A Large Cargo Magic Locomotive sped along the largest main road in the Candel Empire's Southern Province.
Bang!
A tire rolled over a pothole, immediately jolting the entire vehicle.
Nethers, who was driving the Magic Locomotive, bounced up from his seat and landed heavily. Pain shot through his backside, and he could not help complaining, "What kind of lousy roads are these in the Candel Empire? They're so uneven. By the end of this trip, my backside will have been shaken into two halves."
Hafra, sitting in the passenger seat, looked long accustomed to it. He chuckled at those words. "Isn't your backside already in two halves, boy? Or does it have three? All right, stop complaining. You'll be coming here plenty more times, so you might as well get used to it."
"Do we have to keep driving on lousy roads like this?" Nethers frowned and shook his head. "Say, Uncle, the Candel Empire is much richer than our Lampari Kingdom, isn't it? Why won't they build more paved roads? Not only would our trips be much more comfortable, they'd be much faster too."
"You think money alone can make that happen?" Hafra rolled his eyes at his nephew, then looked at the road ahead, still riddled with potholes, and sighed helplessly. "The Candel Empire may be rich, but they simply refuse to build paved roads. What can we do?"
"That doesn't make sense. Even a small country like our Lampari Kingdom has paved roads everywhere now. How could an empire as big as the Candel Empire not know their benefits? Why won't they build them?" Nethers still did not understand.
"How would I know?" Hafra snorted. "Maybe those noble lords of the Candel Empire enjoy swaying back and forth in their horse-drawn carriages along country lanes like this."