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"This is actually quite boring, isn't it?"
"I wouldn't call it boring. After all, that's just how this world is."
Outside a little dessert shop by the street, Richard bent down and helped the elderly shopkeeper right the tables and chairs knocked over by the chaotic crowd, wiping off the grime on them as he went. Edward scooped at the sundae before him with a spoon, watching the people fighting in the distance.
The elderly shopkeeper thanked Richard earnestly. He kept waving it off as nothing, and ultimately received a small bag of cookies as a gift.
Holding the cookies, he pulled up a chair beside Edward and sat down to watch the chaotic, grand procession with him.
"Do you know what this reminds me of?"
Edward glanced at his watch again with little interest. "The Highland Kingdom over a hundred years ago? I remember you spent every day either arguing or fighting back then. You often couldn't resist shooting the intermediaries who came from the Northern Continent to ransom people."
"How can you say that!"
Richard declared with righteous conviction:
"As everyone knows, our Highlands' 'mummy' culture, like Balam's 'Bone Preservation,' is a distinctive ethnic tradition that deserves respect. So when I turned them into mummies, I was actually expressing my highest respect for them in the most straightforward way."
"Your way with words has improved."
"Ahem, we're getting off topic."
Richard untied the ribbon the elderly shopkeeper had carefully fastened into a bow, opened the lovely little package, and took out a cookie to put in his mouth. "I just feel that this country-every country-is like a pot of water being brought to a boil."
"Just like this. When the people can't survive anymore, they march and strike, and the nobles and administrators know to distribute a