After all, for a human to dare run to her castle,
to marry her, the Vampire Countess, was simply too audacious. Yet the more she looked at him, the more she wanted to keep teasing him.
Thus, Lady Dimitrescu was quite keen to see what other interesting performances Javier had in store; he was arguably the most intriguing human she had encountered in decades.
One must know that the men and women of the village were terrified of her massive frame, yet Javier flocked to her instead. How could this not pique one's curiosity?
However,
what Lady Dimitrescu did not anticipate was,
that Javier had actually prepared a betrothal gift. The goods on the carriage he had brought were, in fact, the dowry Javier had prepared.
Of course, it wasn't strictly a betrothal gift;
after all, the proposal was just a playful whim Javier had come up with on the fly.
Even if Lady Dimitrescu did not accept the proposal agreement,
he could actually use these goods to conduct a trade with her. He hadn't expected Lady Dimitrescu to agree first, which was quite unexpected...
"Yes,"
"Beautiful Lady, I have prepared a very substantial betrothal gift to marry you. After all, facing a lonely and empty beautiful woman,"
"I feel it is necessary to rescue you. By being with me, I will make the rest of your life feel the so-called 'love' again, and let your dried-up river of love be revitalized."
"And these... are the betrothal gifts I have carefully prepared. They may not compare to your vast wealth, but they are absolutely the gifts that will best suit your heart."
Performing a gentleman's bow once more, Javier spoke a series of cheesy romantic lines before immediately moving to pull back the plastic tarp covering the carriage.
Soon, the so-called carefully prepared betrothal gifts inside were revealed.
What first caught the eye was not some dazzling gold or Pristine jewelry, but a board with distinct black blocks and white stripes; it appeared to be a solar panel...
Volume 10: Resident Evil Village & Vengeance - Chapter 5: The Generational Gap
Solar panels...
That's right, this was the betrothal gift Javier had prepared for Lady Dimitrescu and her three Vampire daughters.
Three or four high-specification solar panels stacked together could still harvest quite a bit of electricity even in snowy weather with weak sunlight.
"What is this thing...?"
Looking at the black board Javier brought out, Lady Dimitrescu narrowed her eyes slightly and asked with some confusion.
Though she was well-traveled and knowledgeable,
she truly lacked a complete understanding of certain 21st-century electrical appliances.
Judging by its appearance, it didn't seem to be anything particularly valuable. However, if he had truly sent antique treasures,
Lady Dimitrescu likely wouldn't have thought much of them.
After all, the rare treasures within the castle were as numerous as ox hairs. As for luxury goods,
Lady Dimitrescu was most likely no longer interested in them, unless the item was truly expensive—the kind with a value that could rival a city.
"It is a great honor to introduce these betrothal gifts to you, my beautiful Lady..."
"These are solar panels. As the name suggests, they harvest the light of the sun and convert it into electricity. As long as there is sunlight, electricity can be stored."
"I saw that the castle is too far from other towns, making electricity usage difficult, so I chose these as the betrothal gift. Compared to luxury jewelry, these things are much more practical."
"Following that are the matching storage batteries and a diesel generator. These devices can generate power independently to meet daily needs."
Facing Lady Dimitrescu's inquiry, Javier didn't keep her in suspense and explained everything one by one.
He then proceeded to move several bucket-sized storage batteries and a heavy diesel generator down from the carriage—it was clear they were a set meant for Optimus Prime.
"..."
"Incredible. Can electricity really be generated relying on these things?"
"Mother, it seems that wild monkey Heisenberg isn't so smart after all. His Iron Factory is just a direct copy of the technology from the outside world."
On the other side,
after hearing Javier's introduction,
Lady Dimitrescu frowned slightly in contemplation.
Meanwhile, the three Vampire daughters nearby all showed expressions of pleasant surprise, covering their mouths and murmuring.
Although the Middle Ages castle was in a remote area,
due to the Institute established by Mother Miranda in the early years,
plus the later development of the Iron Factory by that wild monkey Karl Heisenberg to connect with the outside world, they had advanced modern equipment specifically to serve the village.
This included the use of electricity.
Because of this, Heisenberg, who possessed such capabilities, was highly valued by Mother Miranda.
Lady Dimitrescu's castle also relied on the convenience provided by Heisenberg's Iron Factory to complete its electrical facilities.
Therefore, in a sense...
Lady Dimitrescu was the one "eating from someone else's hand," making her beholden to him.
In her dealings, although she detested that wild monkey Heisenberg, she never dared to move against him because of the convenience of the Iron Factory.
But now,
the solar panels, storage batteries, diesel generators, and other equipment brought by Javier caused Lady Dimitrescu to have a subtle change of heart.
Of course,
Lady Dimitrescu was not so stupid as to
believe that these temporary independent power generation devices could completely sever the convenient ties with Heisenberg's Iron Factory.
After all, these things could only be used for a short time and could not provide a long-term supply, making it difficult to power the entire castle every moment of the day.
But these were not the most critical points.
The most critical point was that Lady Dimitrescu saw a glimmer of opportunity through Javier.
Since Javier could produce such equipment, it proved that Heisenberg's Iron Factory was not actually something uniquely vital.
Any outsider could come and build a new, identical factory.
Thus, it also proved that the status of that wild monkey Heisenberg as one of the Four Lords was perhaps a bit inflated.
In that case,
why shouldn't Lady Dimitrescu win Javier over?
If she had Javier build an identical Iron Factory, she could surpass that wild monkey Heisenberg in the competition for favor and become the head of the Four Lords.
At the same time, she could completely replace that wild monkey Heisenberg and strip him of his noble status. This was exactly what Lady Dimitrescu was just pondering.
After all,
she had been hostile toward Heisenberg for a long time,
but that wild monkey Heisenberg relied on the importance of the Iron Factory
to remain favored by Mother Miranda, leaving Lady Dimitrescu with no opportunity to strike. But now... a replacement had appeared, and the situation might change.
However,
at this moment, Javier was not aware
of what messy thoughts Lady Dimitrescu was having. Instead, he continued to introduce his betrothal gifts on his own:
"Of course, my beautiful Lady..."
"My betrothal gifts do not stop here, nor are they meager. These are the remaining gifts; please look them over one by one. In such a remote village castle, entertainment facilities must be extremely scarce."
"To that end, I have also prepared many things for your diversion. These are various records and music I have specifically collected—jazz, classical, pop—every kind of record imaginable."
"There are as many as hundreds or thousands of songs to satisfy your elegant hobbies. Next is this: a DVD all-in-one disc player. It requires no signal; as long as there is power and a disc, it can play all kinds of movies."
"Here are the matching discs. Countless masterpiece films from the late 20th to the 21st century are recorded on them, enough for your viewing pleasure."
"The content covers a wide variety of films. Even if you finish them all, I can continue to help you replenish them with new ones."
"Besides that, three beautiful young ladies, the surprises are not over. In addition to these things, I have also prepared something that every girl in the outside world must have."
"Without this, you would only be called hicks, bumpkins, or hillbillies by the girls outside. And this thing is not a beautiful bag or brilliant jewelry, but something called a'smartphone.'"
"Almost every outsider has one. It can be carried around and has a multi-functional system: photography, video recording, music playback, movie playback, reading, surfing the web... although there is no internet here."
"But I have already stored various internet videos inside, enough for you beautiful ladies to enjoy for a while. If you are still not satisfied, I am willing to build a signal tower on the castle to bring the network signal to the village."
"That way, you will be able to see what trends the girls outside are following now, what celebrities they like, what luxury goods they buy, and what beautiful scenic spots there are."
"Everything can be displayed right before your eyes. Do you hope for it? Do you crave it? If you want it, then support me, my three lovely and beautiful young ladies. I will strive to be a qualified father!"
Like a base Merchant,
Javier began to exert his eloquence to the fullest, completely transforming into a gold-medal salesman, frantically enticing Lady Dimitrescu and her three Vampire daughters.
Then, the curtain on the carriage was completely pulled back,
revealing a large box of vinyl records, a large box of DVDs, a laptop, a DVD all-in-one player, and smartphones.
All sorts of 21st-century modern high-tech smart products were displayed before them.
Looking at those strangely shaped smart products,
there was no doubt...
the generational gap was frantically impacting the worldviews of Lady Dimitrescu and her three Vampire daughters.
This was the devastating blow from an external civilization upon the natives of the original world.
It was the same logic as when the ancestors first saw iron steamships and smoke-belching trains, or when the native Indians saw the flintlock rifles of the Americans.
One must know,
Lady Dimitrescu was someone born around the beginning of the 20th century.
That is, around the year 1900. Records were officially invented in 1888, the electric drum microphone was born in 1925, the broadcasting system came out in 1938, and record companies appeared in 1945.
As modern pop music began to develop, Lady Dimitrescu, still an ordinary woman, debuted as a jazz singer.
She began to have contact with Mother Miranda in 1959,
and after returning to the village to inherit Castle Dimitrescu, she had stayed within the village castle without ever leaving.
And now it was already 2017...
The only person who truly had contact with advanced outside technology and experimental equipment was Mother Miranda herself,
because she was busy researching the mold to resurrect her daughter, Eva. As for Lady Dimitrescu and her three daughters,
their worldview regarding the exploration of the outside world had come to a standstill around 1980. Any knowledge they had was merely hearsay.
They had never truly seen it.
So it was perfectly normal for them to feel astonished by the high-tech smart products Javier brought.
The temptation and attraction of these things far exceeded that of jewelry and ornaments; this was unquestionable!
Recall when smart products first became popular,
when phones were Nokias or flip phones and the network was 2G; countless people played with them with great delight.
And now, Lady Dimitrescu and her three daughters were jumping directly from 1980 to 2017.
Regarding their impression of smart products,
they would only be even more crazed.
To tell the truth... with the temptation of a phone, Javier even felt they would find things like interrogating and torturing prisoners completely uninteresting!
"..."
And without a doubt,
upon seeing the out-of-place smart products on the carriage,
Lady Dimitrescu and her three daughters indeed fell into a long-absent dead silence.
This was not awkwardness.