Annan suspected Khaelberos had landed there on purpose, hoping to dazzle a country bumpkin from the Northern Frontier who had never seen the wider world—and he had succeeded. Annan was briefly captivated by that magnificent, fantastical Divine Kingdom on earth. Compared with the Royal Capital, thriving Star-Moon Bay looked like a little fishing village.
But Annan firmly believed the Royal Capital had the present, while Star-Moon Bay had the future.
Once they entered the Royal Capital, the cuts and chips in the city walls, the pitted gravel roads, and the aging houses on either side seemed to prove him right. Or rather, the walls, streets, and buildings all bore the marks of time.
The City Guard recognized Mel, the Holy Grail Knight, as soon as he entered the city. "My lord!" The officer reacted to the Holy Grail Knight much as the guards in Star-Moon Bay reacted to Annan.
"Tell the Garden that Annan Reeves, King of the North, has come to visit."
"Yes, my lord!"
The officer rode off toward the Inner City. Annan asked, puzzled, "Faru Barros, the Royal Capital's King of the North, said the Ratfolk had been stopped outside the city. Why is there no sign of fighting here?"
The First Prince had said that at the Holy Temple Council, but Annan did not reveal that he, too, was a Holy Temple Councilor.
"Because the Royal Capital is very large."
Mel explained that the Royal Capital covered an area comparable to an entire county. The Ratfolk had only approached its borders; they were not at the gates, as Annan had imagined.
The crowded streets suggested the Royal City was still prosperous and its people untouched by the war. Annan might have believed it, too, if he had not seen the Rat Tide blanketing the Southern Frontier