Starting Life From Zero: Far From Home

Chapter Twenty

The carriage was packed for the four hour ride into the capital. Once again they passed alongside the massive tree on the horizon, the one that had for some strange reason been dubbed Flugel's Tree. Peter remembered the first night that he was in this world that it was this tree that he passed that had let him know just how different the world that he found himself in was.

Sure there were people with cat ears and magic, but it seemed like the very nature of this world was different from that of Earth or anywhere else that he had been thus far.

Peter spent the ride packed in between May and Emilia, nervous as the two chatted across him only interjecting little pauses for him to make comments about what one of them had just said. Most of the conversation was just idle chatter, but he wondered how they had become so cordial so quickly.

Across from them Steve and Roswaal sat with a little gap between them. It made sense, they were the biggest two in here. Rem piloted the carriage diligently and would on occasion say something soft to encourage the Ground Dragons.

Peter had seen to it that he had the regular Stark version of his spider suit underneath his clothes with the mast tucked away in a satchel he carried just in case. It hadn't seen much use in the last few weeks, so everything was fully charged and he still had about five web cartridges.

His outer wear was a little different now, he had resigned himself to something a little more locally acceptable so he wore a more casual version of a suit without a tie and with a less fancy cut of coat. His original clothes had been packed along with them and he even had some other clothes that looked more or less like what he was comfortable with, courtesy of Rem.

Emilia was wearing one of her normal white with purple trim outfits with a cloak that seemed to have cat ears over it. She wore the hood of the cloak down, her white hair bunched up in it a bit as it cascaded down her back.

She had said the cloak was something special, Peter didn't really understand what she meant nor did he ask too much more about it at the time.

"You appeared in the capital, right?" May asked.

Peter nodded. "Yeah, right in the middle of a big market street," he explained.

"It's massive, I guess it makes sense because they can only easily build so high into the air," May said.

"How big is where you're from?" Emilia asked, her fingers pressed to her lips.

It was Steve that spoke this time. "In New York City alone I remember hearing that the number is around eight million."

Roswaal's eyes flicked toward Steve. "You must be mistaken," he said. "Eight million people?"

Emilia shook her head. "I can believe it," she said. "Peter's showed me pictures on his...Metia of the city from up high. It's spectacular."

"Metia—Peter do you still have your phone?" Asked May.

Peter rubbed the back of his head. "Yeah, I've been using the suit to charge it. Just in case."

"Eight million people," Roswaal said. "And this New York, it is part of a larger Kingdom, yes?"

"Kind of, it's part of a country that is made up of fifty states. Each state has a capital and those states are run by smaller governing bodies," Peter said.

Roswaal pressed a hand to his chin. "It sounds almost like how Lugnica has five regional capitals and some territories run by noble houses."

The Kingdom that New York is part of doesn't have bloodline rule though, leaders are elected," Steve said.