Miller, an ordinary shoemaker in Rome, opened the door of his shop early, as usual.

He noticed that his neighbors had all appeared on the street early, gathering in twos and threes to talk.

"Any news?" Miller asked aloud the old man who made bread at the shop next door.

"The French are coming into town." The old man next door also responded to Miller with a loud voice.

As soon as he finished speaking, someone else retorted: "No, I heard that the Austrians are coming into the city. ”

"Stupid, there is no Austria now, it is the Germans who are going to enter the city."

"Germans? I heard that they chose a Chinese to be the king, and after the Germans entered the city, should they ask us to change all the pasta to Chinese noodles? ”

As soon as these words came out, the neighbors, who had been leisurely discussing the movements of foreign troops, suddenly became agitated, and the comfortable atmosphere that enveloped the entire street was mixed with a little unease.

Miller sighed, hung the sign on the door, and turned back to the cramped storefront.

The store is filled with freshly made handmade leather shoes, and a shoe being repaired is placed on the workbench, and the smell of leather fills the room. The old man returned to the workbench that doubled as a counter, and was about to fix the shoe that he had only half-made yesterday, when he suddenly stopped, opened the drawer of the workbench, and took out an old picture frame.

In the frame were two young men in 1889-style Italian military uniforms, and the old man sighed heavily when he saw their smiling faces.

"The fledgling empire we fought for has completely collapsed, old man." The octogenarian muttered as he picked up the rag on the table and gently wiped the frame, "The glory of the Kingdom of Sardinia is gone, and the French and Austrians, whom our forefathers had fought so hard to drive away, have returned. ”

The old man wiped the frames and recalled the days when he and his classmates went to East Africa to seize Somaliland and Eritrea, when Italy was full of ambition and ready to carve out a world of its own on the world map.

The old man couldn't help but wonder, what went wrong? How did the blood of the warriors born on Italian soil disappear from the Italians? Not to mention the Roman legions that are too far away, the ****** mercenaries and Venetian crossbowmen in the Middle Ages are quite good warriors, and the Red Shirts of Garibaldi during the unification war of the Kingdom of Sardinia are also known for their ability to fight, where were these bloodlines lost?

As the old man pondered this, outside the small window of the shop, rows of French soldiers were strutting through Guò, and high French military boots were trampling the streets of the ancient Roman Empire, making a heavy sound.

**

North Africa, Libya.

Angelita looked at the sun hanging in the sky with resentment.

The heat had soaked her clothes, and although she was already getting hydrated, her thirst still didn't subside. As a goddess, she knows more about her body than ordinary people, and she knows that her body is not particularly dehydrated, but the heat and the oncoming dry wind still make her mouth feel thirsty.

This is presumably a survival mechanism of the human body, alerting the brain to find water in advance in an environment that may face a water shortage.

Angelita thought it was terrible.

"Those abominable technicians!" She couldn't help but whisper, though it might have exacerbated her thirst, "If they weren't so incompetent, I wouldn't have gotten to this place right now!" ”

"Necessary Evil" had assured Angelita that none of the escaped technicians would survive, but Angelita still couldn't resolve the resentment in her heart.

Apostates, like infidels, must be burned at the stake.

This is the education that Angelita received from a young age.

"At the end of the day, it's all that demon's fault." Angelita continued to murmur in a vicious voice, "It's all his fault, one day, I'm going to kill him and ruin his Yiqiē." ”

**

The cardinal in charge of educating Angelita silently looked at the "holy woman" who wantonly exuded his hatred, and his old face showed a faint sentimentality.

As the executor of the church's will, he personally educated Angelita to what she is now, but at this moment, he can't help but feel uneasy and guilty.

He couldn't help but think of the first time he met Angelita many years ago, when she had an innocent face that matched the pure white wings behind her, and her smile could move the world's hardest heart.

At that time, before he became a cardinal, he vowed to teach the girl in front of him to be a spokesman for fraternity and tolerance, and to teach the supreme good in the world.

Regrettably, the Church did not raise Angelita as a saint at all, and the part of the Christian doctrine about tolerance and fraternity was not taught to Angelita at all, except for the formal things that were needed for sermons. All the Church needs is fanatics who can cleanse heretics, berserkers who are superb.

In essence, Angelita was no different from the monks of the "Necessary Evil".

She obviously has the appearance of an angel, but she has been raised to be a bloodthirsty and warlike demon, and there is nothing more expressive of the characteristics of the Xiàn Church.

Since a long, long time ago, there was no longer tolerance and love in the upper echelons of the Church, and he knew this all too well as he had climbed from the grassroots level to the position of cardinal. He knew all the dirty things that the clergy had done.

Even in modern times, the power of the Church has shrunk, and it is no longer able to sell indulgences, collect tithes, or violate women in the name of witch trials, but sin and darkness have always existed within this organization.

It is an eternal truth that any organization will decay, and the longer it exists, the more it will degenerate.

The cardinal sighed softly.

Of course, the Christian faith is still there, and there will still be a new church in the future to take charge of the magnificent cathedral of the Vatican, but it will be another organization.

As for the future, perhaps the people who believe in Lin Youde's panhumanism will surpass those who believe in Christianity, and panhumanism will become a new "religion", and that will be the beginning of the degeneration of NERV. Perhaps while Lin Youde and his direct descendants are still alive, the organization will still be able to maintain its current character for a certain extent, but one day, the wise founders will pass away, and corruption will erode the entire organization, just as corruption has corrupted the church and other old empires now.

It's just that the unknown cardinal himself probably won't see that day.

All he can do now is to watch the final ending of the "work" that he has devoted the rest of his life to.

At this time, the "work" turned around and asked loudly: "Haven't the magic armor promised by the British been sent yet?" ”

"Your Highness, don't be impatient, your current physical condition is not suitable for battle."

"I know what my body is like! I can still fight, just French, not enough to worry about! ”

"Your Highness, stubbornness can't win the war, so you better take advantage of the time when the British didn't send the armor to recuperate." The cardinal spoke in a calm voice.

"Do you think the enemy will give me time to rest? I bet they'll be coming from France's North African territory soon, and Lin Youde isn't the one to miss the best time to crush us! ”

"Even then, we should not continue to fight the enemy now, and if they do come over, we will retreat to Egypt, and it will not hurt if Libya is handed over to them like this. Once you've recovered and you've got your new magic armor, we'll return to Libya with the British. Your Highness, this is the most feasible plan at the moment, and only by following this plan will you be able to finally achieve your goals. ”

Angelita stared at the cardinal, who was her raiser, and the cardinal, who was her raiser, did not back down in the slightest, and finally, Angelita said, "Well, I think you have a point, now get me more water." ”

"I thought, Your Highness, why don't you go for a swim in the sea?"

"I hate to show my skin in public!"

"I and the other attendants can avoid it, no one will see you, and this entire stretch of beach will become your private space."

"I still hate the sea! Anyway, I hate swimming! ”

With that, Angelita turned and walked into the courtyard, not looking at the beach in North Africa, which was not far away.

The cardinal sighed.

I knew that when I was teaching Angelita, I quietly taught her some things related to play behind her back, such as picnics, hiking, swimming, and grooming.

If I had taught her all this, she probably wouldn't have become like this now.

At this time, Angelita picked up the long sword inserted in the courtyard and began to wield it. Looking at Angelita's figure like this, the cardinal sighed again, and he realized once again that he had deprived Angelita of what should have belonged to Angelita, that is, he had ruined Angelita's side as a girl, leaving her combat power empty.

"O iniquity." He whispered to himself.

If there is a chance to go back to the past, he will definitely correct these mistakes, but unfortunately there are no ifs in this world.

He vaguely remembered that an old cardinal had warned him back then, but at that time he was so bent on educating Angelita to become the cardinal of his dreams, so he just threw the bishop's words aside as the nagging of a pedantic old man.

Human beings are like this, only when they are old, they will realize such and such mistakes, but young people always rush forward with their heads bored, and take the teachings of the old people based on experience as wind in their ears.

That's it, he shook his head, the wood was done, and regret would not help. Now, let yourself be an old bone and see Angelita's story to the end.

While thinking like this, somewhere in the old man's heart, he was still looking forward to some transcendent existence that could save Angelita from her current karma.