The capital city of Gwyneth, one of the greatest cities of the great Roxana empire, is very vast in area of coverage.
The city is surrounded by giant walls and someone flying over the capital would say it's circular but, in fact, the city walls create an enneagon, having nine angles.
The city is vast, so vast that it homes more than thirty million 'humans' as well as a vast number of non-humans. And the city traffic itself is hard to measure.
The city is decided into three parts where the outer part of the city is home to the common people, the core part of the city which homes to the upper class and nobility, and the center which homes to the royal palace, the [Celestial castle], where the royal family resides.
And the royal palace is one of the six structures that anyone could recognize if they fly over to the capital, actually, they can spot this grand structure as soon as they enter the capital city itself.
The palace is the greatest structure in the capital city of Gwyneth and it actually covers more than nine percent of the whole landmass of the city.
The outer part of the city is where the most number of people reside and the place where nobility reside also covers a significant part of the land, nearly the same as the part which homes the big majority of common people.
It is a clear difference but it is what it is...
The outer part and core part as well as the core part and central part are decided by a large industrial street that contains most of the shopping districts of the empire.
One can easily differentiate between the commoner with lower status and the upper class by the place they live in.
The closer they are to the imperial castle, the higher their status.
But there are natural exceptions to that. Like the people who reside near the other five grand structures of the capital city.
Like how the adventurers mostly resided near the heaven-piercing hexagon tower of the adventurer's association. And adventurers naturally have a special place in society according to their ranks and powers.
The prism-shaped glass building of the knights, the imperial capital's branch of the house of prism. And most of the independent knights reside the establishments near there.
The holy temple is some of the most important places of the capital as well as a place that everyone from common people to royalty visits. The priests, nuns, and helpers reside near this holy establishment.
The cube building of the elder council which is naturally made of the mages is surrounded by the tower-like houses that mages had created for themselves. It is a peculiar place that houses the nation's strongest people.
And lastly, there's Hiraani. The one building that although do not have any long history like the other five, is still one of the greatest structures of this blessed great city.
It has a charm and history of its own. As well as a grand story of a single noblewoman who became someone the whole world knew about.
An auction house that started just like any other auction house in the whole wide world but after that, it saw fall, long stability, great rises, and then the normal building which was just a good shop started evolving, and only stopped when it had become a grand structure of the capital city of their great empire.
Its story is great, something one would definitely want to write if they are given a chance, but it's just a dream until it's realized by the messy words of the creator.
But that great story isn't a part of this great story so... alas.
Hiraani is situated near the greatest industrial street between the area of common folks and nobility.
It's a castle-like structure that covers a vast part of the land and also boasts an architectural elegance that few could ever achieve.
Situated in the middle of an open area covered by green plants, it is a gold-white castle with red outer designs.
It is a great construction made of strong materials that wouldn't break even in the face of a natural calamity, but aside from that, it's actually a pretty normal place usually open to everyone.
It's an auction house, a place to trade items, and a place that deals with items ranging from some common man's farm products to national treasure-grade artifacts.
It has three floors above the ground, and all three of them have enough space to hold hundreds of thousands of people.
The employee number of the place as well as the guards, mages, special forces for protection, and all the people working here also number in thousands.
But still... for the creator and owner of this place, for the mother of such an amazing structure, who couldn't access her child-like building for years because of some crappy people, the happiness of her children and family was the most important thing.
It wasn't the goal when she started her journey, but as her journey came to the current time, the smile of her children, and the happiness of her own people, became the fuel for her growth.
***
'It's fascinating however many times I see this.'
We were almost near Hiraani and I could see it with my third eye.
It was snow-covered land everywhere but still, the whole street was filled with people today.
Commoners who needed help from the upper class, the servants of the upperclassmen distributing food, clothing, money, and other important things to the needy, as well as the normal people who helped with whatever they could.
It was mostly a cheerful atmosphere everywhere. But this wasn't actually the best place to see the true winter festival.
As one moved towards the periphery of the city, the real festive and cheerful things happening there were the actual winter festival.
This was a famous street where commoners, as well as the nobility, did their shopping at the same time so even with snow covering the roads, the street was alive.
Our carriage was attractive and people naturally recognized it and made way for it so we were able to reach our destination a bit before needed time.
And today, this place was the greatest gathering place for the nobles of the empire.
There were many carriages when we entered the premises of Hiraani and most of the people recognized ours so the carriage in the very front with mom took a turn and stopped only at the back side of the auction house which was actually a restricted area for non-employees.
The front area was getting crowded and after seeing our carriages even more, people started chasing after us. We were a secretive family that mostly no one knew much about.
There were certainly some rumors about our family outside but they were either just too absurd to believe or too normal that no one would pay any great attention to them.
Of course, most of the things were blocked and difficult rumors were manipulated.
Rumors were rumors after all. There was no credibility that it was any factual information after all.
So rumors were rumors and we had arrived at the back gate that only those few lucky and mom's handpicked people could use was better than the front gate and right now, it was even more gorgeous than the main front gate that would be used by even the royal family.
It was Anna's first time seeing this place and she didn't yet know just how awesome our mom was~. But she liked the place and as we walked inside after the warm welcome of the employees and moved inside after greeting the general manager of this whole place, national talent, and valedictorian of the greatest academy from a few years ago, we were even more amazed.
He had graduated from the greatest educational institute as the top person so he was certainly talented. But aside from his two and only special unique skills, he was a pretty normal (tier-4) fire mage.
He was also a good person and I knew we would be seeing each other quite often so we can talk with him later. He was an interesting person after all.
But right now, the gorgeous, shiny things around us were enough to catch even my attention.
The outside of Hiraani is attractive but not lavish or anything and the open hallway from the front door is the same. But this backdoor and the hallway we walked through caught the attention of not only me but also Anna, Rein, Celes, and Uto who were seeing such 'sparkling' things for the first time.
The hallway was just that much amazing...
There were different items on display, many artistic pictures, and even artifacts.
It was a hallway that was built to grab the attention of the onlookers. And it worked perfectly for us, just like she had expected.
Mom was delighted to have surprised us and seeing Anna as well as my cute reactions was just a priceless moment for her.
And as we moved forward, reached the magic elevator, and moved to the third-floor auction room where today's auction would be held, we were even more amazed at the grand structure and size of the place...
'Well... damn.'
I had read about this place in many books but reading something and actually experiencing it are totally different things. I realized that once again today.
'Mom...'
I knew this day was going to be longer than I had thought now.
marvelous
