Free Port.
As Free City grew and commerce flourished, this still-new Harbor was gradually becoming the largest in the far west of Middle Earth.
Countless ships docked here, loading and unloading countless goods.
Clang—clang—clang—
Bells rang over the Harbor, startling flocks of seagulls from the masts.
The musketeers guarding the Harbor hurried inland to clear pedestrians from the Great Pit left behind when Free City floated away.
About ten minutes later, Floating City appeared on the horizon, having been gone less than a week.
At the Harbor, people aboard the ships looked up and watched Floating City slowly descend into the Great Pit by the sea.
After a faint tremor beneath their feet, Free City joined the ground without a seam.
The Magic Barrier that kept seawater out of the pit vanished. Travelers stranded at the Harbor cheered and rushed into Free City.
As eager tourists poured in, officials clutching rulers and notebooks rushed out of the City Lord's Mansion, brushing past a young noblewoman and a woman dressed as her guard.
"Look at these officials. Blundering about like that—how are they any different from reckless peasants?" complained the golden-haired young woman. Even in the depths of winter, she wore a beautiful dress and fleece-lined white stockings.
She had come for the Magic Films she had heard so much about, only for Free City to float away just as her merchant ship docked. It would not return for days, leaving her stuck at the noisy Cape Inn, where seagulls were everywhere.
Then she discovered that not a single person here knew who she was—"Swan Neck" Katelina, the Flower Capital's most renowned stage actor.
Back in the Flower Capital, fans mobbed her whenever she went out. During the March Celebration, countless dignitaries had fought just for a chance to see her