Chapter 478 – The Little Guides

Chapter 478 – The Little Guides

Everyone’s gaze converged on that tall tower in the distance.

It wasn’t until the carriage gradually slowed and arrived at the gates of Lance City that they reluctantly tore their eyes away.

The mage tower was a mage’s most powerful tool for defending a city, and also a military stronghold.

Apart from the mages who studied within the mage tower itself, no one else was allowed to approach or enter.

They could only look from afar. To go inside, one would have to be prepared to board the ship that was the Duchy of Lance and accept its assignments.

Every nation in the Mage Empire was like this.

While mages received training, they paid a price — typically losing their freedom, becoming bound to their nation from that point on, and following the nation’s orders.

However, there were ways to sneak in.

Mo Lan had found quite a few infiltration guides for Mage Empire mage towers written by Alchemy Witches in the Witch Council Library.

The predecessors had already scouted out all the routes for them, clear as day.

Even now, there were still witches hidden inside many of the Mage Empire’s mage towers!

Though most were on the Empire’s side of things — after all, if you were going to learn, you might as well learn from the best.

The truly profound magical legacies were all in the Imperial Magic Academy’s mage tower. The ones in the vassal states weren’t worth the Alchemy Witches’ time.

Mo Lan shared the same thinking. If she was going to infiltrate human society to learn their magic, she had to pick the best place.

The Lance Mage Tower simply wasn’t significant enough.

Their focus in Lance City was to ignite the sparks of the Dawn Society.

The magical legacies of mages were just icing on the cake. The abilities of Sorceresses and witches — those were their true foundation.

They had to take this step in Lance City carefully.

Lilith and the others understood this as well.

Vasida had already taken over Zhizhi’s position and was driving the carriage.

Lilith was by the window. When the carriage reached the mage-exclusive entry passage, she showed her mage badge to the soldiers guarding the passage, and they were waved through immediately.

The Mage Empire had no population census, nor any household registration system.

The checks at the city gates were merely to prevent anyone from sneaking through and using a passage above their station.

All cities were like this.

Ordinary people had the ordinary passage, merchants had the caravan passage, and mages had the noble passage.

The ordinary passage had the most people, yet it was only a small gate.

The caravan passage was quite spacious, but goods had to undergo strict entry inspections, and an entry fee based on the quantity of goods had to be paid before entering the city.

The mage passage beside it, however, required nothing more than a mage badge for easy passage.

Just from the way one entered a city, it was clear who the truly privileged class in the Mage Empire was.

However, in the Duchy of Lance, while mages were still the only privileged class, ordinary people and merchants were treated reasonably well too.

The cities within the duchy had more ordinary and merchant passages than those in other nations.

There were queues, but the wait was never too long.

Mo Lan had just caught a fleeting glimpse through the lifted carriage window curtain and spotted several ordinary people who looked to be in fairly good spirits.

Drawing her gaze back inside, Mo Lan said, “Let’s head to the Gold Globe Flower Inn in the city first to settle in, then we can look for a house!”

Lilith nodded. “Vasida, move to the slow lane!”

Vasida turned the little wooden horse’s head, and the carriage shifted into the slow lane.

The central avenue of Lance City had five lanes.

The middle three were carriage lanes, each wide enough for two carriages to travel side by side. The center lane was the fast lane — carriages could only travel at full speed and were not allowed to stop. To slow down or pause, one had to move to the two slow lanes on either side.

Beyond the slow lanes were the pedestrian walkways.

Carriages and pedestrians each traveled their own paths without interfering with one another.

This was the standard road layout within Mage Empire cities. Even as rogue mages, they couldn’t afford to be completely ignorant of such things.

Mo Lan had recommended books on these matters to Lilith and the others ahead of time, so they were all composed and at ease now.

Once the carriage entered the slow lane, it moved at roughly the same pace as the pedestrians. After a brief stop, Lilith and Sylph stepped off the carriage.

The two of them looked around from beside the carriage, and before long, several children came running over.

“Do the ladies need a guide? I grew up in Lance City and know every street and alley like the back of my hand! Let me lead the way for you!”

“My lady! I know which inns in the city are the best value! Which restaurants have the best food! You can hire me for a whole day for just three copper coins!”

“My lady! I know all the gossip in the entire city! Pick me, pick me!”

…

The children competed to introduce themselves. Lilith and Sylph swallowed imperceptibly.

It really was just as Mo Lan had said — as soon as they stepped off the carriage and looked around, guides would come find them!

They just hadn’t expected the guides to be a group of children like this.

When they themselves had been this age, they’d still been trailing behind their mothers, getting into mischief!

Yet these children were already out working as guides to earn money.

Though the children’s pitches were enthusiastic, they knew the rules well — none of them actually swarmed forward. They kept their distance from Lilith and Sylph.

After introducing themselves, they looked at the two women with hopeful eyes.

“You, and you! You two, come here!” Lilith and Sylph each picked one child.

The two chosen children immediately beamed and stepped forward, performing an awkward curtsy.

“My lady! My name is Jenny!” She was the one who knew which inns were cheap and which restaurants were good.

“I’m Lena!” She was the one who knew all the gossip.

The other children left at once, going off to find their next potential customers.

“Can the two of you sit at the front of the carriage by yourselves?” Lilith asked gently. “I need you to give directions and guide us to an inn to settle in.”

The guides were two young children, and she was a bit worried about them sitting at the front of the carriage on their own. But she didn’t know whether it was proper for a mage to sit outside the carriage alongside a guide, and besides, there wasn’t enough room up there for three people.

“You… you want us to sit on the carriage?” The two children’s eyes lit up instantly.

That was a magic carriage!

“Of course we can! The front is really spacious — we won’t fall off!”

The two little girls had just been competing fiercely with each other for business, but now that they heard they could ride on a magic carriage — even if it was just the seat outside the cabin — they were both over the moon. They weren’t tall enough, so they helped each other clamber up.

Once seated, they didn’t rush to gawk around. They just sat steadily in place. “See, my lady? We can do it!”

“Click—” The small door at the front of the cabin opened, and Vasida poked her head out, startling both Lena and Jenny. “My Instructor says you two should scoot further inside — don’t fall off.”

Lena and Jenny nodded hurriedly. Not daring to peek inside the carriage, they shifted until they were half-sitting past the door frame.

When Lilith and Sylph heard Vasida say “Instructor,” they knew there was nothing improper about the arrangement, and got back into the carriage with peace of mind.

“Little guides, we want to go to the Gold Globe Flower Inn. Which way from here?” Vasida asked.