Tien, a lupalune, was on a quest to find her parents. So when she and the others got word of a pair of lupalunes—a man and a woman—they obviously had to go and investigate. It was during a bumpy coach ride that Tien began to voice her unease.
“Sorry. All this, just for Chi...”
“Oh, Tien. Don’t say that,” Nina told her.
“Chi...should not? Why should Chi not say that?”
“At times like this, you don’t say sorry, you say thank you. That way, everyone’s happy.”
Tien immediately perked up. “Oh! Thank you!” she said, smiling. Nina beamed back at her.
“Hey, Astrid...” Emily said quietly.
“Yes, Emily?”
“Do my eyes deceive me, or is Nina doing embroidery, mending our gear, and repacking all our luggage on a moving coach?”
“Your eyes are working fine.”
While she talked to Tien, Nina got on with all sorts of different tasks without a care for the jolts and rattling of the coach. She suddenly glanced up at Emily and said, “This is nothing for a maid!”
For some reason, Tien looked pleased with herself. “That is right. This is nothing for Nina.”
The coach continued on its way, and before long, they crossed the border and entered the Yupiter Empire. In a few days, they would reach the imperial capital of Thundergard. It was known by many names—the city where the sun never set, the thousand-year city, the glorious capital.
The town extended out far beyond the high stone walls that surrounded the city proper, and there was a long line leading up to the gates.
The sunlight grew slowly brighter, reminding all that summer was just around the corner.
It was said that the first lupalunes were born of a union between a human and the beast god known as the Moon Wolf—though whether this was true, none could say. They were identifiable by their glossy hair as black as a moonless night, pointed wolfish ears with white tips, and bushy tails. In addition, they were physically far stronger than humans but also burned through energy faster, so they were always getting hungry. Their ears and sense of smell were also far keener, a trait that some in the past had used to become successful chefs.
“—and if we want the latest info about them, we’ve got to ask a merchant or an adventurer! It’s the golden rule in this world!” Emily said, putting on an air of authority. “They’ve got the freshest news. No one else travels as far and wide as they do.”
“What do you mean, ‘in this world’?” Nina asked.
“I... Uh... Nothing. Come on, to the adventurers’ guild!”
“A-All right.”
Emily hadn’t told Nina that she’d been reincarnated from Japan. It wasn’t that she didn’t want to, but it didn’t seem necessary, and besides, she doubted she could explain it properly.
The four of them found lodgings then headed out into the city. Within the walls, much of the city’s old architecture remained, the stone buildings seeming to loom almost forbiddingly over the streets. The shops announced themselves with brass signs that seemed to sprout from the walls and stood five stories tall so that you had to crane your head to look up at them.
In addition to the shops selling food, clothing, and daily necessities that were found in any old city, the capital of the Yupiter Empire also boasted such services as amanuenses, lost item finders, and auguries.
“Oh, my... It’s so far to the other side!” Nina exclaimed.
The first thing that amazed her was the size of the city’s main roads. They were so wide that multiple coaches could travel along them abreast and looked like it would take a minute to walk from one side to the other. Train cars carrying freight ran along tracks in the streets, their engines fueled by magic—though no faster than walking pace. At one point where the tracks intersected, there were as many as ten guards using hand signals to direct traffic. The freight cars got priority, while pedestrians and horse-drawn vehicles had to wait for them to pass.
Some of the locals stifled giggles when they noticed Nina glancing this way and that at everything around her. They probably assumed she was a country girl in the capital for the first time—which was in fact true. As expected of natives of the glorious capital, they dressed with sophistication unheard of in towns along the road. Women wore patterned jackets and pantsuits, while almost all the men donned top hats or flat caps.
Astrid smiled as she watched Nina. “Enjoying the sights?” she asked.
“Oh... I-I’m sorry, I stopped walking, didn’t I? It’s, well, it’s just all so very grand.”
“I know what you mean. All these people, and even magical freight cars!”
“There’s that, but also even with all the traffic, the roads are well paved so hardly any dust gets kicked up and everything stays clean. There are even drainage channels to prevent flooding when it rains... That attention to detail is a sign of a truly prosperous city.”
Privately, Astrid was stunned. Nina had never studied magical items, let alone city planning, but she could immediately pick up on these most important points.
“Huh... You’re not wrong, Nina. Actually, it’s the current empress who’s responsible for making the city so beautiful.”
“Is it really? What a wonderful lady!”
“I think so too. She declared that the empire owes its prosperity to its subjects who reside here—and they love her for it. The empire’s been in an era of stability since she took the throne.”
“How amazing...”
“Right? It’s the first time the empire’s been stable for a half century since its founding.”
“Gosh... Wait, half a century?!” Nina couldn’t help but be astonished. “H-How old is she?”
“Let’s see... I think she’s in her sixties...”
“B-B-But that means she must have become empress as a teenager...”
Banners and flags bearing the words Her Imperial Majesty hung along the main street. They were also adorned with what looked like merely three concentric circles but was in fact a shorthand symbol for the empire. The empire’s official crest was a sun and moon connected by a sword and surrounded by circles radiating out. Only the imperial family could use it, so around the city, people made do with the shorthand alternative.
These sorts of celebratory decorations were commonplace in other countries too, so Nina hadn’t paid them much attention. But now her eyes were drawn to the words 50 Year Jubilee. The number 50 was especially large.
“Nina, Astrid!” Emily called, waving to them from the far side of a wide pedestrian crossing. “If you’re gonna stand there chatting, we’ll leave you behind!”
Beside her, Tien was fixated on a horse tethered to a parked coach. Her eyes gleamed as it snorted.
“Oops. Coming!” Astrid called back.