, but she felt Minos had found a way to improve this place and was relying on it by turning down the chance to go to an empire. And as much as she thought it was a waste, at least she knew that her friend was down to earth!
Anyway, after a while, the group finally arrived at Minos' mansion.
That place was well lit, with the garden visible to everyone passing by the avenue in front of it, as the building was left without external lighting. Only the lights coming from inside the building could be seen.
However, there was a golden lighting, with the symbol of a tree, on one side of the mansion, facing the side of the avenue.
This was the symbol of the Black Plain!
And soon, the two women entered that building, accompanied by Sergeant Pyke.
They proceeded through the mansion's lobby, where various people were arriving and departing. They then continued until they were in front of Minos's office, where Secretary Mia was seated in reception.
As he passed her, Pyke greeted her quickly and headed for the office where Dillian was waiting for them.
At that moment, the middle-aged man was sitting on one of the sofas in that room while he waited patiently. He had already finished the day's affairs and had no more service for today.
It was at this moment that the two women entered the room.
"Hahaha, young Abby, you really grew up!" Dillian said as he got up from his seat and went to greet the two women. He smiled when he saw how beautiful Minos's friend had looked in just eight years.
The last time he saw her, Abby was just a child, but now she was a complete woman!
"Hmm, Miss Abby certainly grew up well, haha." Eda added, even before the young woman with blue hair said something.
Abby then smiled and said. "It's good to see you, butler Dillian."
"Hmm, it was eight years, huh..." He commented, looking at Eda while waving his arms, showing the two of them where to sit.
After settling in, Dillian sat across from them and then started talking again. "The young master told me about the meeting of the two of you at the Cromwell Kingdom and also about the invitation for you to come to the Dry City."
"Cough, ehhh, that must be the reason for the visit, right?"
"That's right. I wanted to see how he was doing after the Spiritual Tournament. Before that, I didn't have the opportunity to do that because of how things developed..."
"I understand. It really wouldn't have been easy for you to see each other before the Spiritual Tournament."
They chatted some more when Abby finally hit the main point. "But, butler Dillian, where did Minos go? Will he be back soon?"
"Ehh, about that, he should be back soon. He went to do some business and is expected to return in the next few days." Dillian said without going into details.
"Oh? This is good to know. I will wait for him." She replied with a smile on her face.
"Dillian, changing the subject, how did this place change so much?" Eda asked, without hiding her curiosity about what was going on here.
And on hearing this, Abby also looked closely at Dillian, hoping to discover the mysteries of this place. After all, they had both arrived at the end of the day and had not yet seen the Dry City plantation fields.
"Hahaha, you are curious, huh?" He laughed and said. "Well, if you stay here for a while, naturally, you will find out..."
"All mysterious, huh..." Eda whispered softly, seeing that Dillian wasn't going to say much to them.
And after that, they ended their conversation.
Abby went to the guest part of Minos' mansion, while Eda and Dillian went to the butler's residence to talk some more. After all, these two were old close friends who hadn't seen each other in years...
"Dillian, aren't you going to tell me about what happened here? I thought we had a relationship of mutual trust!" She complained while drinking a glass of wine next to that middle-aged man.
"Hehe, I trust you, but I can only tell you about my own affairs. But maybe you'll discover something. After all, the young master and that little girl were always good friends..."
After saying these and other words, the two approached each other, starting a soft but long kiss while feeling each other's warmth.
...
At the same time, Minos' chariot was arriving in the Dry City, being only a few kilometers away from the south gate of the wall.