Chapter 196: Chapter 179 – Citadel of Glass

"There's no such thing as obstacles to one creative enough. When life gives you nothing but sand to build with, just glass it!" - Hassid Elohire, dwarven leader-in-exile, later known as the first Caliph of the Hassid Caliphate.

After they spent a night in the ranch - a restful sleep, other than the occasional loud animal noises one learns to tune out when they live in a ranch - Cal brought her group to continue their journey the next day, after thanking their gracious hosts at breakfast.

 

From the ranch, they traveled for another six days. The Hassid Caliphate's own central province was by far the largest out of all the provinces, and the most prosperous as well, one main reason it had remained in power despite the ages that have passed.

 

Despite its large area, there was only one major city in the region, Al-Hassid itself, situated in the desert in the center of the province. All around it, a multitude of agricultural villages were interspersed all over the lands, with some focused on mines instead.

 

Since the population in the province itself was predominantly dwarven, most villages were built underground, with the vast majority of the surface left open for farming purposes. One would only notice the existence of a village from the small cluster of houses built topside, which served more as guard posts and home for those uncomfortable with living underground.

 

Barley, wheat, and potatoes seemed to be the main food crops of the region, though Cal noticed rice paddies on some of the wetter areas as well. Most of the villages she saw as she walked seemed to focus on certain crops, and covered the rest of their needs by trade.

 

Speaking of trade, merchant caravans were a constant accompaniment during their travels, as they went to and fro all the time. The way the region had plenty of well paved roads - bricks of stone carved to fit perfectly with one another laid like a tapestry - made travel easier for said merchants, and good public order meant a nearly no existence of bandits as well.

 

When they finally caught sight of the Citadel of Al-Hassid, it was near evening, and the shimmering greenish glow of the citadel as the evening sun lighted it up was visible from far away. Even from afar, the nature of the Citadel of Glass made itself known.

 

Legend has it that the first Caliph had chosen to build his capital in the patch of desert to make the most out of the land they had at the time. As he was a glass mage himself, it was not that surprising that the lack of stones and other building materials had not stymied him, for he instead chose to erect a Citadel made entirely of glass instead.

 

The current Citadel of Glass stood across the Palace of Bones in Ptolodecca as some of the most wondrous buildings in existence, as subsequent generations kept adding to the structure over the millennia that have passed.

 

Even from afar, Cal could tell that the citadel itself was easily the size of a city on its own, while the city around it made the entire city one of the largest in the world. From her guess it was probably as large as Al-Shan's capital city.

 

When they entered the city, Cal realized in surprise that even the walls of the city were also made of glass. At least five meters of thick, opaque glass that she expected was likely as durable as most stone walls, with how the walls were as thick as they were tall.

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Inside, the houses in the city turned out to be made of the same material, their walls a thick layer of darkly opaque glass, with more transparent roofs on top. One thing she noticed was how there were no buildings that were multiple stories tall, other than the citadel itself in the city center.

 

When she checked into an inn, she realized one major reason why that was so. As most of the city's inhabitants were dwarves, they were accustomed to build downwards, not upwards. Their rooms at the inn were two levels below the surface, each level separated by a two meter thick layer of glass that acted as foundation, the rooms below lit by magically enchanted lighting.

 

Impressively, the inn was kept in an extremely clean state. Kino said that it was likely due to the nature of the glass wall and floors, which would have made any filth prominently visible, thus forcing the inhabitants to keep clean properly.

 

Despite the room being underground, it was well ventilated and pleasant to stay in, the glass floor and walls cool to the touch, with the walls polished to a shine while the floor was made with a rougher surface so people did not slip as they walked.

 

As for their room, they had booked a large room enough for ten or so people to stay together in. Like most of the region, the tables in the room were short, meant to be used while people sat on the floor next to it on top of plush cushions.

 

Similarly, there were no beds, just rolls of soft, pliant mattresses to lay on instead. It was quite similar to how some of the more traditional Aqwa cities in Al-Shan were like, and Cal thought there was likely some credibility to the rumors that they might have originally been from here.

 

As she laid down on one of the unrolled mattresses, she sighed at the familiar, yet foreign feel of it. She had slept on similar mattresses when she was young and still lived with her parents, but those weren't made of silk and stuffed full of fluffy cotton like these ones.

 

With a sigh, she got up from the mattress, and brought everyone up to street level to look for some food. It was already sunset by then, and they had not eaten yet that night after all. Visiting the Citadel itself would be for tomorrow.

 

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