All just to get back to the surface. All just for their queen.
Chapter 15: The former subordinates and the fire of change of the spirits (Part 1)
…
May 4th…
After finishing the meeting with Finn in the early morning, Yang Hao told the Ling people and Joseph's family who stayed in the temporary room in the Green Courtyard to accept the guidance of the elves and be careful when going out today. Then he took Theresa away from the Green Courtyard in the name of work and went to Fingel's Commercial Street and Artisan Street to learn about the situation of the elves.
After all, if you want to reform an ancient and perfect country, it is definitely impossible without conducting actual inspections.
And yesterday Theresa was still sulking at him, which made Yang Hao feel guilty. He also thought it was good to have a date with two people while working at the same time.
Driven by all kinds of thoughts, he invited Theresa to go out for a walk together. After Theresa bit his ear, she dressed herself up beautifully and went out with him holding her hand.
Fingal is a vibrant city. The people walking by look unusually strong. It is a truly prosperous country with a strong people. However, for some reason, Yang Hao always feels a strange sense of disharmony...
"They eat food that is thousands of years old, wear clothes that are thousands of years old, and live in houses that are similar in style to those of thousands of years ago - everything looks so perfectly... outdated."
Theresa was eating some meat snacks she bought from the grocery store while whispering in Yang Hao's ear.
"In a sense, it's like a city on a different timeline from the world we live in outside - it really makes us feel like we're living thousands of years ago."
"That's why Finn is so eager for reform. A perfect wooden sword can't stand up to a flawed steel sword, let alone an ironclad ship."
"By the way, what is an ironclad ship? You looked terrible after you went out with that Qinna yesterday. Can you tell me about it?"
"that is… "
Yang Hao used brief words to explain to Theresa the big thing that Qinna told him last night.
The rumbling of cannons on the sea, the strange spells illuminating the dark sea, and the black dragon being shot down witnessed by the elves.
Yang Hao was full of worries because he understood that the anxiety he had felt back then had become a reality: the development speed of Isgard across the sea was too fast. They had formed a fleet of ironclad ships and were now engaged in a massive naval battle with a country that also had ironclad ships on the sea.
This was not good news for Yang Hao. He did not have any illusions about the Roman Empire, but if the Roman Empire was turned into a colony by Ishgard, then the ancient and perfect "new home" of the Elven Kingdom would certainly not escape the fate of being invaded.
The elves' bows are very powerful.
But compared with naval guns, it is just a stinky little brother.
So Yang Hao was worried and once again fell into the same anxiety that he had fallen into once before and couldn't extricate himself.
But fortunately this time he has a lover who is willing to share the pressure with him. Although the elves are stubborn, they also accept reforms. Most importantly, there is now a huge buffer zone of the Roman Empire between them and Ishgard.
This is really good news—Yang Hao muttered, and told Theresa a big news:
"That black dragon... If I remember correctly, it should be Nia, the director of the Ishugard Research Institute who signed a secret agreement with me back then—
We signed a secret agreement. I tried my best to make the Roman Empire look stronger so as to trick Ishugard into choosing to become an ally of the Roman Empire instead of treating it as an enemy...
Now that I'm gone, the Roman Empire is in chaos and the people are living in misery. Ishugard will soon get the news.
And if Black Dragon is lucky enough to survive and comes to Drake Harbor and finds that I can’t go over to meet him… this secret agreement will probably be void.”
"Secret agreement? Hiss... Can you just tell me the result? I don't really understand this."
"To put it simply, if I were still Roman's regent, I could do my best to maintain the secret agreement. If nothing unexpected happened, the best outcome would be to form an alliance with Isurgard. The worst outcome would be to delay Isurgard's invasion, at least until they see through Roman's current situation for five years, and then industrialization would be completed so that Roman would have the ability to produce muskets and ironclad ships - but now..."
He opened his arms, held the nun in his arms, and gently pushed her aside so that a group of passers-by could pass by. He muttered:
"It's over. The best outcome for the Roman Empire is that the coastal military district's Dreschuka can block the people on the coastline. The worst outcome is that all places except the diocese will become colonies of Isgard. They are all finished, but we now have time."
"Then... but why are the parishes excluded?"
"Geographically, it is the northernmost, with numerous noble landowners, royal families, and military districts as a buffer. In terms of military strength, although the diocese does not have famous generals, the morale of those... drug-taking believers is in some sense higher than that of the regular army—not to mention the advantage of the priests fighting on their home turf."
"That's true..."
The little nun nodded thoughtfully. After putting the snack into her mouth, she had a deeper understanding of the current situation on the continent of Elucia.
One is the barbarian who is destined to die, one is the Elf Kingdom that can use the barbarian's corpse as a buffer, and there is the foreign race in the north who is unaware of the current situation... Then, it's quite troublesome
So the most urgent task is to let the elves also have the technology of Ishgard
Theresa asked with her eyes, and Yang Hao took her to an elf bow-making shop.
"Welcome—what the hell?! Your Majesty?!"
"Arthur??"
However, I didn't expect to run into an acquaintance as soon as I came in.
Yang Hao and the blond man in the wheelchair behind the counter looked at each other.
After a while, the man put down the glass he was wiping, twisted the wheelchair with both hands and ran to Yang Hao, and excitedly hugged Yang Hao's old waist.
"Your Majesty, you are still fucking alive?! I thought you had died at the hands of those bastards, but you are still alive?!"
"I'm still alive and well. Compared to that, what's the condition of your legs?"
Yang Hao was relatively calm. On the one hand, Arthur was one of his most trusted subordinates at the time. On the other hand, it was because Theresa was constantly casting the tranquility spell.
After calming down, he simply patted his former subordinate on the back. Then he took a step back and looked at Arthur's legs in surprise.
Arthur's left leg was obviously broken, but in the Elf Kingdom, wouldn't it only take minutes to heal such a fracture
Was he bullied in the Elf Kingdom
Yang Hao's confusion made Arthur scratch his head in embarrassment. "My wife beat me. At that time, the owner of the drugstore and I accidentally... well, hay meets fire, what else can we do? Then I found out that my wife was watching us at the door for more than two hours, and then... uh, that's it."
He pointed at his broken leg and was very embarrassed: "My wife broke my leg and said that I couldn't go for treatment without permission until she calmed down. I was in the wrong, so I always have a wheelchair..."
"You actually keep a wheelchair handy instead of expressing your remorse from the bottom of your heart?!"
The little nuns looked at each other, obviously shocked at Mr. Arthur's lifestyle.
…
Arthur, whose last name is unknown, is a capable man who was pulled up from the bottom by Yang Hao.
He has his own attainments and insights in diplomacy and craftsmanship, but proportional to his abilities is his dissolute mentality, which is even more dissolute than the most dissolute woman.
Although this man has three major principles: [Don't touch married women, don't touch women with boyfriends, and don't touch underage women or women who don't have self-control]...but his debauchery is well-known even in the Roman Empire.
He was the Emperor of the Night who played with all 50 socialites in the brothel in three days. He was also the flower thief who got eight noble children and several wives pregnant before being promoted by Yang Hao.
But he was also the first diplomat in the history of the Roman Empire to be respected by the elves, and he was also the capable person who perfected the details of what Yang Hao called the "steam factory".
Arthur is such a man—his ability is higher than the sky, and his debauchery is also higher than the sky.
But such a man actually has an elf wife in the Elf Kingdom, not to mention it, and even dares to cheat in front of his elf wife? !
What a fearless spirit this is!
Yang Hao and Theresa looked at Arthur, who was making tea for them, with extremely strange eyes. Arthur looked at Yang Hao thoughtfully:
"So, my virgin majesty has finally graduated from being a virgin? I've long said that the Night Witch, who only wants to study magic, doesn't understand the relationship between men and women. Now that your majesty has broken your virginity, I can openly proclaim that I have been with you in bed with prostitutes and scouted for women with you..."
"Fuck you! I haven't done anything with my man?! Yang Hao, why are your men like this?!"
"I'm used to this kind of slander. If he becomes normal someday, I will immediately ask the best doctor to check his brain..."
Yang Hao sighed heavily, took the little nun's hand and calmed down the irritable woman who wanted to smash the Bible on Arthur's head immediately. He turned around and continued:
"So, how did you survive? Elves are so conservative and stubborn... I find it hard to imagine that you survived and not just broke a leg."
"You mean this?" Arthur blinked, put two cups of green tea on the table and handed them to the two. He smiled shyly: "This is related to the social customs and traditions of the elves. After all, Your Majesty, you should know it after coming to the Elf Kingdom? The elves attach great importance to "commitment."
"So I don't understand how you survived."
"It's related to the 'promise' I made when I got married. When I got married, I told my wife, who proposed to me, that I was such a promiscuous person that I felt uncomfortable if I didn't go to bed with a woman every day, so I definitely couldn't stay chaste. My wife accepted my shortcomings under these circumstances, but she also said that she would break my legs every time she found out."
"Excuse me, how many times have you been beaten?"
"About fifty times this year."
"It's only May 4th?!"
At this point, even Yang Hao, who should have been the calmest, almost peed himself.
Arthur has been caught cheating on his wife more than 50 times this year, but it’s only the beginning of May this year…
If we calculate it based on 30 days a month, that means more than 50 cheatings in 124 days...
Should I admire the elf's calmness or say that you are lucky
Yang Hao looked at Arthur with a look that was filled with countless weirdness, but Arthur just smiled and said proudly: They are still a loving family, at least in the eyes of the elves.
"After all, elves are a race that keeps their promises." Arthur reminded again, "I didn't break my promise, and she didn't break her promise either, so in the eyes of the elves, we are a happy family—
Well, I have to admit that I will probably have to spend the rest of my life in a wheelchair... Rather than that, why did you come here, Your Majesty?"
"You know what happened to me in the Roman Empire. Now I have taken over the position of Regent of Caparia and am ready to assist Finn in his reforms."
"So that's it - that's not a bad thing. The elves are very supportive of Finn's reforms, so your Majesty should have no problems with your work..."
A good subordinate will not care about his boss's pain points. Arthur is obviously very good, except for his lust.
“In fact, I am also very troubled by the “perfection” of the elves - as you know, my family is a bow maker, I am responsible for selling the goods, and my wife makes bows.
But... the elves regard weapons as "artworks" rather than "simple and crude products", which leads to them taking a hundred years to make a bow."
"One hundred years?"
"Look at the bow on the wall. Look at the reliefs, the gold-leaf hymns and columns, the decorations—the elves like everything to be perfect, but I don't think it's necessary.
Weapons should be as simple as possible, with all useless parts removed, leaving only useful parts -
But the elves' artworks are clearly not weapons, at least not the cheap, practical products that we understand as equipping legions.
Pursuing perfection too much is sometimes not a good thing, at least when the sky is filled with dark clouds of war.
It looks priceless, but in modern times, its only value is as an ornamental piece…”
The blond beast with deep insights into industry sighed heavily when he said this: "This is the weapon of the elves. It is perfect, but it is no longer up to date. What we need is the ability to mass-produce 500 arrows and longbows every day, not 100 exquisite arrows and a longbow every 100 years - it is no longer an era where a single soldier can survive a war with perfection."
“That’s why Finn is eager to reform.”
"But the Elven Kingdom is better than us in that there are no unruly people, while the Roman Empire not only has some, but also a group of... Oh. Never mind. Let's not talk about what's going on there - so Your Majesty, do you want me to take you around? If you want to understand what needs to be changed, you can't do it without acquaintances."
"What about your shop?"
"Just leave the door open. If someone wants to buy something, they'll just put money in it."
After saying that, Arthur drank the green tea in one gulp, and proudly put a sign saying "Owner not here" on the counter. Then he pushed the wheelchair and took Yang Hao and the other person out of his home.
Chapter 16: The Elves' Fire of Change and the Treants
Arthur had lived in Fingal for many years and had many connections among the elves, especially among the women.
Almost every time she passed a street corner, a young and beautiful female elf (whose actual age was unknown) would shyly greet her, and Arthur would proudly respond in his own personal style to the embarrassed expressions on Yang Hao and Theresa's faces:
"Good morning, big sister. Please don't come over these few days. My wife's face turned green when she saw you. And if you keep beating me, I'm afraid my third leg will be broken."
"Good morning, grandma. Thanks to you for helping me stop my wife a few months ago. Otherwise, I would have..."
"Hello-"
Watching the twentieth female elf passing by pinch Arthur's chest surreptitiously or openly, Theresa couldn't help but mutter:
"Looks like I have to keep an eye on my little dog..."
"Theresa?"
"nothing."
She hugged Yang Hao's arm and looked at all the female elves with a woman's vigilance. At this time, Arthur brought them to Fingel's curtain wall.
After entering the curtain wall through an open door, the man with lipstick marks all over his face took out a handkerchief to wipe the lipstick marks all over his face, pointed at the firing holes in the curtain wall and said:
"You can see the farm directly below from here. If you want to understand the society of elves, I suggest that you spend ten minutes here. Perhaps you will have the same idea as me."
Yang Hao nodded, then walked forward. Looking down through the shooting hole, he could clearly see that a martial arts competition seemed to be taking place on the suburban farm below Finger.
Arthur explained that this was the elves' "daily entertainment" - a group of elf children under the age of 30 used longbows to shoot at moving targets a hundred meters away. The winner was determined by the number of times they hit the target, the number of hits and the score. It was an entertainment game for the elf children.
Arthur paused, then said: Those longbows have very high pounds. If an ordinary human archer were to play this game, within an hour, his arm would be completely disabled if he pulled the bow no more than five times.
The elf children would often shoot 40 arrows in one hour, and still not be satisfied.
Hearing this, Yang Hao's eyes suddenly widened and he pointed at those "children" who were able to shoot accurately from a hundred paces away and said: You're telling me that these shooting trainings that are stronger than those of the most elite archers of the Roman Empire's Royal Guards are just "games between children"
"These are elves, my Lord. The worst of them have better eyesight than the best human archers. Don't be fooled by the elves' slender bodies, but in fact, if the door below is clamped, my third leg may be broken one day.