Upon hearing Flandre's lively breakdown of the sport, Remilia showed an expression of quiet realization.
But it made perfect sense when she actually took a moment to think about it logically. Knights certainly weren't some cheap, disposable resource; the immense financial cost and time required to properly train a single competitor were significant. If a knight were completely consumed and killed in every single match, even a vast country like Kazimierz wouldn't be able to find enough fresh warriors for the greedy Commercial Federation to burn through. After all, over a dozen competitive matches, both large and small, were actively held in the various neon arenas across this land every single day.
Furthermore, the stadium audience came purely to watch a grand athletic competition. For a country to successfully package this sport as a commercial product and sell it to the public, it had to be suitable for all ages and possess a broad, comforting appeal. Savage, bloody slaughter simply wasn't something most civilized people enjoyed watching over dinner.
"Still, there is one thing I am quite curious about."
Flandre Scarlet watched the gorgeous Candle Knight dance across the television screen, then leaned over to hug Remilia's arm tightly.
"Sister, look at her. She has such a huge, heavy pair of branches and horns on her head. Doesn't her neck feel incredibly uncomfortable? And is it hard for her to turn over when she wants to sleep at night? What if she accidentally snaps her own neck just by looking up or down too quickly?"
Hearing Flandre's rapid-fire questions, Remilia looked closer at the elegant figure on the glowing screen. The warrior was an Elafia, but she had to admit the woman's physical appearance was absolutely outstanding; even back home in Gensokyo, she would easily be considered a top-tier beauty. Unfortunately, as an ordinary mortal of this world, her lifespan was bound to be limited.
Aside from her striking facial features, the most eye-catching thing about her was undoubtedly that grand pair of long, sweeping horns resting on her head. Once Flandre explicitly pointed it out, Remilia also felt that for someone possessing an ordinary person's physical fitness, carrying such a massive pair of headpieces while jumping, parrying, and moving around so vigorously in combat looked quite uncomfortable. Yet, the girl in the video moved with complete, fluid elegance in every single action, showing absolutely no sign of physical strain or discomfort at all.
After watching the rest of the recorded match, Flandre obediently lay back down beneath the covers to sleep at Remilia's gentle request. Remilia followed suit, sliding into her own bed and falling into a peaceful slumber shortly after Flandre drifted off.
The next morning, Flandre woke up early and suddenly pounced onto Remilia's bed with a mischievous grin.
"Sister, sister, wake up right now!"
Nearly losing half her life to Flandre's heavy, unexpected pounce, Remilia quickly grabbed hold of Flandre's head and gave her hair a furious, vengeful rubbing.
"It is the early morning, what on earth are you trying to do?!"
"Get up!" Flandre said indignantly, holding her slightly dizzy head as her hair was mussed.
"Get up? You were clearly trying to launch a full assassination attempt on me!"
After climbing up from the mattress, Remilia pinned Flandre down on the bed and reached out to pinch her soft cheeks. Flandre didn't back down from the challenge either, instantly reaching out her small hands to pinch Remilia's cheeks in return.
"Eldest Miss, Second Miss, it is time for breakfa—..."
Sakuya Izayoi, who had just entered the room without a sound, caught a fleeting glimpse of Remilia's absolute lack of composure, and her intense, overflowing loyalty immediately manifested as a sudden nosebleed. She decisively closed the wooden door, shutting herself back out in the hallway.
Hearing the sudden noise, Remilia looked back at the door, silently lamented the total loss of her grand, majestic reputation, and quickly scrambled up to get her clothes dressed. Flandre sat back obediently to the side of the sheets, acting completely as if nothing out of the ordinary had happened.
Tens of seconds later, there was another polite, crisp knock on the door.
"Come in!" Remilia, now fully dressed and composed, sat elegantly on the edge of the bed and looked toward the entryway.
"Eldest Miss, Second Miss, breakfast is fully prepared downstairs," Sakuya Izayoi walked in with a cool, perfectly professional demeanor, asking formally as if the previous incident had never occurred. "Would you like to dine in a little while, or shall we head down right now?"
"Now, now! I want to eat right now!" Flandre raised both of her hands high into the air.
After heading downstairs into the quiet dining room and looking at the delicious spread laid out before her, Remilia nodded her head with deep satisfaction.
"The food in Kazimierz is quite wonderful!"
"It is indeed delicious, but the average prices here are nearly a full third more expensive than what we encountered in Victoria," replied Sakuya Izayoi, who was strictly in charge of managing their traveling finances.
"That much more expensive?" Remilia frowned slightly.
"If the food is not locally grown and needs to be imported from foreign plates, it can indeed become incredibly costly. After all, we are the consumers who ultimately have to pay for the steep corporate tariffs," Patchouli answered from across the table, turning a page of her book.
"The geographical terrain of Kazimierz isn't bad at all, so they should logically be able to produce quite a lot of their own grain. The reason Sakuya feels the prices are high is highly likely because this society is overly commercialized," Hong Meiling noted thoughtfully while happily eating her meal.
"But heavy commercialization has its distinct benefits; at the very least, there should be plenty of rare things available for us to buy in the shops here," Patchouli added.
"Do we still possess enough funds for our journey?" Remilia asked.
"We do. The Second Miss has a significant amount of wealth stored in her accounts, and with the generous funds Ms. Talulah provided us before we parted, it is more than enough to cover our expenses for a full year," Sakuya Izayoi replied reassuringly. Remilia offered a slight nod of her head upon hearing the financial update.
After finishing their breakfast, the group boarded their transport and headed directly toward the Major Knight Territory of Kazimierz. Two days of steady travel later, they finally reached their grand destination.
Looking out at the massive city scape, which was completely filled with advanced technology and a bustling, modern atmosphere, Patchouli let out a deep, complex sigh.
"It is truly hard for me to perceive this brilliant place and the rural countries and cities we passed through before as existing under the exact same sky."
Their long journey so far had felt like traveling step-by-step from the simple Middle Ages to the early modern era. And then, the very instant they arrived at this shimmering city called Kawalerielki, they had jumped straight into a glittering modern age.
Technology, novelty, rapid development, and corporate decadence.
Walking along the wide streets, seeing the towering skyscrapers reaching toward the clouds on both sides, the sleek cars and massive crowds passing by, and the bright neon lights lining the commercial roads, it felt as if they had suddenly arrived in a bustling twenty-first-century metropolis.
Then, the companions thought back to the quiet valleys of Kjerag, which they had passed through not long ago. They had vividly seen the local tribesmen there still relying on primitive wooden bows, hunting crossbows, and simple traps to catch food, wearing rough clothes made entirely from tanned animal furs. The technological gap between the two cultures was at least three or four hundred years wide. One could say it was a complete, staggering leap from a primitive tribal society to a highly civilized, electric one.
And yet, the actual physical distance separating these two countries... even traveling at the standard pace of a normal Terra inhabitant, it was only about a mere half a month's journey away. Such a short, trivial distance, yet the societal gap between the two places was like a vast, unfathomable chasm.
"Indeed. Looking at this dazzling city, I even begin to wonder if that isolated place called Kjerag is kept as some sort of primitive zoo for the amusement of the people here," Remilia murmured. "Do the corporations intentionally keep the tribes there living so primitively just to highlight their own modern advancement?"
Although Remilia didn't like to speculate with unnecessary malice, the sheer, extreme disparity unfolding before her eyes made her unable to help but guess at human nature with the worst possible thoughts.
"There is likely no need to think so poorly of the situation. Perhaps it is simply that the traditional people of Kjerag are far too xenophobic and completely unwilling to contact surrounding civilizations, leading to a natural cultural disconnect over time," Patchouli offered her own balanced view. She had carefully studied the historical lore of Kjerag's situation during their research, and she could fully understand why the mountain folk appeared so primitive to outsiders.
It was all because of Kjerag's poor, yet uniquely bountiful environment. The term 'poor' referred to the fact that Kjerag didn't possess many vital industrial assets or modern resources, and the treacherous, frozen mountain paths made it incredibly difficult for foreign traders to visit. Furthermore, the native people there were particularly xenophobic—not just toward foreign faces, but toward absolutely any new invention arriving from the outside world.