May 23, 1526, Sea Circular Calendar.
The Eternal Federation.
Sunlight poured through gaps in the clouds, spilling over the newly completed buildings.
The low, dim stone houses of the past were gone, replaced by rows of reinforced concrete buildings with clean, sharp lines.
Their gray-white exterior walls gleamed coldly in the sunlight, like ranks of soldiers standing in formation, silently declaring the end of an old era.
The windows were fitted with glass reproduced from the Ancient Kingdom's technology, thin yet tough, allowing those inside to see the scenery without opening them.
The roofs were covered with a special insulating layer, keeping the interiors pleasantly cool even beneath the blazing sun.
The buildings were not particularly tall, only four or five stories, but to ordinary people who had spent most of their lives using kerosene lamps, they seemed like something from another world.
The new residents moved in one after another.
Some stood before the light switches, flicking them back and forth, watching the little glass bulbs brighten and dim beneath their fingertips as they laughed in bewilderment.
Others crouched beside smart terminals, scratching their heads for ages over the icons shifting across the screens, before helplessly turning their manuals back to the first page and starting with "What is a touchscreen?"
For people who had spent half their lives struggling to feed and clothe themselves, smart home technology reproduced from the Great Kingdom of eight hundred years ago was both a blessing and a sweet burden.
To enjoy a more convenient life, they had to figure out how these things worked.
"Thank you for your help, Mr. Tiger. Without you, who knows when we would have finished the work?"
In front of the last building to be completed, the contractor overseeing the Federation's construction work took the sea bream