Star Forge Titan

"Thank you, Grandpa Alfredo." In front of this well-dressed old butler, even the rebellious Catherine became well-behaved.

Because the other party is a fourth-level transcendent and has served the Carolingian royal family for many years, the two nobles present almost grew up under his watch.

"Forget it, let's not talk about those irritating topics. Conrad, I have a question for you." Catherine blew on the hot tea, then hurried to the emperor.

"Go ahead." His Majesty Conrad held the cup and saucer in one hand, raised his little finger with the other hand, pinched the handle of the teacup with his index finger and thumb, and spoke in a light tone.

"You are also a warrior, right? With the power of a warrior, can you row the boat to a speed of fourteen knots?" Catherine asked with a very serious expression.

"Puff!" Upon hearing this, His Majesty the Emperor spat out a mouthful of black tea.

"My sister, are you kidding me?" Ignoring the old butler's glare, Conrad wiped the corner of his mouth with his sleeve.

"We warriors aren't propellers. Speeding the boat up to fourteen knots? Ha, even chivalric novels wouldn't have such an exaggerated plot. Perhaps it's only in farces performed at the Imperial Opera House, right?"

"No, I have to write this down in my notebook so I can use it in my next drama script, hahahaha." His Majesty Conrad slammed the table and laughed out loud without any manners.

"Your Majesty, please be decent." The old butler sighed tiredly. He had given up correcting Conrad's private etiquette.

"What is a propeller?" Catherine was stunned.

"Uh..." The Emperor's expression froze as he realized that he had inadvertently revealed the imperial secret.

"Don't tell anyone, this is one of the new achievements of the Magical Research Institute."

"Tsk, it's so annoying to leave things half-finished." Despite saying this, Catherine curled her lips but did not continue to ask.

"But when we were chasing smugglers, I actually saw someone using their arm strength to row a boat at a speed of at least fourteen knots, maybe even faster than that." The Duchess puffed up her cheeks and muttered in confusion:

"I couldn't catch up with that guy even though I was driving the Ocean Knight Type 1 Magical Iron Cavalry."

The Magical Iron Cavalry is a general term for the magical vehicles specially provided by the Linde Empire to the new type of extraordinary people. It includes many of the most advanced magical technology products. The Ocean Knight Type 1 is a vehicle specially designed for high-speed combat at sea.

"After questioning your excellent subordinates, we found out that the other party was not in the same group as the smugglers. They might be illegal immigrants who wanted to sneak into Linde. This kind of people are quite common in recent years." Catherine added.

However, after hearing her words, His Majesty Conrad couldn't help but look at the old butler.

"My silly sister, you finally escaped this time." Conard sighed in a strange tone.

"Huh?" Catherine tilted her head in confusion.

"If you're not mistaken, you're very lucky to come back safe and sound." Conrad's expression became rare and serious.

But his words only made the Duchess more confused.

"Being able to row a boat at that speed with oars means that the opponent has reached perfection in both absolute strength and control of strength. That's why they can reach a speed of over fourteen knots with arm strength alone without breaking the oars." The old butler Alfredo explained with a serious expression.

"Ah!" Catherine couldn't help but raise her hand to cover her bright red lips.

"If a being like that wanted to kill you," Conrad raised a finger, "one sword would probably be enough."

"But..." Catherine's expression looked a little ugly.

"Then why are they sneaking across the border?!"

"Yes, why do they want to smuggle?" His Majesty the Emperor, who was originally lying lazily on the chair, slowly sat up, a thoughtful glimmer in his eyes, and his whole temperament changed.

At this moment, the "rowing expert" who scared the Duchess and attracted the attention of His Majesty the Emperor has also arrived in Lutetia, the capital of Lind.

Arriving with him was a necromancer with messy hair the color of dry grass.

The latter was looking at this city, which was completely different from the one painted by Elrond, with the embarrassed expression of a countryman entering the city.

Compared to Elrond, where most areas still retain their traditional appearance, Lind's capital, Lutetia, has already shown many traces of a modern city.

Magical vehicles can be seen everywhere, traveling back and forth on the streets, tall chimneys release white steam into the sky, and crisscrossing metal pipes can be seen on the city streets.

"Is this... Lutetia?" Khayon couldn't help but ask in a low voice.

"Yes, this is Lutetia, the Magic City." Alvin looked at the city with nostalgia.

The two fell silent at the same time until a rude shout suddenly came from behind them.

"Hey, redneck, get out of the way!"

Chapter 22: One City, Two Scenes

Lutetia, the perfect city.

This city has a long history spanning thousands of years and is one of the earliest cities built by humans in Linde and even the entire Gondwana continent.

After generations of expansion, Lutetia has three city walls. The first layer of ancient city walls is only six meters high, but it surrounds the old city where the nobles live, which is full of various villas and houses with luxurious and stylish decorations.

In the center of the old town is the Neuschwanstein Castle, a palace with white exterior walls and a light structure, which looks like it was built with pure white feathers. It was also the residence of the Carolingian royal family.

The second wall is mainly where the main departments of the empire are located. Civil servants and members of the House of Commons and the House of Lords can be seen rushing back and forth everywhere. They are either riding in carriages or in new magic cars, and they are constantly making all kinds of speeches.

The third city wall is the latest wall built. Due to the large-scale application of magic engineering, this city wall is thirty meters high, which is a magnificent building that was unimaginable in the past. The main city gate located on the central axis of the city is fifty meters high.

On the tall city gate, there are a large number of exquisite reliefs depicting scenes in heaven. The prototypes come from Lind’s most important belief, the kingdom of Jupiter, the god of the sky, the god of law, and the god of light.

Therefore, the main gate of Lutetia is also called the Gate of Heaven.

The city blends new things with old classics, presenting a stunning beauty that will subconsciously take your breath away.

The fusion of buildings from different eras gives it both an ancient and luxurious traditional beauty and the trendy fashion brought about by the magical revolution.

Buildings of different styles are lined up side by side, horse-drawn carriages and magic cars are running on the road at the same time, and the city's population density is far higher than in the old times, making the whole city look extremely lively.

In the air above the city, you can see guide rails that are being erected or have been completed. These are special guide rails used for running light public rail trains within the city.

However, the narrower yet more robust rails at the top were high-speed tracks specifically for the Imperial nobility and law enforcement agencies. As for ordinary citizens, they could only take the crowded and limited-frequency public rail trains.

Again, just like those nicer and brighter metal rails take precedence over the common rails.

Beneath Lutetia's glamorous appearance lies the unbearable chaos and filth that are difficult to conceal during the social transformation.

Outside the magnificent Gate of Heaven is not directly the suburbs, but a downtown area where a large number of intricately arranged houses converge.

Because the construction of public facilities has not kept pace, the lower city area outside the first city wall is countless times dirtier and more chaotic than the city area. It is common to see the ground covered with muddy water that is almost ankle-deep, and people in the market are slaughtering livestock in the street.

The scorching steam turned into white mist that continuously rose from the freshly slaughtered livestock, mixing with the gray mist that seemed to be lingering on the top of the chimney, like large pieces of gray gauze, hanging heavily above the market.

Young men from Linde or other small countries who wanted to try their luck in Lutetia, farmers driving their livestock to sell, hawkers hawking their wares on the street, beggars in tattered clothes, cunning thieves, idle onlookers, and scoundrels from the bottom of society.

All of them were crowded together.

In addition to the unpleasant and complex odor, the air was also filled with a lot of noisy and chaotic sounds.

Farmers shouted and waved whips, dogs barked and yelped, and you could even hear the lowing of bulls, the bleating of sheep, and the grunting of pigs; there were also the cries of vendors selling different items, and shouts, curses, and quarrels from all directions.

There was the sound of plates colliding in the roadside tavern, the thud of the butcher chopping meat in the butcher's shop, the noise of people talking, the crowding and pushing, even the chaos of chasing a thief, and the cheers and shouts from the onlookers nearby.

Most of the people were unkempt and ragged, and short beggars and naughty children were constantly running in and out of the crowd, appearing and disappearing from time to time.

All this creates a chaotic scene that is dizzying and even disorienting.

At this moment, Alvin and Khayon were shocked by the magnificence of the Gate of Heaven, but they were also stunned by the chaos in the lower city outside the city walls.

"Hey, country bumpkin, don't block the road!" a coachman shouted loudly, waving his whip.

Because of the Lutetians' natural sense of superiority towards outsiders, the citizens who are already accustomed to this city always call those who have just arrived country bumpkins.

The carriage driven by the driver was a magnificent sight, unlike the surrounding city. It was likely occupied by a nobleman returning from an outing. Of course, it was more likely a dandy young man who had just woken up groggily at noon after a night of revelry at the Moulin Rouge near Lutetia.

The two newcomers who didn't seem to be causing any trouble silently made way, while the coachman drove away with his nose glaring at the front.

Then, Ivan and Kayon, who were dressed as ordinary people, looked at each other and suddenly burst into laughter at the same time.

"Ha, so people in Linde are so different." Ka Yang showed his usual sarcastic smile on his face.

"There's nothing we can do about it. This is how we humans are." Alvin shrugged and said without surprise.

This was naturally not the first time the black-haired boy came to Lutetia, but the Lutetia, the capital of Linde, that he saw was the perfect city after the initial magical revolution.

But now this Lutetia is like a caterpillar that has not yet completely transformed into a butterfly. The outline of beauty can be vaguely seen under its wet and dirty appearance, but its surface is also stained with the past that it has not yet gotten rid of.

The overall atmosphere presents the chaotic vitality that is unique to the arrival of the tide of the times.

But then again, although Alvin didn't have a bad temper, he couldn't tolerate being called a country bumpkin for no reason.

So, without hesitation, he raised his middle finger at the departing carriage, and the unique dark golden magic power of [Reshaping the World] surged quietly, causing the bricks and stones paving the road in front of the wheels to suddenly bounce upwards.

The next second, the carriage that had run over the bricks and stones suddenly jumped up a little at a level visible to the naked eye.

Boom!

There was an exceptionally crisp and even echoing crash in the carriage, followed by a series of angry curses and the coachman's confused and frightened apology.

"Tsk tsk, you are so petty. Aren't you worried that the poor guy will lose his job because of this?" Ka Yang shook his head and asked hypocritically.

"Then he can only pray that the young master in the carriage drank enough last night and completely forgot about this matter before going home." Alvin shrugged and had no intention of answering such a provocative question.

"Swoosh~" At this moment, a whistle suddenly sounded beside.

The two turned around and saw a little boy wearing a beret, no older than twelve years old, sitting on a pile of debris and looking over here.

The boy was wearing an old suit that was patched but washed very clean, and he gave them a bright smile with a missing front tooth.

"Two wizards, do you need a guide?"

Chapter 23 People from Lower Town

Hearing the child's call.

Khayon looked at Ivan with his eyes narrowed into slits.

Ivan shrugged and said, "I didn't guess that either."

Obviously, the child saw him using his ability to play a trick on the noble carriage, so he called them "Master Mage" directly.

At present, when information about extraordinary people is not widely available, most civilians have a very one-sided and intuitive understanding of them. For example, those who wear armor are knights, and those who do not wear armor are mages.

Apart from that, there are bits and pieces of talk in various troubadour songs, ninety percent of which are nonsense, and the remaining ten percent are improvisations.

The bard who really knows the information about the extraordinary people is most likely Extraordinary A pretending to be a bard. Such a person will naturally not leak relevant information at will.

"I know all the fun places in Lutetia as well as my own backyard. With just two little crowns, I can take you two masters to the most interesting places." The little boy jumped down the pile of debris very nimbly like a naughty monkey.

The small Ecu that he mentioned refers to the currency in circulation of Linde that is mainly made of silver.

Because of the relationship between face value and weight, ordinary Linde people usually call the gold-made Écu big Écu and the silver-made Écu small Écu. As for the copper Écu with an even smaller value, it is simply called copper coins.

Two coppers could buy a daily newspaper, and a small ecu was equal to ten coppers, so the price the child called out was not actually high.

But Alvin would not look down on these poor children who had grown up early. The other party obviously saw his behavior of playing pranks on the nobles, but did not point it out directly. Instead, he hinted at this by calling him Master Mage.

I guess, if I didn't ask him to be my tour guide, he wouldn't mind going there and being a little rascal who tells tales.

In addition, looking at the other person's posture of slightly bending over as he stood beside the pile of debris, one could guess that if he had any bad intentions, he could bend over at any time and crawl under the pile of junk, then crawl out from the back and escape.

If this trick is used against ordinary gangsters, it will work every time. But this guy probably doesn't know the difference between ordinary people and extraordinary people. However, he is very brave and dares to jump out to solicit business even in this situation.

"Interesting little guy." Alvin smiled and took out a silver coin from his pocket.

Long before arriving in Lutetia, he had exchanged all the money he had into Linde currency through normal business channels.

The black-haired boy flicked his thumb, and the silver coin flew into the sky with a ding sound. The little boy subconsciously raised his head and wanted to stretch out his hands to catch the silver coin.

As a result, he saw that the silver coin was snatched away out of thin air by a big hand that suddenly appeared before it fell.

"Stranger, why give money to such a petty thief? I also know a lot of interesting places, whether it's a casino or a brothel." A rogue in dirty clothes walked out of the alley with a smirk, followed by several scoundrels dressed similarly.

Ivan raised his eyebrows, but before he could say anything, he heard the little boy let out an angry scream.

"Get lost! I'm from the Orphan Gang!"

As he spoke, the boy kicked the gangster's crotch fiercely like an enraged kitten, and pulled out a piece of iron from his waist and held it in his hand.

The iron sheet looked very rough, with one end ground into a sharp triangle and the other end tightly wrapped with a thin rope.

Even though he did this, the people who were kicked only retreated on their own initiative after letting out a cry of pain. Some of them even had fearful expressions on their faces, and they were obviously scared away by the gang's title.

Leaving behind a few barks like "Just wait and see!" and "Don't let me run into you again!", those scoundrels actually ran away.

"Sorry to make you embarrassed." Although he lost a silver coin, the boy showed a flattering expression after putting away the iron skewer.

"Is there any place you two would like to go?" He didn't care about losing the deposit and obviously planned to continue this job.

"Ha, I'm starting to like this guy." The corners of Kayang's mouth curled up uncontrollably.

"Interesting." Alvin also nodded. He didn't care about the gang disputes in the downtown area of ​​Lutetia. Having a follower with his own background could save some unnecessary trouble.

"Do you know Salt Park?" the black-haired boy said in Huma language with a slight Genoese Confederation accent.