The first two days of travel passed through territory familiar enough to feel like an extension of Osborn's land—quiet roads, small settlements, and the same steady rhythm Robert had grown used to over the past year.
By the third day, that familiarity began giving way to something else entirely.
The merchant caravans started rolling in more frequently along the road, and they were not just larger but also better guarded than anything that had been traveling through the outer routes of Magical City. Robert spotted cultivation resources in their wagons that he had only seen on the trade lists Sai had prepared before they left.
Independent cultivators traveled between towns in numbers that would have stood out as remarkable back home; here, simply part of the ordinary flow of road traffic.
