One Hundred Sixty-Nine Sweet Nothings Every Roman Must Know (Thanks to Fly Over Mountains and Wilds for the Alliance Leader)

Zhou Yun froze slightly and lowered his head, only then noticing a child in a linen robe with a silver cross hanging from her chest standing beside him.

That child was the one Zhou Yun had encountered at the market entrance earlier... Oh, right, this was the only Catholic church left in all of Macragge City.

So Zhou Yun held out his hand to the little girl.

"Fish sauce." Zhou Yun smiled at her.

"Ah!" The little girl paused before realizing Zhou Yun was asking for the complimentary fish sauce. "Of course. Please have a seat for a moment. I'll get it for you right away."

As she spoke, the little girl ran to a shelf in the corner of the church, then rushed back and handed Zhou Yun a glass vial about the size of one of his fingers.

Zhou Yun pinched the tiny glass vial between two fingers, brought it close to his eyes, and squinted hard before making out the half-vial of thick, dark yellow liquid inside, like amber.

So little...

The little girl smiled. "All the fish sauce here is fermented by ourselves. It tastes better than the imported Talassar kind. If you like it, you can come buy a few bottles."

"We also serve bread. You can try it right now."

Zhou Yun shook the fish sauce, which probably amounted to half a mouthful, and said hesitantly, "Then... let's try it?"

"One serving of bread costs two Asses," the little girl said with a smile.

"...Why don't you just rob me?" Zhou Yun could not help rubbing his temples.

"Robbery is illegal!" The little girl frowned and looked at Zhou Yun helplessly, as though he had asked an incredibly stupid question.

So if it weren't illegal, she really would just rob him...

Zhou Yun felt that this Catholic church was nothing like what he had imagined.

"I'm here to see your bishop." Zhou Yun tucked the sesame-seed-sized vial of fish sauce into his pocket.

"Ah!" The little girl froze, then said, "So you know Bishop Agrippa. I'm terribly sorry!"

"Yes, so could you please—"

"I misspoke just now. The bread costs three Asses." As she spoke, the little girl held out her hand again.

"Uh, old Mr. Lucretius introduced me." Zhou Yun slapped his forehead helplessly and explained again, his head beginning to ache.

The little girl suddenly understood. "So Grandpa Lucretius sent you!"

"Yes, yes, so—"

"Four Asses." The little girl extended her hand even farther.

Zhou Yun's expression stiffened.

"Please don't be upset. When Grandpa Lucretius comes himself, we charge him five Asses!" the little girl said solemnly.

Half-price gouging for strangers, full-price gouging for acquaintances, huh...

In the end, Zhou Yun still took out two Asses and stuffed them into the little girl's hand.

"I'm not familiar with Lucretius, and I don't know your bishop. I just need to see him about something."

The moment she got the money, the little girl swiftly grabbed a piece of bread from the nearby shelf, handed it to Zhou Yun, then ran toward the back of the church.

Holding the bread she had stuffed into his hands, Zhou Yun found a seat in the front row of the church.

He broke off a piece of the bread and put it in his mouth.

He did not add any fish sauce. That bottle of Talassar fish sauce last night had made him feel as if he had swallowed two Nurglings whole... Hmm?

Zhou Yun let out a comfortable hum.

The bread contained walnuts and cranberries. The aroma of wheat, the faint bitterness of walnuts, and the tart sweetness of dried cranberries intertwined into a surprisingly distinctive flavor.

As he ate, Zhou Yun began admiring the mosaic before him.

A silver giant dragon, a golden knight, a pure silver lance, a bright crimson banner, a steed blacker than night, scorching sand...

Gradually, fragmented illusions appeared before Zhou Yun's eyes, and memories rose within his mind.

He felt his perspective slowly overlap with that of the golden knight.

He felt sand striking his face, while light reflected from the silver dragon's mercury-like scales shone upon him.

The scent of spices filling North Africa flooded his nostrils, and the pure silver lance, its runes personally carved by Erda, rested in his hand.

He saw all things rise into the sky in defiance of physical law. He saw gravity reverse... No, the dragon had redefined the concept of up and down. Thus, up became down, and down became up...

He saw the banner wrapped around the lance catch around the dragon's neck. He saw the dragon let out a piercing wail. He saw Mars drawing closer and closer.

He heard the dragon's shrill explosion as it was dragged beneath Mars, and he felt the dragon's emotions.

It had once roamed the stars, slaughtered countless races, and fed upon stars. Even Vaul, the Aeldari god of forging, had been defeated by its hand; even the Old Ones had fallen before it.

But now, it...

Fucking primitive knight!!!

Zhou Yun rubbed his brow a few times and broke free from that fragmented memory.

Another memory of the Emperor... But this time was different from before. The Emperor's memory had truly given him knowledge and skills.

He had learned one of the Emperor's countless skills. He had learned... One Hundred Sixty-Nine Sweet Nothings Every Roman Must Know!

"Fucking primitive knight!" Zhou Yun could not help repeating the dragon's curse.

The memory gave Zhou Yun a headache. The image the dragon had displayed was utterly beyond the limits of human comprehension, leaving him dizzy and muddled. He lowered his head and rubbed his temples.

His gaze unconsciously fell upon the base of the mosaic, where a string of names had been engraved. They seemed to be the list of donors from when the church was built.

One of the names inexplicably drew Zhou Yun's attention...

"Ollanius, Ollanius..." Zhou Yun read the name aloud, finding it strangely familiar.

Before Zhou Yun could think carefully about where he had heard that name, footsteps sounded behind him.

Agrippa, bishop of Macragge's Catholic church, rubbed his eyes a few times.

Had the illusions from that Elyrium temple begun haunting him again?

Just now, he had actually seen a golden knight sitting in the front row of the church—a golden knight identical to the one in the mosaic...

Agrippa blinked several times and discovered that the golden knight had vanished, leaving behind only an ordinary-looking man from Macragge.

So it really was an illusion?

Agrippa thumped his head a few times. That war, that expedition into the far north, had not only taken one of his legs; it had also taken away Agrippa's sanity.

Ever since destroying that Elyrium temple, he had often seen visions.

Angels with wings, pale specters clad in dark blue armor, black-armored lions pouring phosphorous fire from the heavens and destroying Elyrium...

Only within this Catholic church did his symptoms ease slightly.

"Are you a friend of Lucretius?" Agrippa walked over on his prosthetic leg, came to Zhou Yun's side, and sat down.

"Zhou Yun, Lucretius's student." Zhou Yun dipped his head slightly in greeting.

"Agrippa. Uh, I suppose I count as the bishop of this church." Agrippa shrugged. "What do you need from me? If you want to convert, the baptism fee is six Denar. If you want to hear the story of how my Lord made a virgin pregnant and gave birth to himself, that's twelve Denar."

Looking at Agrippa, Zhou Yun suddenly felt that he and this bishop would have plenty to talk about.

But business came first.

"I wanted to ask..." Zhou Yun briefly explained how he owed money to the Semoneta Church.

"...You came to the wrong person. There's really nothing I can do about that."

Agrippa waved a hand.

"My relationship with the other temples is terrible. I've isolated all of them."