The Bustling Capital

It was a perfectly fine day for everyone who was living in Ruthernglan. To be honest, it was a festive day. Their crown prince, the future ruler of Lanir had visited this small village! They were still celebrating his arrival.

From the morning they were preparing themselves well to send off the prince. They had worn the finest clothes and had brought fruits and other sweets to the castle.

To put it in another way, the villagers were all once again at the entrance of the castle to see and send their prince off.

Despite everything, for someone who spent the whole night in the prison, it was not that much of a great day.

Diana will be transported to the capital together with the procession that evening.

Since she was imprinted by the archfoe of Lanir and brought the nation a war invasion threat, she will be severely punished for sure.

Judging from the past sentences, Diana may receive a life sentence, banishment, or sometimes she may be executed. These were the punishments for the traitors in Lanir. The punishment solely depends on the level of crime.

Diana looked up and found that the window. It was almost noon.

By that time, she heard the prison doors open.

The four men who brought her here were once again there to bring her back to the entrance.

"Miss, get up and walk"

".....", she was too reluctant to give a reply so she followed them without any arguments focusing on the ground.

"We're here!"

With this, Diana lifted her head to see.

She was not at the front gate of the castle. It was one of the back entrances.

It made sense!

Nobody will want to include a prisoner in a lavish parade. Diana looked around to see if there were any carts to escort the prisoners. If she had to walk up to the capital, she would die midway. There was no cart, but she could see two horses.

"There he is!", the guard spoke again, disrupting Diana's throughflow.

Diana turned in the direction he was pointing. A familiar figure was walking towards them. His right hand was holding the reign of his white horse. The other hand was holding the heavy backpack from falling to the ground.

It was a scene Diana always loved to watch. Whenever he visited his mother's village and return, she would always welcome him by the castle gate just like this.

But this was not a happy occasion.

Wyatt moved towards the crowd.

In the meantime, the guards went to their horses.

Diana was so shocked to move that she kept looking at Wyatt.

When he reached the distance where he could hear her words, she managed to let out her confusion in words.

"Don't get involved in my business!"

"You want me to stay here and watch you die?"

"I won't die"

"What if..."

"I'm not letting you go die alone!"

There was an awkward silence since the other two soldiers were also there near them.

Wyatt somehow felt happy to see her dumbfounded state. She never stops talking and this was the first occasion he got to see her out of words.

"Aren't you too coming?", Wyatt turned and asked the two guards.

"Three of you will be enough", one of them replied. He smiled at them and turned to her once again.

"Just tell me why are you here?", Diana once again asked him in a little voice.

"To escort you to see the queen, and explain the situation. You crossed the border because of me. I'm at fault too", he replied.

"You are not at any fault. Stay out of this"

"Sorry, I can't", he replied immediately without thinking twice.

If he is going to confess that he went to the forest first, he would get punished too. It's not going to save anyone. Both of them will have to die.

"That's stupid Wyatt. Both of us will be imprisoned"

"I know"

"What do you mean by you know? You know this, still want to get arrested so badly?"

"They won't arrest me!"

"....."

"I'm confident. Trust me this once Diana"

Diana was indeed out of words. She could see that it was extremely hard to convince him.

"Wyatt, won't you listen to me?"

"I have always been listening to you! It is your turn now!"

"....."

Diana was not happy with this. So she didn't say a word. She followed his instructions and got on the horse. When he tried to help her with this, she avoided his hand and got on the horse by herself.

Then she scooped a little and apologized to the horse.

"Sorry that I'm too heavy, but I have no other options than riding you today", she whispered.

"You're not that heavy", the reply came from beside her.

She ignored him again. He nudged the horse with his lower leg with a smile and moved his horse forward. The other three followed him.

Diana had never been to the capital in her life. She curiously enjoyed the views as they moved forward. Their path to the capital was so beautiful. She was able to forget her situation and behold the beauty of nature on her way.

They rode the horse most of the day time. Took breaks once in a while. Fed the horses with some healthy food, since Diana pestered them. Stayed in the inns during the nighttime. At last, they crossed the beautiful river of tranquility using the famous bridge of Cardended.

Diana had read about this river and the bridge. It was the longest bridge in the whole Lanir. It was

of great historical importance as well. This bridge was called the Silver bridge. Diana had studied about this bridge. It was built using a silver alloy since the werewolves were claimed to have a weakness because of silver. This bridge was a pitfall to the werewolves.

"Wyatt, let's rest here for a while", Diana asked once they crossed the bridge.

"Here?"

"Yeah. There is a river. We can hydrate ourselves and rest for a while below that tree"

"No Diana. The water here is unhygienic", Wyatt replied.

"Unhygienic?"

"Yes, people dump their garbage here"

"What did you say?", Wyatt kept quiet observing the shock on her face.

"Yes, it's no longer drinkable", the guard replied this time.

"So this is how they rule the capital", an infuriated Diana smirked.

"Miss, it's not our place to comment the rulers", the guard spoke again.

"...", she shut her mouth out of annoyance.

The four of them entered the gate of the capital after a few minutes of walking. The blue flag with a white and red lion on it flapped at the top of the tower in that gatehouse.

They had to go through an identification process to enter the gates.

Once it's all done, the gate opened for them.

The security around the capital city was no joke. They have implemented many levels of protection.

When they surpassed the third gate, which is the third level of protection, they entered the shopping area.

Just as she heard from the folklore, the capital indeed was luxurious. The shops contained goods which were of the quality Diana had never seen her in life. To her surprise, most of those goods were affordable.

She entered the fourth gate, mesmerized by the shops. There, they could see the houses. They were all three, four-storeyed houses.

It was indeed a luxurious sight. Diana was so absorbed in the environment and kept looking around the places while moving towards the castle. Once they reached the seventh gate, she could see the actual city.

The houses here were, even more, higher than the previous ones. The streets were all too busy. It was noisy but still wonderful. For someone who had only witnessed a serene rural environment, this was a fabulous location to visit.

At far, at the center of these tall buildings, Diana could see the grand palace of Cardended. She could say that the palace must be at least seven storeyed. Unlike Wyatt's castle, this one looked new and shiny. Painted in white color with silver lines. It was also huge. Diana could say that it must be nearly ten times bigger than that of the Ruthernglan castle.

The bustling, shiny capital indeed looked like a whole new world. The luxury there was something she had never imagined before.

It was beautiful, indeed. But there was something that bothered Diana.

The capital was full of buildings and construction and lavish creations. Diana couldn't;t see anything that could be addressed as natural.

No greenery could be seen. It was so artificial that she could see only a few trees and plants. As they passed a few busy streets, she smiled at a few people and got nothing in return. They were too busy with their works and working like machines. They didn't have much time to smile back!

Wyatt stopped the other three by a shop to drink some beverage she had not known in life. Diana saw a few flower pots in the next shop. She moved there and picked one flower pot. It was also a new flower she had never seen in her life. She smelled it. There was no smell. It was artificial. She saw more of these artificial flowers in another shop.

It didn't take her much time to understand the lifestyle of these people.

She could see that the great capital of Lanir, Cardended, lacked nature!

She also understood that it is not the place for someone like her.