Violet City sat on the southeastern shore of Mirror Lake, looking out across the water at the palace complex. It was the capital of the Temeris Duke Domain and one of the most prosperous major cities in the southern Kingdom.

As the carriage crossed the long bridge connecting the shores, the city’s silhouette gradually came into focus.

The towering white walls gleamed in the sunlight. Atop them, the double-headed eagle banner of the Temeris Clan fluttered, and the figures of patrolling Guards could be seen.

The massive city gates stood open, with an endless stream of carriages, horses, and people flowing through. A faint clamor drifted from within.

Inside the carriage, Eleanor turned slightly to gaze at the approaching city through the window.

’This city... it felt both familiar and strange to her.’

Familiar because she had visited as a child, yet strange because she had rarely set foot here in the ten years since.

Today was the fourth day after her birthday. At Margaret’s suggestion, she planned to explore this city, governed by her mother, with Murphy and Aurora.

Once inside the walls, the scene was completely different from the towns under Monte Castle’s jurisdiction. 𝙧𝙚𝙚𝔀𝒆𝓫𝓷𝙤𝓿𝒆𝙡.𝒄𝙤𝓶

The streets were wide, paved with large, flat bluestone slabs.

Shops lined both sides, their signs and banners fluttering in the gentle breeze.

Silk shops, jewelers, spice merchants, bookshops, taverns... The storefronts of every kind of business were bright and clean, their wares dazzling to the eye.

Well-dressed citizens, merchants, and minor nobles moved among them, interspersed with travelers from distant caravans. A complex aroma of spices, roasting bread, leather, and the faint smell of horse manure filled the air.

The main thoroughfare was straight and clear, branching into several secondary streets. Even the alleyways were mostly tidy.

In the central plaza stood an equestrian statue of the first Duke Temeris and a massive fountain. Street performers were putting on a show, drawing a crowd of laughing children.

In the distance, one could see the stained-glass spires of a towering cathedral refracting a rainbow of colors in the sun, as well as the impressive public buildings of the Municipal Hall and the Grand Library.

"It’s just as lively as I remember," Eleanor said softly, gazing at the streetscape through the carriage window.

Unlike the orderly, quiet, and prosperous villages and towns of the Monte Territory, this place teemed with a vibrant, even somewhat chaotic, urban energy. Moreover, this was the city her mother’s clan had ruled for generations.

’Yes, the Temeris Clan wasn’t founded by Margaret.’

Like the Vilt Royal Family, it was a clan established during the Age of Expansion after the Dark Ages.

It had a complex web of ties to the Royal Family, and there was even Temeris blood within the royal line.

Thus, through various maneuvers on Margaret’s part, she, a member of the Royal Family by birth, had ultimately inherited the title of Duke Temeris.

Aurora followed her gaze and smiled. "Violet City is a major trade hub in the South, connecting the Kingdom’s heartland with the western hills and parts of the Jade Coast trade routes, so of course it’s prosperous. Look at those buildings," she said, pointing out the carriage window to several stone structures with exquisite reliefs and arched windows. "Most are owned by wealthy merchants and guilds. The stonework and carving of the South have always been exceptional."

Murphy leaned quietly against the soft cushions, his gaze sweeping over the scene outside.

The city’s prosperity was obvious. The width of its streets, the scale of its buildings, and the density of its crowds far surpassed any town in the Monte Territory.

Here, one could see a greater variety of goods, a more diverse population, and more conspicuous displays of wealth.

This was the result of geography, history, and the long-term accumulation of being the capital of the Duke’s Domain.

However, his eyes didn’t linger long on the gleaming shops and tidy main thoroughfares.

His gaze shifted to the corners of the bustling streets, where there were still pedestrians in plain or even shabby clothes, their faces hurried or numb, and a few figures huddled in the shadows of the street corners.

The carriage turned onto a slightly narrower but still clean street, and its speed slowed.

"What’s happening?" Aurora softly asked the guard driving the carriage.

"Ma’am, it looks like there’s some sort of dispute up ahead, blocking the road."

Murphy looked up.

In front of a grain store with a sign that read "Gold Harvest," a dozen or so people had gathered.

A middle-aged man in a worn linen shirt, his face sallow, was speaking animatedly to the store’s Steward. He gesticulated with his hands, his voice rising with agitation. Fragments of his words drifted back: "...the price... you promised... you can’t do this..."

The Steward, dressed in a respectable dark coat, wore an impatient expression. Two burly clerks stood behind him.

Passersby had stopped to watch, murmuring among themselves.

"...Here we go again, one of the Old Losen Family..."

"...They promised to buy the new wheat at market price, but now they’re cutting it by thirty percent..."

"...His family’s waiting on that money for medicine..."

"...The Municipal Official’s brother-in-law is behind the Gold Harvest store..."

Eleanor saw this scene as well. She furrowed her brow slightly, her dark eyes reflecting the middle-aged man’s desperate and furious face.

In the Monte Territory, she had almost never seen such an open and intense conflict between the common people and a Lord’s business.

The trading posts of Monte Castle always purchased agricultural products at fair and stable prices. Any disputes were rare and usually resolved quickly under the mediation of a Castle Deacon or a village elder.

But here, in the very Duke’s Domain she was to inherit, something like this was happening.

Aurora gently squeezed her daughter’s hand and said in a low voice, "Things like this happen everywhere. In a big city, the web of interests is more complex, and enforcing the rules is sometimes not as direct or effective as in a smaller place."

Just then, the grain store’s Steward seemed to lose his patience and waved his hand.

One of the clerks stepped forward and shoved the middle-aged man hard.

The man stumbled backward, bumping into the onlookers and nearly falling.

His face flushed red and his eyes were bloodshot, but he didn’t dare to step forward again. He just clenched his fists tightly, his chest heaving.