After about an hour, the carriage finally emerged from the road that let through the plant forest.
Julian stuck his head out the carriage again, his eyes traveling up the colossal of a wall that surrounded Drucalis.
Several cracks and fallen debris were lined along the wall as if it was hit with heavy battering rams over decades.
It was so old and beaten that Julian could clearly make out holes in its surface despite his visibility dropping at this hour of the night.
Despite the beaten and worn appearance of the wall, Julian's eyes widened and mouth went agape in awe.
He was wonderstruck.
To him, the wall was magnificent, and he could see that it will stay standing for a good couple of years.
"Wow." Isadora said, head sticking out the window on the other side of the carriage, sharing Julian's wonderment.
"It is indeed amazing, your Highnesses." Mila said from inside the carriage.
"Yeah." Julian and Isadora said simultaneously, still gazing at the wall.
"And this is just the tip of the iceberg. This world has many more impressive things that the Prince and Princess will experience." Mila encouraged.
Julian and Isadora's heart raced at that promise of adventure.
The two of them tucked their heads back into the carriage as they got closer to the entrance.
The driver drove them through the gateless entrance without interference.
"No guards?" Julian asked in confusion.
In the hundreds of novels he read, and dozens of anime he watched, there was always guards at the gates.
There not being any guards was not what he expected.
"Not enough manpower." Nala simply said, to which Julian just nodded.
"I-Is... is this a dump?" Isadora asked, her voice shaking slightly.
One can't blame her. The place surely does look like a dump.
The roads were filled with rubbish and holes, making the carriage shake with every moment it moves forward.
Houses were small, packed and made from molded wood. It looked as if they were about to fall apart at any moment.
The place was overcrowded. There was no division and no order.
Homeless people–woman, men, children, people of all ages–were sleeping in dark alleys that were strewn with rubbish.
Starved people were dressed in torn rags, wandering the night streets aimlessly.
Drunks, bandits, and sex workers were on every corner, shouting and talking loudly.
"It is indeed a dump." Julian uttered in disbelief, the earlier awe in his gaze completely drained.
"I-It gets better the further in you go." Mila said, with embarrassment in her tone.
"Why does it look like this?" Isadora asked, the sight before her breaking her heart.
"There are plenty of reasons, Princess. Not enough funds to feed this many refugees.
Corrupt nobles siphoning funds, evading taxes and hoarding the food that was meant for the people.
The Imperial advisors advising wrong and an Emperor that is not versed in politics and knows only the battlefield.
The approaching war against the demons and werewolves causing mass panic and lack of manpower.
Monster pouring out from dungeons and instances raiding villages and farms in their berserk state, causing a food scarcity.
The Corrupted God Cult kidnapping indiscriminately to sacrifice people in order to summon the Abyss God.
Uncontrollable bandit activity and the fact that races from other continents are constantly suppressing the improvement of the vampire continent." Mila mouthed off.
"There are more, but these reason have the most affect on why things are the way they are." She finished.
The entire carriage was steeped in silence, Julian and Isadora trying to come to terms with their reality being different from what they imagined it would be.
They drove for another fifteen minutes, until they came closer to another wall.
This one was smaller in size to the first one, but stronger, newer, spotless. Still magnificent in its own right, but it didn't have the history and story as the first all.
And besides, it was clearly meant to keep something out.
Not monsters, but people.
This time the carriage came to halt, the guards–adorned in black and red armored, with the Dracul crest on the breastplate–demanding identification.
Mila flashed some sort of token to the guards that Julian couldn't get a good look on, and then they swiftly opened the massive gates and granted them access.
The carriage moved through the gates, and the surroundings were in complete contrast to the other side of the wall.
The roads were clean and paved, the carriage rode on it smoothly, without even a shake.
The houses were big, neatly lined and made from strong black wood. The were ancient, but resilient.
The people were fed, dressed in expensive clothing, and carried themselves with an air of pride and arrogance.
Most of them were men with flushed cheeks, laughing loudly and with a women or two, dressed in skimpy clothing, hanging in their arms.
These people were clearly nobles, or at least very important figures.
There were also guards constantly patrolling the streets.
Julian could make out the massive silhouette of a castle at the edge of the city, who's countless spires stretch high into the sky.
He could see a faint red light glowing from the castle, and a big swarm of crows flying in circles in the airspace around the castle.
"Is that where we headed?" He asked to no one in particular, but as always, Mila was happy to answer.
"Yes, my Prince. Domus Noctis. Main castle of the Dracul Imperial Family." Her voice was filled with reverence.
'Domus Noctis.' Julian repeated internally. 'Latin for "House of Night".'
A language that exists on Earth too. One that should be impossible to appear in this world if it's originally from Earth and vice versa.
Julian looked around and notice several decorations on the walls and in the streets.
"What are they celebrating?" He asked.
"The arrival of the Prince and Princess." Mila said, her face beaming. "Though, they don't know, yet."
"So that's the reason for all the secrecy and late night travels." Isadora said, her gaze still sweeping through the crowds of people, though her voice had a hint of hurt in it.
"Yes. I'm sorry, Princess." Mila inclined her head in apology, picking up Isadora's emotions. "If there was any–"
"Don't worry. We're used to being treated as bastards. Right, big brother?" She said, with a small smile, making eye contact.
"Right." Julian replicated her smile with his own, a thousand words exchanged with their eyes.
The two of them have been left alone a lot in Arx Immortalis. So they used to come up with theories for their mother's disappearance and their father's inconsistencies.
And one the most concrete theory was that they were illegitimate. Love children. Bastards.
But during their isolation, one thing was always consistent: they had each other.
So they promised to one another that they will always stand together, no matter what comes their way and no matter who blocks their path.
Though their promise were not written in blood–as is the way of the vampire–but, one could say that their method surpasses even the bindings of a blood oath.
This is something that was a norm on Earth, and almost every single person has made such a sacred promise to another.
Julian thought that using this method as a binding to a promise was stronger than anything this world could ever create, so he showed it to Isadora.
The infamous pinky promise.
She loved this instantly, and so they made a pinky promise to always stand by one another no matter the consequences.