Flowers covered the flagstones, and enormous torches had been set atop the pointed-roof houses on either side of the road. The flames burned a brilliant gold, bathing the entire Imperial Capital beneath a golden veil.
This was not the season when flowers bloomed, nor an age of inexhaustible firewood, yet such prosperity had appeared in the Imperial Capital because today was the most important and greatest day of the year—the Divine Grace Festival.
It was a day to give thanks to the great god for granting mortals all things by which to live. Divine grace allowed humanity to endure.
On both sides of the flower-carpeted road stood the people of the Imperial Capital, all craning their necks as they gazed toward the Imperial Palace, until those magnificent gates opened and one Temple Knight after another, clad in golden armor, walked out.
They were tall and imposing, representing the most honored knightly status in the empire. In ordinary times, no one could easily see them, and today, they were the emperor's honor guard.
The Temple Knights stepped across the flowers. The fresh blossoms protected by the mages' extraordinary means were no longer beautiful, but that did not matter to the empire with its vast wealth. As the Temple Knights passed, countless petals drifted down from the void.
They covered the ruined flowers, making the ground bloom once more in brilliant clusters, and from within the Imperial Palace, a towering carriage drawn by sixteen pure white horses finally emerged.
The carriage had no enclosed compartment on any side, only a canopy overhead, with layers of gauze curtains hanging down. Seated upright inside was Volvo; Emperor Columbus IV.
"Long live His Majesty!"
"Long live His Majesty!!"
Voices like mountains roaring and seas surging thundered from the mouths of the people of the Imperial