Archives of Magic (1)

Valour City, the largest and most populous city, and the royal capital of the Valarion Kingdom was built upon and encircled an enormous mountain said to have once been an active volcano that an enormous Red Dragon made its home. Countless people lived in the expansive capital, from slaves to the highest-ranking nobles, but the royal family resided at the second-highest point of the mountain, their enormous palace overseeing the city like a shining sun. Five separate sectors organized the city: the mercantile Sector 5 conquered a third of the total span, followed by the residential Sector 4 that was further divided into class areas, while the remaining third was occupied by Sector 3 for the guild services, Sector 2 that housed the military and government operations, and Sector 1 for the royal palace and its grounds. Sectors 4 and 5 had some blurred lines between the two but rarely caused major conflicts, such as those who operate a shop in Sector 5 and decide to make part of it into their home and stay there full time, or someone deciding to open a small service in their home in Sector 4. As long as everything followed the law, few people faced difficulties.

What constantly impressed the players time and time again was how competent the kingdom's government and legal systems were. Planning to originally go against the trend of having a major country being corrupted from the very beginning, the developers decided to have the sole human kingdom be, to a fault, sufficient in how it ruled. While tyrannical figures have come and gone in its past, those figures' careers were shortened exponentially thanks to another brilliant idea from the Millennium Sage, which was to create miniature versions of his masterwork artifact, the Scales of Justice, that all had connections to the original but with much less power, and have them be distributed to all officially recognized countries for usage in their governments. These miniature magic tools were responsible for making corruptible systems, at least to some degree, less so. The Valarian Kingdom's scholars followed Archimedes' ideas and created a supplementary device that would make the Twin Goddesses' work faster. With some of the old Sage's aid, they affixed one side as innocent and the other as guilty and measured punishments according to the invisible weight added to the sides. This once again revolutionized the legal system, a design that the kingdom has tirelessly followed to the present day.

Luca, for one, absolutely loved the idea of a competent government after countless other works of fiction and fantasy having corruption running rampant. Still, he was aware of its major downsides. The foremost is that the miniature Scales of Justice cost quite a bit to create, and, while the kingdom would pay for its creation, a population minimum was required before it could be sent to a location, or if a major event happened there. As such, the tiny Greenwood Town fell short of the minimum 1500 mark by an enormous margin, which led to its less-than-ideal setup that ended up putting Luca on death row without investigation. Of course, through a twist of fate, the emergence of the new Dragonborn and his hometown becoming known was major enough for the small town to warrant one such miniature artifact being manufactured. While the residents celebrated this knowledge after it arrived two weeks after Luca's journey to the capital, they made sure to remind each other that they were almost responsible for their tiny town's new hero's unjust death. The event did become common knowledge later on, as none of the townsfolk hid the truth out of guilt for their actions, instead making it be known that they accepted the knowledge that they did not truly deserve anything that stemmed from the boy's success.

Meanwhile, half a country away from that tiny town, a white-haired young lad suddenly materialized atop a small circular array that was built into a semicircular alcove in a circular hall. Always finding the architectural design both fascinating and humourous, Luca stepped off of the array and took a look around. This room was the first location so far that he recognized wholeheartedly, as the several Provincial Array Halls were constantly in use. Larger arrays were made for larger cities, while small ones such as the one Luca arrived from only operated for single-person usage due to the less frequent need to travel to the small towns. After taking a quick look around, the boy began making his way out of the Grens Array Hall, through a corridor connecting several other Array Halls, and out into the expansive space of the Mages Guild Headquarters' entrance hall. The entire building was designed similar to both a cathedral due to its scale and a lighthouse due to its unique tower-like structure at its core. An incalculable number of individuals made their way through the hall on a daily bases, as did flying creatures, birds in particular, as they delivered mail. That said, only the animals were allowed to fly, and all mages were subject to strict codes in the city, especially concerning the ability of flight. The Headquarters had a unique group of enforcers made entirely to ensure these codes were followed to the letter, with hefty fines and punishments given to the mages that did not.

As the young boy made his way to the multi-station receptionist desk, he did not forget to ensure that his weapon was stored in his inventory, as having wands and weapons equipped in town was heavily frowned upon, to the point of fines for repeat offences, usually after 5-6 incidents. He didn't want his first impression on the Headquarters to be one of delinquency.

The lad patiently waited his turn in line before moving to speak to, to his mild surprise, a Bear Tribe Beastman. The teller gave the boy a look of exasperation and was about to speak when the boy cut him off, "My apologies, I was just a bit surprised. Normally, those of your kin don't like crowds or work geared more towards the mental than the physical." He then awkwardly stuttered as he noticed his bad choice of ending phrasing, "N-no offence, of course."

The Bear Beastman let out a rumbling chuckle as he grinned, an expression that looked a mite scary to most, "You're not wrong, kid. Unfortunately, my bad luck on my final quest back when I was an active adventurer cost me half of my right leg and my left hand. I couldn't afford the price to have it regrown, so I retired and came here to work. I get paid quite a fair bit for my experience in the field, which is taken seriously by the guilds, so I get more than most. As long as I can take care of my family, I don't mind crowds or paperwork." The teller then calmly regained a straight face as he asked, "Now then, what can I help you with today?"