“It’s the most dazzling thing I’ve ever seen!” Yoichi marvelled. “The top of its walls looks like a crown! Spectacular!”

“Eheh. I knew you’d like it. And you haven’t seen its interior yet,” Enatsu commented, pausing to admire that masterpiece of architecture. “The last time I was here, in front of these walls, I was just a child. I often accompanied my father on his business trips,” he continued. ​​

Colossal bricks, several meters wide and stacked on each other, stood more than 40 meters high. Goldhaven’s outer walls were as tall as mountains, and, admiring them from below, it was impossible to distinguish what was inside them.

The whole city was a great stronghold, in the middle of an immense plain. Behind it, at the farthest point where Yoichi’s gaze managed to arrive, there was an expanse of ocean-like water.

“Goldhaven was the first man-made city on these lands when Tentochu was still a wild and exotic place, dominated by mysterious and ancient creatures”, Enatsu explained, almost automatically starting a history lesson. “It is said to have been built above the largest gold mines in Lumya, from which it took its name.”

“This is ravishing. I can’t wait to get in!” Yoichi impatiently replied. “Although it is a peaceful place, these walls seem to have suffered many battles. Am I right?” he asked.

On the external facade of what appeared to be the main entrance to the city, the white rock had suffered obvious damage. Grooves and scratches scattered here and there on its surface gave that high wall a worn look. It was as if Goldhaven had gained by force the right to stay there, to exist and prosper.

“Actually, that’s a good point. The capital has undergone numerous attacks by the Kamakiri faction, the army of the far east. The most valiant warriors defended Goldhaven, sacrificing their lives and that of their demons to save the people of Tentochu from the enemies,” Enatsu promptly replied, as if waiting to receive that question.

“Kamakiri’s warriors are such sons of bitches, are they? Every time you talk about them, you turn up your nose,” Yoichi commented, trying to extrapolate additional information.

“There is no Tentochu citizen who would not hesitate to give his life to exterminate those outcasts, Yoichi. The war between the two great factions of Lumya never ended. It is not just a matter of territories to be plundered and conquered. No… what’s at stake is the honor, my young friend.”

Yoichi made no answer, eating out of his hand.

“The Nishiyama Imperial Family has been fighting for centuries the Kamakiri faction, ruled by Emperor Gonshiro, the Usurper”, Enatsu affirmed in a serious tone. After uttering that name, the merchant changed his expression, darkening.

“The usurper? You mean it’s not up to him to rule Kamakiri?” Yoichi asked naively, based on the nickname of the enemy ruler.

“That man’s wickedness knows no end, Yoichi. Legend has it that Gonshiro, hundreds of years ago, sacrificed his older brother and heir to the throne and that in return… he gained immortality.”

“What?! Immortality? Come on, I’ve heard a lot of strange things since I woke up, but this takes the cake!” Yoichi gasped, unable to believe those words.

“In a time now too far to remember, Emperor Seitaro reigned unchallenged in the lands of the west, the frozen Kingdom of Kamakiri. He was a good and far-sighted ruler. His people and Tentochu prospered in harmony, and although the Vast Ocean separated the two continents, there were no factions, no wars,” Enatsu spoke.

“However, like any story, Seitaro’s had its ups and downs. The glorious Emperor of Kamakiri had more than ten wives and as many children. Empress Yawara, the only one he recognized as his wife, gave birth to Nashiro, his eldest son. Scrupulous scholar from an early age, at just ten years old, Nashiro knew science and mathematics like the insides of his own pockets, thanks to the careful teaching of Lumya’s most experienced masters.”

Enatsu knows this story by heart. I wonder how many times he’s been told. Yoichi wondered, never stopping listening to him.

“Everything seemed to be going well, but the seed of discord had already been born. Genshiro, son of Seitaro and one of Kamakiri’s most desired Oirans, reached the imperial palace, declaring that he was the emperor’s true eldest son, the rightful heir to the throne.”

“Oiran? What do you mean, I’ve never heard that word…” Yoichi interrupted.

“A prostitute, to make it short,” Enatsu answered, beginning to speak again. “Seitaro disowned Gonshiro’s fatherhood and exiled him from the palace. About ten years after that event, he, forced to live in misery and mud in remote countryside, returned to the palace, finding the young Nashiro at the end of his late father’s bed,” the trader continued, pausing to catch his breath.

“According to legend, that day, Gonshiro killed Nashiro, Empress Yawara, and all of Emperor Seitaro’s army with his bare hands. He became the new, immortal Emperor of Kamakiri.”

“Hey, hey. Hold on for a second. I think you got confused, or maybe I heard you wrong. You said ‘with his bare hands,'” Yoichi specified, carefully listening to every little word.

“You heard perfectly, Yoichi!” Enatsu repeated, proving to be aware of what he had just told.

“A 30-year-old warrior who kills an entire army with his bare hands. Yes, why not. Maybe you’ve gone too far with sakè too,” Yoichi commented. With a gesture of the hand, he teased his merchant friend.

“When he killed Kamakiri’s rightful heir to the throne, Gonshiro honoured the divine pact of Valgoth, an ancient evil demon, born at his same moment, begotten by the anger and frustration of the prostitute who had cursed that day”, Enatsu explained. “The divine skill of his Oracle, in fact, was just that. Immortality.”

Yoichi opened his eyes wide and swallowed empty. A strange shiver ran through his back, and his hands suddenly became cold. “Are you serious? His Oracle was an ancient demon that made him immortal?!”

“No, it wasn’t. It is,” Enatsu affirmed, looking his interlocutor in the eye. “No one has seen Gonshiro again in the last fifty years, but it is said that he is still alive and that he plans to destroy Tentochu, erasing the peace that the Seitaro dynasty had created with exertion.”