The Western Empire’s territory wasn’t particularly large.
Looking at the entire human world, it qualified as a large country, but compared to Camelot’s scale, there was still a considerable gap. Its land area was roughly less than half of Camelot’s.
However, almost all of its territory was suitable for habitation, unlike Camelot with its vast mountain ranges and deserts. This led to exceptionally developed internal transportation in the Western Empire. Five hundred years of development had made the empire’s infrastructure remarkably complete, even using stone to build the Central Avenue that ran through the Western Empire from east to west.
Now, the convoy was speeding along this Central Avenue.
"It’s so smooth," Pluvia remarked while sitting in the carriage.
The Western Empire’s Central Avenue was built using large stone slabs ten centimeters thick laid on compacted ground. Each slab had been polished to create a relatively flat surface, with edges fitting together precisely.
While ensuring the stone slabs connected well without leaving large gaps, they used a locally made special mud to bond and fill the cracks.
Such a road was naturally expensive, but it had become the Western Empire’s most famous avenue. The entire road was spacious and level, allowing carriage passengers to avoid the violent jolts typical of dirt or gravel roads.
"Building the Central Avenue was quite spectacular," Kenji explained. "Casidel II used almost all the country’s available pack animals to transport the stone materials. Between this and later building the palace and cathedral, the Western Empire practically leveled an entire mountain."
The road was indeed one of humanity’s wonders. When completed, it had driven the economy and regional exchanges along the entire Western Empire. This gave the Western Empire’s development tremendous momentum.
Therefore, the Central Avenue wasn’t called such because it ran through the empire’s most prosperous areas, but because it created the empire’s most prosperous regions and was later named the Central Avenue.
"The cost... was truly terrifying," Pluvia quickly calculated an astonishing figure in her mind, marveling at the Western Empire’s boldness.
"Your Majesty is doing something similar now," Kenji smiled. "Once the canal is completed, future history books will surely record your achievement prominently. However, the canal is much more difficult than stone roads. If Camelot hadn’t already developed a solid foundation, it would be hard to support such canal construction."
"Where will we stay tonight?" Pluvia suddenly asked.
Kenji stuck his head out, asked the Duke something in the Western language, then crawled back in. "He says we’ll stay at a place called Salt City tonight. It was once the Western Empire’s salt industry center but has now become a commercial transit hub." Find more to read at freewebnovel
"Sounds quite nice."
"Yes, Salt City was originally the Western Empire’s salt production center. Their salt was high quality, used domestically and exported abroad. It was an important city back then. Now the salt wells are nearly depleted, but salt production technology has advanced, so they don’t need the wells anymore. The city’s infrastructure was already well-developed, and many merchant associations established bases there, so it became a commercial transit hub. Though not as glorious as before, it’s still prosperous."
Kenji’s detailed knowledge made Pluvia curious.
This guy knows quite a lot, no wonder father arranged talent exchanges according to his recommendations.
"You know so much about the Western Empire. Have you studied it before?"
"I’m just curious about this country," Kenji smiled. "Your Majesty, the Western Empire is one of the few human nations that dares to stand up to the church. With over five hundred years of history—not long compared to Camelot—but managing to avoid thought suppression under church influence for five hundred years, and even trying to break free from constraints... I find this country interesting."
"Do you think they could become our allies?"
"Probably not."
Kenji glanced outside and spoke softly.
Pluvia rested her chin on her hand, looking at the Grand Marshal with interest. "Explain."
"We can cooperate, but not become allies," Kenji said. "Currently, the church serves as a common enemy between us and the Western Empire. But once the church is successfully suppressed, the Western Empire’s next goal will likely be unifying the human world. It seems distant, but it’s not impossible."
"Until then, we can cooperate with them, but we can’t completely trust them. Once we trust them, it will create unfavorable factors for our future strategic decisions."
"I actually think forming an alliance wouldn’t be bad," Pluvia suddenly said.
"Your Majesty?"
"Who says allies need to know everything about each other?" Pluvia gave a cold laugh as she caressed the smooth jade ornament in her hand. "We’ve exchanged talent with the Western Empire, and you surely know they don’t truly trust us. They claim church restrictions prevent them from sharing core knowledge with us, but honestly, they just don’t trust us."
She slightly lifted a corner of the carriage window, looking at the escorting soldiers outside. "I understand their caution. We’re guarding against them, and they’re guarding against us. We’ve learned some of the Western Empire’s technology, but from the reports our ambassadors sent back, the Western Empire has held a lot back."
"If you know this, why teach them Camelot’s water engineering and battle formations?"
"As I said, we’re both being cautious with each other," her eyes, like deep caverns, fixed on Kenji. "One condition for breaking down barriers is for one side to show sincerity. As my useless brother said, Camelot is now stagnant water. Do you think I don’t want to revitalize it?"
"But I can’t make large-scale changes to our domestic foundation now—that would backfire. If that’s the case, why not get some things from outside first? The Western Empire is a good ’ally’ in this sense. I’m trading things we’ve already exhausted, can’t breakthrough quickly, and they can’t easily grasp the essence of, in exchange for an ally lowering their guard. That’s the main purpose."
"To them, Camelot’s water engineering and battle formations are our top-secret technologies, which is true. But they’ve only learned the basics of these secrets. To them, these are our trump cards; to us, they’re just the surface. Even if we teach them battle formations, they’ll need decades or even centuries to establish a complete system for using them."
"What I want is an ally who lowers their guard and is willing to help revitalize Camelot. As for those basics, that’s just sharing. What’s given is given. If they’re capable, they can abandon their existing magic system to learn our battle system. After all, I’ve already told them our ’secrets,’ so they should consider reciprocating."
The caravan reached Salt City in the late evening.
The city had prepared early to welcome them. As soon as Pluvia entered the city, she received a warm welcome from the city lord. Just as they had learned before, this was a commercial hub. The entire City remained bustling even in the evening.
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People in the streets had lit their lamps. At the taverns along the street, owners were enthusiastically promoting their freshly brewed fruit wines. Crowds gathered at the entrances of merchant guilds—some buyers, some sellers.
The nightlife here never seemed to tire. As the sun set, some less reputable businesses emerged. The moment they appeared, soldiers drove them back into the alleys.
This gave Pluvia a sense of reality. No matter how well-developed a city might be, there were always shadows beyond its light. Of course, the Western soldiers had clearly prepared for this, promptly driving those people away to leave a good impression on their guests.
Most places operated this way, and she knew the Western Empire couldn’t possibly be without its dark side. But she hadn’t come here to study politics, so she chose to overlook it.
Their accommodations were provided in a private mansion belonging to a local nobleman. The place was normally used to entertain important guests. The Western Empire had temporarily requisitioned it, making some cleaning and modifications to turn it into Pluvia and Kenji’s temporary residence.
After escorting the guests to the mansion, the Duke chatted briefly before gracefully taking his leave, giving the Camelot visitors enough personal space.
The entire mansion could only be described as luxurious. There were over twenty guest rooms just for visitors, not counting the lounges, servants’ quarters, and other rooms. The owner’s bedroom was especially extravagant.
The mansion was now entirely occupied by Camelot’s people. According to diplomatic protocol, this place was equivalent to Camelot territory. While Kenji maintained the Western Empire’s face as the host, he arranged for Dragon Guards to secure the mansion. The outer security was left to the hosts, but Camelot’s territory was fully protected by the Dragon Guards.
After arranging the defenses, Pluvia met with the accompanying officials in the living room to coordinate tomorrow’s travel schedule before returning to her bedroom to review documents she’d brought.
Pluvia had brought some documents with her. These weren’t urgent matters but planning documents. She also needed to consider the content and etiquette for the upcoming diplomatic meetings.
While she was writing intently in her bedroom, someone knocked on the door.
"Who is it?" she asked.
The Dragon Guards outside immediately replied, "Your Majesty, the Grand Marshal requests an audience."
"Come in."
The ornately carved wooden door opened, and Kenji entered the bedroom, bowing respectfully. "Your Majesty."
"What is it?" Pluvia gathered her loose hair. She had already changed into her nightclothes and let her hair down. Kenji’s visit at this hour was quite unexpected.
"Your Majesty, I’ve compiled a list of Western Empire technologies. It includes various technologies and resources our empire might need. During diplomatic talks, you might want to prioritize discussing these resources with them."
Organizing this wasn’t difficult. He had prepared the list before departure, especially after Rinas had told him about many excellent technologies the Western Empire possessed but was reluctant to share. Kenji naturally wanted to bring these up during this diplomatic mission.
Pluvia took his list, then glanced at her nightclothes, pulling the slightly slipped garment back onto her shoulder. "I’ll consider these. Thank you for your hard work."
"It’s my duty, Your Majesty."