Chapter 56, Holidays in Italica (Part 1)
When the battle for the throne of the empire finally came to an end amidst the blood and fire that filled the sky, due to the distance and the speed of information transmission, the city of Italica, located on the other side of the Romanian mountains, For now, nothing is known about this upheaval.
At this moment, two months have passed since the visit of the "Alien" floating fleet. Although there was such a big fuss at the beginning, with the departure of the floating fleet and the passage of time, the city of Italica seemed to be slowly returning to calm.
Of course, the visit from the outsiders brought some changes to the city after all - for example, when the vast majority of the outsiders' army escorted the 30,000 demi-human refugees outside the city and the hostages After Princess Pinna withdrew, a small force still stayed.
"...Ding! Ding! Bang!"
In the oval arena in the city of Italica, at the door of a dark green military tent, accompanied by several short and clear metal collisions, an unedged training sword was released from the palm of the female knight. It flew out and plunged diagonally into the dry sand.
The former paladin Levi, who easily knocked away his opponent's sword, did not bully him further. Instead, he took a few steps back, sheathed his sword calmly, and commented in a wan tone, "...Grateful." The moves you block are good, and the speed of your movements is also very agile. Unfortunately, your strength is not enough, and no matter how sophisticated your moves are, it is useless! If this was not a competition, but an actual battle, you should have become my prisoner by now, or be hacked to death! ”
"...You are right, thank you for your teaching." The beauty in men's clothing who was knocked down by Levi's sword, the current acting leader of the Knights of the Rose, and the captain of the White Rose Squadron, Petunia Fleur Galecki The Baroness was silent for a moment, then acquiesced with a wry smile. Behind her, a group of female knights who were watching the excitement couldn't help but lamented in unison: From the looks of it, there is no way to regain the situation from the hands of the outsiders.
——After Wang Qiu withdrew from Italica City with his floating fleet and ground troops, in order to maintain contact and monitor the situation, he still left a ten-man team in the city and appointed Li Wei as the acting city manager. Squad leader. Because the most spacious place in the entire city, apart from the noisy market square, is an oval arena similar to a modern stadium (refer to the cheap and simplified version of the Colosseum): in this place where the entertainment method is quite monotonous In the 1960s, the arena was one of the few "popular" entertainment projects besides gambling. Whenever the competition comes, gladiators will fight to the death here just to make the audience laugh. Occasionally, a circus comes here to perform acrobatics for the people of the city.
However, the cost of something like a gladiatorial match that can kill people is much higher than a football match, but it cannot be like a movie, with dozens of games played every day. Especially in small cities with small populations and limited financial resources and spending power, only four or five gladiatorial competitions are held every year. Under the current special wartime situation, the city of Italica does not have the financial resources and energy to hold any gladiatorial competitions.
Therefore, Levi ordered the requisition of the idle arena and set up the camp of the remaining team directly on the arena field.
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In the first few days, the citizens of Italica were still quite afraid of the aliens and always stayed away from them. However, as time went by, it seemed that these aliens did not do anything extremely evil. He slowly put his heart back into his stomach due to his violent actions, and even began to be curious about these people from another world. Moreover, Levi, who stayed in the city, followed the instructions of Arnus City and organized an auction in Italica City every few days to sell some modern industrial products to the citizens. On the one hand, he wanted to show his goodwill. Attitude, on the other hand, they also search for souvenirs unique to other worlds... After several contacts, the two parties gradually became familiar with each other, and at least they could live in peace.
After all, on the continent of Falmat, where wars and rebellions continue one after another, and national borders are ever-changing, it is as common for ordinary people to change nationalities as they are to get married and have children. The rulers of various countries also have the habit of forcibly relocating residents to enrich the borders, so it is really very difficult. It is difficult to cultivate any xenophobic ideas.
Especially the female knights of the Order of the Rose, all of them were originally arrogant aristocratic ladies. They have been accustomed to bossing around and looking at people with their nostrils since they were young. The last time the floating fleet of aliens came, the shock was so powerful that these female knights were almost scared to death. But when the crisis temporarily eased, these female knights came to their senses. They couldn't help but feel extremely ashamed and angry about all the ugly things they had exposed, but they were unwilling to admit their mistakes, so they naturally started to fight. He has a small temper, venting his anger on people from other worlds, and is ready to find a way to regain his place.
Of course, even though they had a little temper, these female knights still knew the importance. The two sides are still negotiating, and the attitudes of the Senate and the Emperor on this matter are still unknown. The princess leader and a group of colleagues in the knights are also being held hostage in the hands of outsiders. If they rashly provoke an armed conflict, no one can bear this responsibility... Therefore, they just want to use their own skills to compete with people from other worlds in swordsmanship, riding, etc., to restore some self-esteem - even if they can People from other worlds who control giant ships and soar through the sky must have something they are not good at, right?
Among the small group of alien soldiers camped in the arena, most of them were soldiers wearing strange spotted green clothes and holding strange metal instruments. Only their captain wore armor and a sword. , although there was no horse, he looked like a knight... So, a few days later, female knights from the Order of the Rose came to the arena in full force, naming themselves to compete with the knight captain from the outside world. sword.
But the problem is that the squad leader they challenge happens to be Comrade Levi, a former reincarnation of infinite space, who was awarded the title of "Holy Knight" by the Pope in medieval Europe - although Levi won the title of "Holy Knight" in medieval France. The title of "Knight" is somewhat watery, and personal martial arts His skills are far inferior to those of the legendary warriors who slayed dragons and conquered the country, but no matter what, he was a member of the Knights Hospitaller for many years, participated in the Hundred Years War between England and France, and later led troops in the late Ming Dynasty. , I am extremely familiar with all kinds of cold weapon battles. Moreover, thanks to his past adventures, his whole body has been strengthened by Doraemon's future props. The strength of his muscles is far better than that of many modern strongmen. It is not a problem to kill a bear with his bare hands, and he can do it with guns. The level of sniping may be average, but the skills of horseback riding and slashing are absolutely formidable.
Princess Pingna's Rose Knights were just a "toy army" with almost no actual combat experience... When the challenges of several female knights were easily defeated by Li Wei, the unconvinced female knights incited Ping Na to fight again. After Princess Na left, Pei Nizhu, the acting captain of the White Rose Squadron and the most powerful swordsman in the group, tried to ask her to help regain the situation. It's a pity that even Petunia Pearl is still not a one-shot enemy for this powerful warrior like Li Wei.
Naturally, the female knights felt very sorry for this...but it was just a matter of regret. After all, the two sides have not really accumulated any hatred. And Li Wei's status as an officer of the aliens is enough to make even the most delicate young lady not dare to act recklessly.
Therefore, after lamenting that their captain was still no match for this guy, a beautiful blond female knight stood up, clasped her fists respectfully, and gave Li Wei their military salute, "...Your Excellency, I want The merchants who purchase goods from you have been summoned to the lord’s mansion. Please get in the car with your goods and follow us to the lord’s mansion!”
Levi nodded, reached out and touched the [Fourth Dimension Pocket] in his arms, then got on the local lord's carriage and drove away...
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During the first two times he peddled modern goods, Levi led people to set up stalls directly in the market square of Italica.
As a result, first of all, because of his identity as an "outlander", the vendors and customers in the entire square were instantly scared away. After waiting for a long time, someone came to inquire about business with trepidation... Next, because of the silks and colorful porcelain on display, , candies, cosmetic boxes, cheap jewelry, stainless steel tableware, enamel basins and hot water bottles and other gorgeous-looking modern earth goods, which are very important to Italica. The residents of the city are self-evidently alluring, and in order to make a good relationship here, Li Wei set a relatively low price. As a result, the situation in the market soon went to the other extreme—— Citizens who had put away their guarded mentality swarmed in, vying to buy various novelty products from the outsiders, and even caused fights and stampedes...
Of course, this is not the most troublesome problem. What's even more troublesome is that, like all ancient bazaars, any excessive activity will attract the attention of pickpockets and gangsters. These greedy rats in the gutter did not care about diplomatic conflicts and war risks. They immediately blended in with the crowd and stole the money bag. Then they tried to take advantage of the chaos to rob the silk and stainless steel tableware from the alien stalls, but ended up running into each other. The iron plate - Li Wei, who had been a knight master in medieval Europe for several years, was not the legendary The commander of the United Nations peacekeeping force, who refused to fight back or retaliate, immediately ordered a counterattack and knocked down six thieves and gangsters on the spot. He also captured a small leader who ordered them and put them on the spot in the market. They were shot, and then a row of metal racks were erected to hang the corpses for public display... From then on, no one in the city dared to make bad plans against people from other worlds.
If it were just like this, then no one would care about the fate of these social scum. Without these people, the city's security will only get better. But the problem is, because bullets don’t have eyes, the stray bullets at that time accidentally injured eight innocent citizens, including the old housekeeper and two maids of the Earl of Formal... In order to prevent such an unfortunate thing from happening again, the local lord, At the request of the Countess of Fomar, Little Lolimiu, Knight Levi changed the location of his stall from the open market square to the lord's official residence guarded by high walls. The customers who can come for direct transactions have also changed from a mixed crowd of all citizens to only distinguished gentlemen and businessmen, that is, from retail to wholesale.
In this way, not only will the speed of completing the business be greatly accelerated, but the security and order at the transaction site will also be more guaranteed.
Of course, Li Wei's profits will also be reduced as a result, but their original goal at this stage is not to directly make a lot of money, but to gain fame and spread influence, so it doesn't matter as long as they don't lose money... So both parties It can be said that everyone is happy.
When Levi's carriage drove into the courtyard of the lord's mansion, a group of businessmen in robes were already waiting in the courtyard, and the female knights of the Knights of the Rose were also wearing gorgeous armor, holding spears and battle axes. Stand guard all around. After getting off the car, faced with the greetings and flattery from the businessmen, Levi just waved his hands calmly, then walked to an open space with white lines drawn in advance, and took the boxes and bundles of goods from [ He took it out of his fourth-dimensional pocket, piled it up in the open space, showed it to everyone, and announced loudly at the same time Bu said: "...Today is still the same as the previous times, the old rules! I brought fifteen kinds of goods, auctioned by type! No retail sales, no counter-offering, you decide how much to pay, or what rare things to use Come and exchange it! Let me decide whether to sell it or not. Let’s start bidding now...”