“Ambition, greed, or even just pride, all those were common reasons why some countries would continuously expand and swallow their neighbors, after which they typically styled themselves an empire and played hegemon of the region. You don’t see an empire go about conquering their neighbors for the purpose of improving their quality of life, unless they only count their own people.” - Gregorian Aurelius Secundus, General and later Second Emperor of the Elmaiya Empire.

A few days later, Aideen, Kino, and Eilonwy arrived at the Vusilan Imperial Capital of Baur-Fah, also the largest city in the Empire’s territory. The city itself was located further east than the other two large cities, forming a rough triangle between them, and that far east, the cold of the winter was felt more keenly, as they were only a few days away from the border with the Jarldoms to the east.

In fact, it snowed on the day of their arrival, with the winter breeze making the cold even more bone-piercing.

Once they set foot in Baur-Fah, Aideen immediately recognized which of the city’s populace were the native Vusilans and which were from the nations they conquered. To identify the latter was trivial. They were the tanned ones who labored hard and did menial jobs in too-thin clothing for the wintry climate. Many of them shivered from the cold while they worked, but nobody seemed to care about them.

On the other hand, the Vusilans were just as easy to identify. Perhaps it was because they lived easier, more sedentary lives and no longer needed to toil under the sun much after they handed the chores over to their enslaved former enemies, but their skins tended to be on the paler side, if still of the typical olive brown complexion common to the north.

They were also far better dressed for the cold, with multiple layers of expensive silk under high quality furs, often bedazzled with decorations made out of precious metals and jewels. Similarly, they decorated their usually long hairs with plenty of gems and jewelry as well, often using bands of precious metals in place of hair ties.

Aideen had seen a similar style in Lushan, but had thought it was the affectation of the local noble. Now she stood corrected, as apparently it was a fashion style the Vusilans had adopted in general, to show off their wealth and affluence to the world. Sure, it was wealth and affluence built on the backs of others they had trampled down beneath their heels, but they clearly did not care about that bit.

To say that Aideen was not a fan of such an ostentatious fashion was an understatement. It reminded her far too much of a peacock that preened all the time just to show off its feathers.

It was not difficult to find the trading house that belonged to their agent in Baur-Fah, the aforementioned Sudaksina, as it was one of the larger of such establishments in the city, and thus quite easy to find. Where they did run into trouble however, was with a rather obstinate clerk who seemed to be in charge of the trading house when they entered.

Perhaps it was the way the three of them dressed, as they kept the guise of being simple travelers, which stood out rather prominently amongst the ostentatiously dressed Vusilans, but the clerk probably thought that they must be poor and therefore unimportant. The man practically raised his nose to look down on them, though that was a physical impossibility as he was shorter than any of the three.

“And what might such obvious peasants like you have that would be of the Master’s interest and worth his time, huh?” scoffed the clerk arrogantly with his arms crossed before his chest. Aideen noticed a couple of the other workers in the store giving a side-eye to the clerk, so it was likely a problem with the person in question rather than the trading house as a whole. “Out. Out with you before I call the guards to drag your filthy selves away and be glad that I do not charge you for dirtying our fine establishment with your presence!”

“Oh? Did I die somehow without my knowledge and someone made you the new owner of this house for some reason?” cut in a voice from the side as a middle-aged Vusilan walked to the room right after the clerk finished his rant. “I hired you as a favor to your uncle, not because you were promising or anything like that. Whatever makes you think that you get to decide who I will see or not, I wonder?”

“I-” stammered the clerk in surprise at the man’s words.

“Don’t bother,” said the man before the clerk could explain himself. “Your… assistance is no longer necessary. You can go back home already, no need to stay here,” he continued just as nonchalantly as he walked towards Aideen and the girls. “Oh, and don’t bother coming back to work tomorrow, or thereafter either. Clearly this sort of lowly position is unfit for one of such grandiose talents such as you.”

Aideen and the girls turned to look at the newcomer as the clerk that accosted them looked as if he had just been poleaxed to the face. The clerk seemed to want to retort, but his mouth merely opened and closed as he was at a loss for words to say before he finally turned and walked away in a rush with his head hung down.

As for the man that had interrupted the whole mess, he shared a lot of the common Vusilan features, though notably not as pale as most of the others they had seen in the city so far. His dress was also less ostentatious despite being richly designed, while he only wore a modicum of jewelry in silver and onyx on his hair instead of the more glaring gold and colorful gemstones favored by the others.

“I do beg a thousand pardons for that… imbecile, Miladies. I am Sudaksina Abr-ganoush, Master of this fine house. How could we be of service?”