In the darkest hour before dawn, Isaac leaned against the carriage wall. The jolting had become a familiar background rhythm and no longer bothered him.
The chase had left his nerves too taut to relax completely, and he was not very sleepy. Carlo, meanwhile, was still leaning back in his seat, arms folded across his chest. Isaac could not tell whether he was asleep or awake, but he certainly did not look like someone who had just been chased all that way by a calamity.
Isaac had to admire the guy's composure.
The carriage swayed, and the feel of the wheels beneath it changed as a stone-paved road replaced the soft dirt. Carlo opened his eyes, slid open the small window, and said, "All right, back to a normal speed. Don't draw too much attention."
The black dog slowed down. Meanwhile, the sky outside the window began to change. The darkness was fading, and it looked as though someone had pulled open a narrow crack at the horizon, letting light seep through.
Carlo closed the small window. "We're almost at Vista."
Isaac looked out the window too. As the sky gradually brightened, his view opened up, and at the far end of the horizon, he saw the outline of a city wall.
The wall looked more magnificent than Palmer's, with reinforcing buttresses and protruding arrow towers visible along its face. Tall towers stood at intervals, flags flying from their tops.
The sun rose, its light piercing the thin mist and bathing the wall in a golden glow. The gray-white masonry seemed to shine, and the flags atop the towers unfurled in the morning breeze.
A massive gate stood directly ahead in the city wall. Two statues holding swords and shields stood on either side of its arched opening, looking down upon the road leading to the gate.
Isaac looked at the sight, a feeling welling up inside him. He had never left Palmer, much less seen such a majestic city.
"This is Vista," Carlo said. "The largest city in the Western Territory, known as the 'City Where the Sun Never Sets.'"
The sun never set. In this era known as the "Age of the Remnant Day," the city was like a sun that never sank, refusing to accept the coming of night until a new sun rose again.
Isaac thought of the abandoned farmland and collapsed houses in the wilderness around Palmer. The scars left by the War of the Churches had yet to heal, and yet Vista had managed to remain prosperous and stable in such an era, even undertaking a railway plan and advancing reconstruction. That was a miracle in itself.
The dog-drawn carriage continued forward, drawing closer and closer to the gate. Isaac saw that people were already lining up to enter the city: merchants driving carriages, travelers carrying packs, and several ornately decorated private carriages, all waiting to be inspected.
The black dog slowed down and joined the queue to enter the city.
A farmer driving a donkey cart nearby spotted the dog pulling the carriage. His eyes widened, and he silently edged his donkey aside. A child tugged at his mother's skirt and pointed at the black dog, saying something, but his mother quickly pulled him away.
The guards at the gate wore matching uniforms: dark blue coats embroidered with a golden emblem-intertwined golden branches with broom flowers blooming at their tips-and swords and pistols at their waists.
The golden bough symbolized the power of the church, while the broom flower was the emblem of the Ogway Family.
Cooperation between nobles and churches was not uncommon, but in the vast majority of cases, there were certain boundaries between them. At least in Palmer, Isaac had never seen the emblems of a noble family and a church combined.
When the dog-drawn carriage's turn came, a guard stepped forward. His gaze lingered on the black dog, and although he kept his expression well under control, the corner of his mouth still twitched, caught between wariness and the effort not to laugh.
He made no comment on the creature pulling the carriage. He simply went to the window and bent slightly. "Identification."
Carlo took out the dark green identification booklet, opened the carriage window, and handed it over.
The guard took it and paused to look at it, his expression growing somewhat serious. He opened it, glanced inside, then closed it and handed it back with both hands. His tone was a little more polite than before. "Everything's in order, sir. Please enter."
Carlo took the booklet back, and Isaac's eyes followed it. At last, he saw the words on its cover clearly:
Western Territory Joint Investigation Bureau for Anomalous Incidents.
"Joint Investigation Bureau?" Isaac blurted out.
Carlo put the booklet away. "Don't act like you've never seen the world."
Isaac coughed and looked away. "I just didn't expect you to be with the Joint Investigation Bureau."
"I never said I wasn't."
Isaac had no answer.
The Western Territory Joint Investigation Bureau for Anomalous Incidents, or the "Joint Investigation Bureau" for short, was an official organization that Vista had begun establishing more than a decade ago.
Despite the signing of the Convention of the Churches, strict barriers remained between regions of different faiths. Clergy of the Blackthorn Church had no authority to intervene in an anomalous incident within the Church of the Golden Bough's jurisdiction, and vice versa. Believers, too, could usually seek help only from the church of their own faith.
This state of affairs, with each church acting independently, left many serious incidents spanning different regions and faiths unresolved for too long. It also allowed some cunning criminals to exploit gaps between religious jurisdictions and remain at large.
The Joint Investigation Bureau had been established to break down those barriers. It answered directly to the grand duke and had the authority to investigate and handle anomalous incidents throughout the Western Territory, free from the control of any single church. At the same time, each orthodox church in the Western Territory had representatives stationed there to facilitate communication and coordination on such matters.
Although the organization had helped advance many cases to a considerable extent, things were far less straightforward in practice than they were on paper. The open and covert struggles between the churches had never truly ceased, and how far the Joint Investigation Bureau could exercise its authority often depended on the nature of a particular case and the attitudes of the parties involved.
Still, judging by the attitudes of the guards in Palmer and Vista, Isaac concluded that his employer not only had connections to the Joint Investigation Bureau, but also seemed to have considerable authority. Even Isaac had been spared an inspection as a result.
The guard stepped back and gestured to a companion. The barricade was moved aside, and the black dog set off, pulling the carriage through the gate and onto Vista's streets.
As near Palmer's gate, a market had sprung up here of its own accord, but it was much larger. Stalls stretched along the road inside the city wall as far as the eye could see, selling an even greater variety of goods. The stallholders' cries rose and fell, mingling with the sounds of customers haggling.
The crowds here were much denser than in Palmer, too. There were people dressed as workers, housewives carrying baskets, elderly people leading children by the hand, and well-dressed gentlemen and ladies making their way through the crowd surrounded by servants.
Isaac watched it all through the carriage window. Both were markets by city gates, but Palmer's felt desolate, and the expressions on people's faces there were mostly numb and weary. This market was noisy and crowded, people walked faster, and even their haggling sounded more... spirited?
Such was the atmosphere of the Western Territory's capital.