Chapter 1161: Do You Have A Permit For That?

We decided to take a day off today just to relax after all the travelling and stuff the past few days.

For me, that meant I was going to go exploring around the city just to see what it’s like.

Sure, I already went around last night thanks to my girls dragging me all around just to make love to them in public... But that’s the night side of the city. I want to see the daytime too!

Since I gave everyone including Katsuki the day off, I was currently alone while I walked through the city’s streets.

The atmosphere of the city changed quite considerably with the different time of day.

The streets were now bustling with activity of the less lewd kind as people got about their daily activities, almost like the capital city back in Lehcarouc Kingdom.

Of course, the difference here was that most of the people around were not Mahuns and either Nekomatas or Inugamis.

There were also a smattering of Amraps, Wrunches and even Trasifs around but they were also in the minority group.

Surprisingly, there were also no Meslatars as far as I could see so I definitely stood out here just like back at Lehcarouc Kingdom as well.

I didn’t really have a destination in mind so I just picked a random direction and started walking.

While the city did have roads, they conformed with the trees and curved around their roots instead of cutting through them. So the city itself felt like I was walking through a maze of giant trees with roads splitting in different directions every few dozen steps.

But despite that, the locals did not have a problem navigating through the curves and bends to get to their destination while a tourist like me would probably get lost pretty easily.

As I walked deeper into the city, I figured that they also had a way to separate the city into districts with a tier system.

The area closest to the ’gates’ of the city were most likely for the lower class folks given that most of the buildings there were simple in design and focused more on practicality than anything else. Pretty much all of them only had a single floor and were also quite tiny in size.

Then the next area was for the middle class folks and most of the buildings there had at least a second or third floor and also had some decorations done to them as well.

Our inn was located in the next area after that which was obviously for the more affluent of the locals where buildings were beautifully designed and built with more focus on the aesthetics than being practical.

I had walked past one courtyard where they had a large pond dug in their garden which only gave the owner enough space to build a tiny building in the corner of the courtyard, the building itself comparable in size to the houses in the commoner district.

Maybe this was also a status symbol or something around here, because I cannot imagine that house to be comfortable to live in.

Still, I can’t deny that the courtyard of that house did look especially serene and beautiful though.

As I walked through this ’affluent’ part of the city, I reached a part of the street where I could see the castle in the distance.

Mind you, this wasn’t the ’castle’ that was the inn that Emilia built to shape like one, but the actual castle that I suspect housed the ruler of this kingdom.

I was curious about how it looked so I decided to head in that direction to take a closer look at it.

But as I continued down the road that was leading towards it, I realised there was another pair of trees that were acting like a gate with several guards standing there to bar the way.

That was definitely not the entrance into the castle since I could still see other shops and houses beyond the tree ’gates’ behind the guards.

There were also people that were walking through the gate in both directions so I thought that the guards might just be there for security purposes and nothing more.

With that thought, I continued towards those trees until... Unsurprisingly, the guards closest to me crossed their spears to bar my way.

"Stop there. I don’t recognise you. What business do you have in the upper districts?" One of the guards growled.

"Err... Sorry, but I’m a new visitor to this city and I wanted to take a look at the castle from a closer distance. Is this place off limits or something?" I asked.

The guard that was speaking to me frowned, "Are you not even aware? Tsk... Damned tourists... If you want to enter the upper districts, you will need to apply for a visitation permit and you will have to be accompanied by a guide. If you’re not a resident of the upper district, you’re not allowed to wander around on your own."

Huh... I didn’t really expect that.

No, not the fact that I can’t just freely walk into the place since back in Crown Capital City, they handled this in the same way. If you weren’t a noble, you wouldn’t be able to enter the Noble’s district either.

It was only because I was Mother’s child that I had so much freedom there. Without the name of the Nilm Family, I definitely wouldn’t even be able to get close to the palace either.

The thing that I felt was unexpected was the fact that you could even get a visitation permit and a guide to accompany you as well.

I’d think that most of the people staying within this upper district wouldn’t be happy with something like that, right? I mean... Even back in my old World, locals would also dislike living in places where tourists frequent as well.

So for this place to allow that... I wonder what made them implement an arrangement like this?

I nodded my head apologetically, "Ah... I did not know that. In that case, where can I get a visitation permit?"

The guard then pointed with his free hand behind me, "That’s the office that you can apply at. Just follow the procedures there."

I turned to see that he was pointing to a relatively large two story building just off to the side with a sign on it that depicted a picture of a scroll and a brush writing on it.

I thanked the guard and made my way over to the building he pointed out.

When I stepped inside, it certainly had the feeling of some kind of official administration building just from the smell of papers and ink that was prevalent in the air.

There were several reception counters and it looks like I wasn’t the only one here since there were quite a number of visitors too, maybe even intending to apply for a visitation permit like I was.

I assumed so because everyone else aside from the receptionists were people of different races and were thus definitely not local.

While I was still looking around, a female Nekomata came up to me with a polite smile on her face, "Good morning~ Can I help you?"

"Ah, yes. I’m here to apply for a visitation permit? Am I in the right place?"

"Oh yes, certainly! In that case, here you go!"

She reached into the pouch at her side to pull out a piece of paper that she tore in half before handing me the part she tore off.

Looking at it, I realised the number ten was written on it and the other half of her piece also had a number ten on it.

She then pointed at a group of counters at the far side of the hall, "Those are the counters that handle visitation permits. A staff will call out your number when they are ready to assist you. Please wait around that area~"

...

Ok, you’re not going to convince me that this entire system was not made by an Off-Worlder who came here and probably set all of this administration up.

I’m also sure that the immigration office and all of that is also set up by some Off-Worlder as well.

Because there’s no way this ticket system isn’t something that was brought over from my old World... And the way that the counters were set up also look like those government administration offices where you would take a queue number and wait for your number to flash on the screen before you went to the counter to do your stuff.

So this means... Either the current ruler of this Kingdom was an Off-Worlder... Or that there’s an Off-Worlder that is holding a very influential position within this Kingdom itself and is currently in the midst of introducing all our old World stuff to this Kingdom.

Hmm... Should I be concerned about this?

...

Nah, seems like everything’s working well so far right? And it’s not like I have any business with them to begin with.

Yep, let’s just focus on myself instead of others~