Ch 113. Welcome to the Capital

Coming into the basin that Antiam was positioned in, all the forest for miles around seemed to have been cut down in a ring around the city. In its place were similar trees, all in varying stages of growth, as if the entire basin was being farmed for lumber. 

Laborers were working on planting new trees for miles, equal parts free human men and equal parts female beastkin slaves. Despite being women, beastkin were still almost always equal to a human male if not above them in strength, so they weren't terrible workers from what I had heard. Finding interest in seeing so many beastkin together in one place. 

Belle certainly had her interest piqued as well, looking at all the women in the fields of various beast origin curiously. She had rarely seen another beastkin, and yet here they were gathered in droves. A few mammal types every once in a while, dogs or wolves judging from the ears but most of them appeared to be the more sexually undesirable ones, while the rest were lizards, lamia, or other reptile types. The lizardkin still looked mostly human, but their scales covered a good portion of their skin, and their tails were often thick and unappealing like an alligators, very unlike the mammal types who were nearly all indistinguishable from humans aside from their ears and tail. Only a few ever had tufts over fur covering their hands and feet, seeming like this was either an uncommon trait or something that was selected against by their human captors. 

For the humans here, these type of manual labor jobs weren't all too terrible. They did the same work as the beastkin, but the 'perks' more than made up for that. They had free rein amongst the women here, and for a manual labor job that was a pretty good deal since they saved on brothels. The beastkin's owners didn't mind the interactions and actually seemed to encourage it even, as I heard the couplings tended to have a domesticating effect on the female slaves, making them more cooperative and less likely to revolt. Even if they were all unarmed females, their natural claws and fangs made them more than a match for the workers and overseers here to handle, so any beastkin slave revolt was always a bloody affair and to be avoided at all costs. 

Belle cracked the window so she could bring her head outside, getting a closer look at the beastkin laborers who were planting saplings along the roadside. Most of them ignored us, but those that took notice of Belle clearly had jealous looks, pausing their work and staring as we went by. A catkin with such silky shampoo'd hair and expensive satin dresses, riding along in a carriage like ours was clearly the pet of some noble or rich man. 

"Keaton, I've never seen so many different Beastkin together. How do they all live here? Doesn't this cause issues?" Tammy asked from her seat, now that we were within sight of the Capital's walls she was less interested playing around with Marcella and was taking more interest in our surroundings. Subsequently letting Marcella get up from her spot and return to her seat, wiping her mouth hurriedly with a silken handkerchief of mine before looking outside as well, following along with our conversation. 

Everyone knew the bloody history between us and the beastkin, and yet here the beastkin were, working peacefully under human control. I truly did understand her confusion, and I could only marvel at the accomplishment of humanity. Humans over the past decades were well aware they were the ones winning this war, but it wasn't always like that.

Although this was something from well before I was born, the beastkin used to be seen a major threat on the survival of humanity as a whole, much of the hostility they faced in subjugation was simply a reflection of that instinctual fear we felt towards them. Now the situation had almost completely reversed, I knew that unless I fulfilled the purpose for which I had been 'granted' a system, that is, in effect becoming the beastkin's savior, the beastkin would eventually become a completely servile race. One that existed only in slavery.

Despite this knowledge, I was somewhat hesitant to lend a hand, not only would it be a perilous treason that could later jeopardize my own species, it was impossibly convoluted by the fact that the goddess who tasked me with this would almost certainly become an enemy in the future. I had no way of turning off my double-reward advantages, and the higher leveled I became the more energy I stole from them. Not only that, but the humans now turned out to have a multitude of system users of their own who appeared far more powerful than myself. Sighing helplessly at the sight before me, I couldn't help feeling as if they were destined to be this way. 

Belle sniffed at her kindred workers, smelling all the different scents she had never encountered before. 

"Interested in your own kind, Belle?" I asked her, seeing her obvious enthusiasm. "There's more slaves here than anywhere else in the kingdom, maybe it's worth attending one of those slave auctions I've heard about." I had no intention of buying, but it had always piqued my curiosity. Musing over the thought as our carriage began to slow down. Running into more traffic the nearer we got to the gate as our road merged into larger one that contained a constant inflow of traders coming in from other directions.  

Closer to the city, the cultivated timber forests disappeared and were replaced with a throng of bustling shanty towns, clearly kept a good ways from the road by a few steely eyed guardsmen, but nonetheless forming a dense network that surrounded the entire outer city walls, which from circumference alone made it probably more than sixty miles round. Even so, these temporary slums were but a drop in the ocean to the total population here. The capital being a true metropolis, the shining jewel of the kingdom, it housed over ten million souls, and the people came from afar for good reason; the amount of wealth present within these marbled white walls was immense, and even in the slums outside the walls, the money generated through beastkin slaving was a major attraction. 

Our caravan and lack of cargo made us interesting subjects to the other parties, but local nobilities weren't terribly uncommon, and in a city like this it must be a daily sight. Traffic continued, mostly unimpeded, and we drew closer to the massive gate which opened like a mouth to swallow up the line of eager travelers. 

When it was our turn, a pair of ordinary looking guards on horseback came up to inspect our carriage. The two of them saying some words briefly to Tristan and Gerald, who had my de-facto heads of security, the four of them motioning towards Bael's church carriage before the guards waved us through. Having an official church emblem seemed to have some uses when it came to skipping the entrance tax, even though we probably could have just had him use that coin if all else failed.

The fee wasn't much for a single person only five silver or so, just enough to keep most of those from the slums out, but having to pay for the thirty or so subordinates would end up being a mighty sting, to my now lacking pocketbook. And without having yet sold off any of my 'vitality' or 'lust-potions' that I had bottled over the duration of our trip, I was feeling a bit conscientious about any spending for the moment. Thankful that we could save on costs here. 

Once we passed the checkpoint, the streets of the city opened up before us, giving us a spectacular view of Antiam's metropolis. 

Unlike Tromwell, everything here was a stone construction. From the buildings down the road, everything used a uniformly and expertly cut white granite. The reflection of which left me momentarily dazed from its splendor. If it weren't for the carefully planted shade trees lining the sides of the roads, the heat during the summers surely would have been staggering, but even that aspect seemed to have been attended to. 

"Nyaaa... look! Master, she looks like Belle. Look!" Belle tugged on my shirt excitedly in a bid to get my attention, pointing out a particularly young girl who was hurrying between the trees. 

Following her finger, I watched from the window of my carriage as a young looking catkin struggled with a bucket of water over to the rows of planted trees and flowerboxes that lined the sides of the roads. Tending to each before she scampered off into a nearby building with the empty bucket in hand. 

Belle's pure-hearted excitement pulled at my heartstrings, causing me to rustle her hair before I continued watching our surroundings, beginning to feel a tinge of excitement myself over this new and exciting place. 

Observing the overarching stone structures that passed over the building the beastkin girl had entered earlier, I soon realized they were aqueducts. The stone ducts supported by a series of massive pillars that seemed to be tasked with pulling water up from the direction of the river, towering a good ways above the skyline of the stone-built shops and houses, distributing water down through shoots as brightly painted red hieroglyphs lit up the sides of the otherwise pure stone, emitting off a radiant glow that was obviously powered my magic of a kind, perhaps the magic aided in the water's transmission. 

We weren't yet at our destination, but seeing the bustle on the street and the awe inspiring sights, I couldn't help but get out and walk. Helping the ladies out of their carriage before stretching my legs. The four of us admiring the immaculate beauty of the riverside city as we walked along our carriage's caravan. The pedestrians giving us some space to walk after seeing the number of guards we had with us.