"It's been so long. "It was dusk outside after leaving the decoration shop, and the whole street seemed to be gilded with a layer of gold and glittering with sunlight.

Zhou Lie snorted and said, "Now hurry back to the academy and catch up with dinner time in the cafeteria." ”

"Hey. Stella sighed, expressing helplessness about the "pragmatism" of the boy next to her, but unfortunately, the other party may not even appreciate the meaning of this sigh.

Just as Stella wanted to continue her efforts, a loud and clear voice sounded in the main square.

"New decree, new decree, now no Portians can be called Southern Barbarians, now they are all citizens of the Marston Empire, enjoy the same civil rights, anyone found to be discriminatory, bullying, and use such a contemptuous name as Southern Barbarians, there will be corresponding punishments, this decree is effective from tonight, please see the notice for details!"

In the square, the propagandist reading the decree read aloud the new decree issued by the consul, and as more and more people gathered around, they understood more and more the meaning of this decree, not only in words, but also in terms of work and education, which did not distinguish between the citizens of the empire and those who were remnants of the former kingdom, and at the same time removed many of the prohibitions that had been legally imposed on them, which made the Marstians extremely dissatisfied.

"Hmph, these Southern Barbarians still deserve civil rights?"

The next Marston civilians in the audience said disdainfully.

That is, why should this group of ignorant barbarians give them citizenship before they are indoctrinated? ”

Immediately, a civilian chimed in.

"How dare you say it again!, see that I don't break the bridge of your nose!" a big man roared angrily, grabbing the civilian by the collar, and was about to hit him.

"Hmph, what did I say, you broken southern barbarians, a bunch of ignorant and ignorant guys who only know how to use violence, you are already alive now that Your Majesty is merciful, and... ”

Before the other party could finish speaking, the big man's fist smashed into the man's face, breaking the bridge of the opponent's nose, and the nosebleed sprayed wildly, and the attacked man wiped the blood from his nose, stared at the other party fiercely, and then roared and pounced.

"Hit someone, beat someone. ”

"How dare you do it?"

The surrounding Marston people couldn't stand it, and several young men also stepped forward to scuffle with the big man, and the guards on the side tried to stop it, but found that it was not only this place where the scuffle occurred, but the square was full of people who had clashed over the new law, and the scene became more and more chaotic as the people on the street continued to gather.

"That's true. Zhou Lie shook his head and sighed, the chaotic square crowd was divided into two sides and fought directly, the reading officer stood helplessly on the high platform, shouting to everyone to calm down, and at the same time shouting to the guards to maintain order, but there were too many people in the square, and the guards had no time to pull them away one by one, and there were already several guards who broke into the crowd to stop the brawl, and they were also attacked by the angry crowd.

"I can't go back for a while. Stella looked at Zhou Lie.

"It's possible to take a detour, but it feels like it's pretty much the same in other places, so let's find a tavern and sit down. Zhou Lie proposed.

"Okay. "It's not the same as planned, but the result is the same.

As soon as the new decree was issued, the square was in chaos, and there were only a few drunks left in the tavern that was originally full of customers, and on the recommendation of Stella, the two came to a tavern called Morning Star, which was not far from the square, with its beautifully decorated and clean utensils and polite waiters, all of which declared that this was a tavern for the upper class of society.

"The barbecue pie at this tavern is very good. Stella recommended.

There weren't many customers, so the barbecue ordered by the two came quickly, and the two talked while eating with ale.

"I've always had a question, you Marstians and Portians belong to the same nation, why is there such a deep hatred between the two sides? There will even be a bill of differential treatment, which is not at all good for the unity of the people. Zhou Lie asked.

Throughout the history of the Xia Dynasty, there were not many wars to divide and annex land, but every city, such as the decree read out by the official today, will definitely be the first to be posted in the streets and alleys of the city, even if it occupies the land of different races, it will try to treat each other as equally, and will not make a hierarchy.

Stella thought for a moment and replied, "We Marstians and Portians are not the same, but the most fundamental reason is actually their ignorance, you should know that there is a church in this land, and you also know the history of the unification holy war, right?" ”

Zhou Lie nodded, when he was in the east, he could still see some white-robed missionaries from the west, they went to the palace to spread the teachings of their god of light, remembering that they thought that the creation of the god of light in the world was boundless and endless, and the reason why the sun and moon would rise and set regularly was because they were the eyes of the god of light.

Such teachings disgusted the Emperor of Xia at that time, that is, Zhou Lie's father, especially when they said that the divine right of the monarch was granted, which directly provoked the emperor to be angry, and then those missionaries were all driven out and were not allowed to set foot in the capital for half a step.

And since Zhou Lie came to the West, he didn't even see a single church in the city, and this was because of the unification holy war.

Originally, the church had extremely high power in the western continent, and the king needed the approval of the pope to ascend the throne, but one day, a scholar said that the world is boundary, and the sun and the moon are two huge balls of light revolving around this world, which conforms to a certain law, and God does not exist.

Naturally, this blasphemous remark was attacked by the church, who seized the scholar and made him retract his remarks and admit his mistake, but the scholar refused to admit his mistake and tried to promote his views in the church.

Then the scholar was burned to death, but the death of a scholar did not stop the successors from continuing to pursue the truth, and the kingdom of Marston, near the far north, was the first small country to break away from the control of the Church, and it was also the first country to pursue the truth from the king's people, and in order to return Marston to the control of the Church, the Church mobilized the nations and launched a holy war.

However, Marston survived, and connected with the rebellion against the army that originally belonged to the church, and was also supported by the Wizards Association, and the mages from the magic capital joined the kingdom of Marston, so the counterattack began, one country after another was conquered, the statues of the god of light were smashed, the church was destroyed, the priests were imprisoned, and when Marston occupied most of the western continent, they publicly declared that the teachings of the church were all lies, and those teachings were not the truth.

The evidence of scholars shows that the church has always been hollow out of royal power, and the church has secretly done all kinds of shady things, and for various reasons, the church has lost its position, and the people who pursue the truth have successfully overthrown the control of the church.

But there is another country where they have always believed in the Church, from the king to the people, and even if the arguments of the scholars are presented to them, they do not want to think that the Church is wrong, because they have the best of the Divine Blessing Army in the continent, and this army has convinced the whole country that God exists.

But the result is self-evident, Zhou Lie and Stella do not know how the Kingdom of Marston won in the face of this terrifying army, but the fact is that Portia was conquered by Marston, the truth-seekers defeated the church that believed in the gods, and the Western Continent completed the unification from the territory to the ideological cognition.

"We, the Marston Empire, have conquered countless nations, large and small, either through wars or through negotiations, and they are either the same or different as we are, and we have not legally injustice them in any way, nor have we deprived them of their freedom of wealth, and foreign slave servants can obtain the status of freemen in the same way as Marston slaves, and they can go and leave all kinds of places, and in the first years there will be guards who will control any discriminatory differences. ”

"But Portia is different, even if they are defeated, there is no shadow left of the church, this group of people still believe in the teachings of the church, believe in the existence of God, do not accept the knowledge compiled by our scholars and magisters, and vigorously oppose our rule, in the early days of the administration, there were many incidents of the killing of archons. ”

Speaking of this, Stella sighed, took a sip of ale, and continued, "So that's why the Prime Minister will give this kind of instruction, so that the territories that used to belong to the Kingdom of Portia are now managed by those minor Poscia nobles, and at the same time immigration, and legal restrictions. ”

"Is there an irreconcilable contradiction in faith, one side believes in the truth, the other side believes in God? Zhou Lie muttered, a religion has been uprooted like this, although there are still believers, but according to the current trend, it is only a matter of time before it completely disappears.

"I don't hate those myths, and I think it's funny, but I can't make me believe that there are gods in the world and pray and worship them. Stella said, "Anyway, you also have a religion in the East that worships gods." ”

"Yes, and there is more than one god, and there are many Taoist temples dedicated to the gods. Zhou Lie said, "However, there has never been a situation in our East where a sect can control the imperial power, but it is better to say that it is very suppressed, although there are also some people who are superstitious about those gods and ghosts." ”

"Doesn't sound like you believe it?"

If there is really a god, he has prayed for so long, why is there no so-called miracle Zhou Lie smiled bitterly and shook his head, since he decided to come here, he had already decided to live on his own strength.

"It's just a story for me. Zhou Lie said.

Stella's eyes lit up. "Stories, can you tell me some of your Oriental myths, I like stories the most. ”

"Okay. ”

Simple mythological stories become vivid and lively under Zhou Lie's mouth, the three-eyed god general who splits the mountain to save his mother, the three-headed and six-armed natural god baby, and the skillful fairy of Sifan's nether, these stories are completely different from Western mythology, so that Stella is deeply addicted to it, every time it comes to the climax, Stella will hold the table tightly with both hands, and when the protagonist escapes, or finally achieves good results, tears will appear in the corners of her eyes.

The tumult in the square gradually calmed down, and looking out of the tavern window, you could see that the brawlers were all led by the guards to their cells with bruised and swollen faces, and presumably for at least one night after a brief trial by the judge.

After the two of them finished eating the barbecue pie on their plates, they took the bag and walked towards the academy.

When passing through the square, the two of them also stood under the notice, and carefully looked at the notice, which was indeed a policy clause that lifted all kinds of legal restrictions on the Portians.

After just experiencing the battle of the Old Street, just a strict investigation was carried out around the Old Street, and this kind of notice was released, even Zhou Lie couldn't understand what the consul was thinking, even if he was also a Portian, and he was sympathetic to his own people, this time to issue this kind of notice can be said to be a very bad time.

"But what does it have to do with me? He laughed at himself and swept the thoughts out of his head.

Yes, now he has nothing to do with the people on this continent, he is just a passerby, according to his own plan, he will eventually return to Great Xia, with this knowledge and power, to contend with the future West.