Volume I

Chapter 3 ─ The Divine Capital, San Ilia

San Ilia was the name of this city.

It was a beautiful town that represented the concept of "purity" better than any other place Ashton had ever seen in his life. That was because each brick that made up the various buildings around and each stone tile he was walking on was entirely white.

Yes, that's right. There were no colorful buildings or different architectural styles like on Earth. Each of these buildings in San Ilia was perfectly homogenous, with only their general shape and size varying from each other.

If one wanted to find a particular building, they better have the address on their head, because they would get immediately lost otherwise.

But while such style would normally bring some kind of gloomy monotony in the atmosphere, that wasn't what Ashton felt when looking around the city.

That was because, in addition to that, there were also various artificial streams following along the roads, like in Venice. And just like in that city, people were sailing on these rivers with small boats.

And coupled with the many Greek-styled pillars casually built around the larger sides of the streets ─ rather than being discouraged by this sight ─ Ashton felt like he was in the middle of a sacred city.

But that wasn't even the most amazing aspect of this city…

The city of San Ilia wasn't built on land, but instead, on the top of a massive artificial terrace that was at least a dozen meters tall and many kilometers wide! And it was entirely built in white marble.

This didn't seem to be something people alone could do, it required a great number of resources and manpower to build such a terrace for a single large building. But here it was ─ right under Ashton's feet ─ a whole terrace for an entire city.

Mecca, Lhasa, Bethlehem, Vatican City… None of those cities couldn't be compared with the piece of art that was San Ilia, because there was no way that this city could be built by human hands! It truly was a miracle of God, or Goddess, in this case.

And right now, Ashton was walking through such a miracle of a structure, accompanied by the young man who volunteered to help him reach the military's recruitment post.

"So, are you from here?" Willing to start a conversation to kill time, the young man asked Ashton that question.

However, the other man wasn't too keen on joining the dialogue. With everything that had just happened to him, he would rather focus on doing what he must do than enjoying side talk with strangers from different worlds.

Of course, that would be an impolite thing to say to someone willing to help him, which was why Ashton simply kept the thought to himself and hoped that the other man would instead stop talking first.

"No, I just came to this city."

"Oh, you're a foreigner? That's cool! So, where do you come from? Port Natalia? Or maybe from another region?" Hearing that Ashton came from outside arose the young man's curiosity, but it was then that he noticed something amiss. "Oh, wait, I forgot to introduce myself. My name is Jean, what's yours?"

"Ashton." The man replied. "As for where I came from… It's from a distant place, you probably never heard of it."

Ashton doubted that normal citizens like Jean would believe such a stupid story, that he had transmigrated into this world from another for unknown reasons. So, after some quick thoughts, he decided to be superficial with the answer.

As the two of them were walking over a bridge above a river, Jean stared at Ashton with a curious expression, but he didn't bother with his origins as he continued the conversation. "I see… So I guess you came here to join San Ilia's army?"

"Mh-hmm." Ashton simply hummed back in response, showing confirmation on the matter but not willing to elaborate.

Needless to say, it was tough for the conversation between them to progress any further, which was why Jean didn't say anything else and simply guided Ashton over the city's streets.

By then, they were way past the halfway point of the route they were taking to reach their destination. As for now, they were currently walking down the edge of another bridge, which casually pulled Ashton's attention to the river below them.

Surprisingly, the water was crystal clear. He didn't know which sort of pathway this stream of water went through, but in normal circumstances, it wouldn't be weird if he saw floating trash once in a while, or just simple dark and foggy water.

However, that wasn't the case here in San Ilia. The water flowing across this city was as clear as glass, to the point where he could even see the bottom made of marble bricks.

It was truly an impressive sight…

'I wish home was just as clean.' Ashton thought with a somber expression, but he didn't stop there for even a second to observe before he was already on his way down the bridge.

"I've been meaning to ask…" Suddenly, Jean spoke again, pulling Ashton's attention back to the young man. "Don't you have any luggage?"

"Hmm?" Ashton raised an eyebrow. "What for?"

"Well, to move in the barracks, you know," Jean explained to Ashton. "Once you join the army, you're going to live in the barracks until the end of your enlistment, or at least until the end of the trial period."

"I see…" Ashton softly replied as he unconsciously looked down on himself. As mentioned before, Ashton had nothing on him: No weapon, no armor, no trinkets of any kind, nor any item he could own.

The only things that could be said to belong to him were the clothes that he didn't remember wearing before being transported into this world, and the bag of money that he never had with him until now.

Unlike Ashton, however, Jean was properly prepared for the recruitment. Not only was he wearing an actual chainmail over his clothes, but he was also carrying a large backpack over his shoulders. There was also a sheathed sword hanging from his waist.

An armed young warrior with clearly some experience under his belt and someone who looked like they just came out of a hospital walking together to the military barracks… There was a certain sense of comedy in such a sight.

But Ashton didn't put too much thought into that, and simply answered the question Jean previously asked. "I don't have anything to bring with me, it's fine."

"If you say so…" Jean shrugged in return. If Ashton was fine with carrying nothing, then that was it.

But there was something else Jean was curious about, prompting him to ask this particular question.

"Hey, Ashton, what do you think about knights?"

"Knights?" Hearing the sudden question, Ashton glanced at Jean who wore a small expectant smile on his face. "Fully armored, riding horses… Are you talking about those knights?"

"Well, it's not just them who ride horses… But yeah, them. What do you think of them?" Jean was about to correct Ashton, but he decided that the question had a greater priority than that, at least in his opinion.

"That came out of the blue…" Ashton commented as he gave some thought to that question before he shrugged and gave a casual reply. "I guess they're good at their job. If they can get knighted, good for them."

Because he lived in a completely different era less than an hour ago, he couldn't form any concrete opinion on anything that the people in this world may find common, so of course his reply would sound a bit empty.

"I see…" If Jean was disappointed by that answer, he didn't show it on his face, but the dialogue didn't extend any further from that point.

There was no use for that, after all, since they had just arrived at the recruitment post.

Chapter's ended, now onto the reviews!

Weewoozesty: Finally, now that I've got you right where I want you after all this time I have to ask the question again...

Will Amira The Unfortunate Lamia have any value in this story?
And it's nice to see you back again.

Answer: First of all, thank you! I appreciate you people's support and patience for an half-assed author like me. Second, just like in Arrogant Love, I really don't have much of an idea about how much value I will assign to Amira, but she will definitely be part of the story.

I can't just forget the best waifu! *winks*

Sh4d0wgh0st: Hi good start nice to see a non-omniscent isekai protagonist it's refreshing when a character learn from the world wile the story progress for a change.

Answer: Thank you for your good review, Sh4d0wgh0st! And it might surprise you to know that I am not that worried about that aspect when reading stories.

For me, there is both a charm into knowing the whole story and not knowing anything, it depends on how it is handled. But I was thinking to myself that while it may be good for a quick infodump to make the MC all-knowing, the system alone is more than enough for him as a cheat.

And this also helps the story open up in new unexplored corners that would have been ignored if the protagonist already knew of the game, and also create some character development as he would act on his own, rather than following the game plot to make sure everything coincides for some reason.

I mean, in the original game, the story was supposed to reach an happy ending(before Paradox) whether Luka gets help or not. Even if he loses, there is the Evaluation Meeting to set him back on track. Really, there is no reason to give him additional help.

Well, this is it, I hope you guys like this chapter and share your thoughts on it, because for the time being, the story will be glued into San Ilia until everything is properly set!