"Huh? Why is there only one large ship left?" Ayesha stood on the bridge, looking toward the Whispering River port, only to see a single fifty-meter-long ship.
"Large ship?" Parkin turned his head to look and saw a fifty-meter ship docked at the port, with no other vessels around it.
"How is this possible? There's actually a ship like this here??" Parkin exclaimed in shock.
A fifty-meter ship was incredibly rare in this era, no matter where you went. Even a kingdom's capital wouldn't have many of them.
Could this be the royal capital of the Siacan Kingdom? Parkin thought blankly, before immediately denying it. No, the Siacan capital isn't called Sedona City. Just where on earth have I arrived?
He looked at the dense forest of masts in the distant port; there had to be at least four or five hundred ships. That was even more than the ships at the Yadian Kingdom's port.
"What's wrong?" Ayesha looked at the muttering Parkin.
"N-nothing." Parkin quickly shook his head, though his eyes were glued to the port, unwilling to look away.
"Are they building another dock?" Paying no more attention to the bishop, Ayesha looked at a construction site next to the shipyard not far away.
"Let's go." Nancy stepped forward.
After her initial amazement, all that was left in her was envy. She also wished Lady Bella's territory could be this prosperous, but she could only dream about it. Right now, their territory could barely afford to feed its people.
Clop, clop, clop...
The group crossed the pontoon bridge. Leaving the saltpeter and the main caravan behind, Ayesha led Parkin, Obi, and Nancy straight toward Sedona City.
Along the way, Parkin's mouth never closed. He stared in amazement at everything around him: the flat, paved roads, the trees planted on both sides, the galloping horses and carriages filling the streets, and the pedestrians walking on the sidewalks.
None of this existed in the Yadian Kingdom. Just these flat roads alone were enough to astound him.
"Huh? No city walls?" Parkin stared at the city ahead in bewilderment.
"They're being built," Ayesha replied coolly. The walls on the port side were going to be erected right along the water's edge, incorporating the port itself as part of Sedona City.
Buildings would eventually be constructed along the roadsides as well. However, it was estimated that the population would need to surpass a million for that to happen. At the current pace of construction, by the end of the year, there would be enough housing for over a hundred thousand people.
Sedona City didn't even have a hundred thousand people right now—not even fifty thousand. Reaching a million would likely take ten or twenty years.
However, the scale of Sedona City designed by Lucas was intended to accommodate tens of millions. The blueprints divided the construction into phases; to create the number one city in the world, it would take at least fifty years.
Ayesha knew a portion of Lucas's plans, which weren't a secret within the castle. Of course, to the outside world, it was the absolute highest level of classified information. This was a strategic plan; if it leaked, people would start scheming for that land.
Nowadays, building houses requires approval and a proper layout plan. As a result, very few people built their own homes; everyone just bought apartments instead.
The buildings Lucas developed came in many styles. Recently, two-story villas had even been introduced, sold to major merchants with a 100-year lease, after which they would have priority for renewal.
In Sedona City, there was no such thing as permanent homeownership; all properties had a lease term. This was a method Lucas had copied straight from Earth. Originally, he wanted to introduce permanent property rights and collect annual property taxes, but ultimately felt it was too troublesome and fraught with uncertainties.
Even when Lucas conquered the Siacan Kingdom in the future, he wouldn't use the fiefdom system. That would only lead to nobles annexing land, eventually creating many massive landlords over time while leaving the commoners with no land to farm.
"This is a new city?" Parkin was dumbstruck. How could a newly established city already be this prosperous?
Ayesha thought about it for a moment and said, "You could say that."
She had heard many people say that Sedona City was now a reborn city.
"..." Parkin was speechless. What else could he possibly say?
"Heh~" Nancy scoffed coldly, glancing at the newly quieted Parkin. Sedona City was more prosperous than even the Valtoria royal capital, let alone some Yadian Kingdom capital.
Clop, clop, clop...
The horses ran quickly, and they soon arrived at Sedona City proper. The bustling city left Parkin completely at a loss for words, his jaw dropping for the entire journey.
"This is incredible. How could it be even more prosperous than the Yadian capital?" Parkin marveled.
Looking at the smooth, flat roads and comparing them to the dark, mud-filled cobblestone streets of the Yadian capital, there was simply no comparison.
The tidy shops lining the streets lacked the strange parchment and wooden signboards hung all over the shops in the Yadian capital. Everything here was clean, orderly, and clear at a glance.
The pedestrians on the streets also wore strange clothes—refreshing and neat. There was no one walking around in tattered rags like in other cities.
No matter how Parkin looked at it, this city felt like the capital of a kingdom. In comparison, the Yadian Kingdom's capital seemed like a rural little town.
"Archbishop, Her Majesty really needs to come and see this," Parkin muttered to himself.
"Let's go. We'll head to the castle first; we can come out and look around later when we have time," Ayesha said, forcefully suppressing the urge to walk into a shop and eat something as she marched toward the castle.
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200 power stones.
Top 100. All time.