Great time travel

Chapter 58. Holidays in Ita Rica (I wish everyone a happy Lantern Festival)

Although the empire is in the midst of a bloody civil war, and it is winter when everything is withered, the luncheon organized by the Earl of Vermar's mansion is still extravagant. The demihuman maids brought out barrels of wine and wine from the cellar. Ale, dishes such as ham, mutton, veal, venison, gelding, ducklings, chicken, rabbit, river fish, shortbread, oranges, cheese and eggs, as well as roasted boar's head with an apple in its mouth and roasted feathered swan.It is really hard to imagine that just over two months ago, this city was almost caught in a terrible famine.

In addition to food and drink, the maids of the Earl of Vermar's mansion also hired folk entertainers from nowhere to perform wind instruments, tambourines and harps during meals, as well as somersaults, imitation of birdsong, juggling, throwing plates, etc. A kind of acrobatics to add to the fun.In the originally empty banquet hall, tapestries and colorful flags were hung as decorations, trying to create a festive and lively atmosphere...

However, it is quite lengthy and cumbersome to organize and prepare such an extravagant banquet. It takes several hours to cook and roast a calf.In order to save the honored guests from another world from sitting at empty tables and waiting hungry, Captain Penny Pearl of White Rose sent oranges, shortbread, and spiced new wine in advance. At the same time, I want to light the candlesticks on the dining table by myself—because the walls are too thick and the windows are too small, even though it is still daytime, the light in the hall is still very dark.

But for some reason, maybe because she is used to being served by others, she took the flint and scythe and banged for a long time, but failed to light the fire. He took out his own silver-shell gilt lighter: "...I'll do it!"

Then, with a light click, a faint blue flame lit up in the dark hall, lighting up the three silver candlesticks on the long table one by one, which also made Penny Pearl's eyes shine, "... ...What is... what is this? Your magic item? It's really amazing."

"...Magic item? Where, it's just an ordinary gadget! Well, since you like it, I'll give this to you!"

Li Wei, who was not short of money, curled his lips, and threw the lighter into Penny Zhu's arms.Then, looking at this heroic female knight playing with a lighter like a child, he couldn't help but want to laugh at first, but recalling the past experience, he couldn't help sighing—he was still trapped When you were a knight in medieval France, if you could get a lighter, you would probably be ecstatic, right?I remember that at that time, I was the same as the female knight in front of me. I could only beat slowly with flint and steel, or find ways to borrow fire everywhere.

Just like the same silver, the most advanced integrated circuits can be manufactured in modern industrial countries, but here it can only be made into plates and candlesticks. Many small objects that seem to be commonplace to modern people are actually experienced by countless scholars in the past. The inventions and improvements of craftsmen were finally created. During this period, I don’t know how much wisdom and sweat of the ancestors were consumed.In Li Wei's view, it is obviously very wrong for some modern young people to enjoy all kinds of achievements of their ancestors, but look back and despise their hard work, wantonly mocking the ancients for being so backward and ignorant, and showing no respect for their ancestors.

However, after experiencing so many time-traveling adventures, Li Wei couldn't help secretly hoping that one day in the future, their generation would also appear so ignorant in the eyes of younger generations.Because at that time, human science and technology should have been extremely developed, and they could even travel through the interstellar space through superluminal travel and exploit the massive resources on alien stars. Terminally ill and persistent illness... At that time, human beings may also wonder why the "ancient people" in the 21st century would kill each other at the expense of their lives for a little wealth; I wonder why human beings will shrink back to the cradle of the earth within half a century after exploring the moon, like a frog at the bottom of a well, unwilling to explore the wider universe...

In the eyes of modern people, how ignorant and stupid the ancients were, then people in the future will probably look at modern people with the same eyes—after all, from the Stone Age to the Internet age, human civilization has always been developing and progressing. And it's progressing faster and faster, isn't it?

If the human civilization on the earth really has that day, then as a "ignorant ancient", he may also be able to smile at Jiuquan.

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Compared with some arrogant and arrogant noble ladies with eyes above the top, the delicate and thoughtful Baroness Penny Pearl should be regarded as a more suitable chat partner, especially when Miss Penny Pearl puts down her body and sings. It's even more pleasant when you want to please and flatter. For a man, even if he doesn't have that kind of thought, it is a very decent thing to be welcomed by a beautiful woman in this way.

Then, seeing that the atmosphere had become harmonious, Miss Penny Pearl tried to raise a question that had been buried in her heart for a long time.

"...that...Mr. Li Wei, I have a question, may I ask you?"

"...Huh? What's the problem?" Li Wei put down his glass and raised his eyebrows.

"...Uh... Excuse me. From what I've seen, most of the officers and soldiers in your country seem to be wearing strange green clothes. Even those who don't wear green clothes are dressed in the same style as the Our country is very different. Only your appearance is similar to ours. If you walked into the city alone wearing this armor, we might think that you are a centurion of some legion, or some wealthy mercenary!"

Miss Penny Zhu asked curiously. At the same time, she first pointed to the Chinese soldiers wearing camouflage uniforms at the other end of the table, and then flicked the half-body armor on Li Wei's body, "...you can tell me this is Why? Mr. Levi, is it a pure coincidence, or is there some secret?"

"...Hehe, this is indeed a very complicated question. But it's not a secret, it's just very troublesome to explain... How should I put it? In the world I was born in, no soldier would dress like this. However, before I came to your world, I stayed in other different worlds for several years, um, a different world similar to yours, where I became a knight, owned a manor, and Served as a military leader in a colony... This armor is a souvenir from that time."

Li Wei rolled his eyes and thought for a while, and felt that there was no need to keep it secret in front of the aborigines, so he told the truth.

"...Wow! I didn't expect you to have so much experience in the past! No wonder you are so skilled in martial arts..."

Miss Penny Pearl showed a look of admiration, "... Then, what kind of place is that different world where you became a knight?"

"...that world... Hey, it's really not a good place, it's much worse than your living environment. If you experience it yourself, you'll feel suffocated by all kinds of huge contrasts—then It’s a place where no one wants to go…”

Li Wei sighed and shook his head, while looking up at the Count's Mansion Banquet Hall, which was blackened by oily smoke. The built-in living room, at first glance, really has a familiar feeling.

But on the whole, in terms of living environment, the port of Marseille in medieval Europe was much worse than the cities on the mainland of Farmat.

Although it has been a long time, as long as he closes his eyes, Li Wei can still clearly recall his life in medieval France - the stone mansion looks magnificent from the outside, but in fact it is both It is small and dark and humid all year round. Even in the clearest weather, there are always mushrooms growing in the corners of some rooms.The walls of castles and cottages are always covered with moss and grime, and the streets of cities are always full of sewage.Even in cities, most people live under the same roof as their livestock.The excrement dumped by the citizens makes the mud on the streets of Marseille and Paris never dry, and people walking on the street will become real "mud legs".No matter inside or outside the city, groups of skinny and bare-bottomed children can be seen everywhere, wading in the muddy water with bare feet and filthy bodies, playing with geese, pigs and sheep.

Most of the craftsmen of the guilds in the city worked in sheds with air leakage on all sides, and the shops of ordinary merchants were just a few extra curtains made of linen, but they were still hard to guard against thieves.The dilapidated tavern was always full of people, full of drunken drunkards and violent elements, and a few corpses would be carried out from time to time.Most of the city guards are peasants and soldiers in ragged clothes holding dung forks. What's more terrible is that from slums to rich merchants' mansions are equally filthy, always surrounded by feces and various rotten wastes; Mosquitoes, flies and squeaking mice would attack the residents there every night. Once the rainy season came, the air would always be filled with the strange smell of human and animal excrement and rotting food.

In comparison, the city of Ita Rica is already too clean.With the exception of the slums, the rest of the streets are paved with flagstones or cobblestones, and there are daily hands to clean the streets and remove garbage.The streetscape of the city is very different from that of medieval Europe, but more similar to the Italian city-state of the Renaissance or Paris in the [-]th century, which makes Levi feel like a "medieval theme park in a fantasy game".

"...The country in another world where I was knighted is incomparable to your country on the Farmat continent. The city is as dirty as a garbage dump, and it smells like dung soup... Uh, it seems to be like a meal when you are about to eat. That's not the right thing to say. It's wars, plagues, and famines."

Levi, a former member of the Knights Hospitaller, sighed and briefly described his life in medieval Europe, "...the people are generally so poor that the vast majority of farmers and townspeople cannot afford to light candles at night, and can only use pine branches and dipped candles. A small piece of rope covered with turpentine is used instead. Even a noble wife has to wear a beautiful skirt for more than ten years, and some even pass it down from mother to daughter. As for the poor, they are even more shabby, and some people can only wear one. Sacks of sacks to keep out the cold... But no matter rich or poor, human beings in that country have one thing in common: they don’t take a bath all year round, and they take pride in not taking a bath for a lifetime.”

"...Ugh... how can there be such a guy who is proud of being dirty? Are they humans or goblins?"

Miss Petunia was dumbfounded when she heard that, "... Even the barbarian tribes on our side are usually not so disgusting..."

"...Because the gods in that world have a brain twitch, and they regard not bathing and being dirty as a sign of piety. No matter how disgusting a mortal is, there is nothing they can do about it."

Li Wei shrugged helplessly, "...What's more frightening is that the priests in that world are also part-time judges, and there are a large number of spies under them, who can catch those guys who secretly take a bath at any time, and throw them on the fire to burn them to ashes. Instead The bathers died of the plague one after another because their bodies were too dirty..."

"...This... I don't even know what to say! Isn't that world ruled by the God of Plague?" Penny Zhu continued to be dumbfounded.

"...Uh, maybe it's possible! Anyway, a super plague (Black Death) broke out there, and at least four-fifths of the population of the entire continent died (various additions of travelers and Murphy's Law ), hundreds of thousands of cities were turned into ruins, and crowns were thrown on the ground and no one picked them up. So, when the opportunity to escape came, I did not hesitate to leave the manor and land there. Real estate, returned to my world with gold coins."

Li Wei shrugged again, "...If it were you, Miss, you would probably make the same choice as me, right?"

"...I think so too, being forced not to take a bath for the rest of my life, surrounded by a group of human-shaped garbage dumps who never take a bath... What kind of torture is this! On our side, even slaves are not so miserable The treatment... If it were me, I might have committed suicide!"

Miss Penny Pearl shook her head and sighed, "...Okay, let's not talk about these unappetizing things! Mr. Levi, let's have lunch first!"

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——While they were chatting casually, the maids who shuttled back and forth had already brought up delicious grilled lamb, grilled fish, minced onion soup, fried cheese balls and other hot dishes. Available shelf-stable fruits, such as apples and oranges, were also placed on the table in baskets.Although these pure natural green and pollution-free original ecological oranges, because they have not been grafted and genetically modified, compared to modern fruit oranges, they are really small and sour, but they are eaten with sizzling and oily meat. It also happens to be an appetizer and a relief.

At the same time, the titular owner of the city, the 11-year-old loli countess Miu, also accompanied by the head maid, sat at the other end of the long table, timidly raising her dress. A silver cup full of grape juice announced the beginning of the luncheon to all the guests.

However, just when everyone was about to eat and drink, there was a sudden commotion outside the hall, and then several exclamations could be vaguely heard one after another.Next, the oaken door of the banquet hall was knocked open from the outside. Shirley Pluto Diluhagang, the captain of the Red Rose Division, who was sent by Princess Pinna to deliver letters to the Senate and the emperor, was haggard and dusty. He hurried in and brought explosive bad news.

"...What? The emperor died in battle outside the city of Rendell? The Imperial Senate was also destroyed?! His Highness Saushar became the new emperor?!"

——At this moment, Li Wei, who left the roast leg of lamb in his hand, realized that his vacation in Ita Rica was probably coming to an end.

The false friendship and peace dissipated quickly like dewdrops in the sun; and the wheels of war and destruction are about to turn rumble...