It was probably late afternoon by the time Joseph dragged his car back.
The church bells would ring twice, or maybe three times, and the city would be closed.
Traders were packing up and getting ready to leave, most of them not in the city of Fico but in the surrounding smaller towns or villages.
People do not have the slightest sense of apprehension that war is coming.
Perhaps only those who have someone in their family who has joined the army and knows about the war will worry some.
....
Winemaking is quite a delicate task, and Joseph is happily engaged in the study of this enterprise.
The fresh, full Farb grains are peeled and cleaned, and after a few rinses, the insect-infested ones are carefully picked out.
Joseph uses spring water, which gives the wine a hint of sweetness.
After the raw materials are prepared, the liquor is added to the liquor barrel, then sealed up and waited for a month or so of fermentation, so that the most initial wine can be obtained, and then a little blending, or adding some other things together with the aging, or by distillation to get white wine.
These are, of course, the recipes that Joseph bought the tavern with the previous owner, and so far, it seems, Joseph has learned seventy-eight percent.
Hundreds of pounds of Farb were not finished in a day, and Joseph was busy until the last church bell rang and then stopped, probably finishing the fermentation of only a dozen pounds of Farb.
....
At night on Great Western Street, there was basically no one walking around and no business in the taverns.
Maybe it was different on the East Side, but it was always like that on the West Side.
Joseph closed the door of the store and, with a flash of intent, returned to his small stone house on Mount Olympus.
When he saw the white clouds in the sky, he fantasized about sleeping in the clouds.
But the clouds are just clouds.
Joseph wants to build a floating island in the air, which is difficult to do.
The power of God is really limited, Joseph thought.
....
Early in the morning, there was a knock on the door of Hagen's tavern.
Joseph woke up from a nap on Mount Olympus and had just returned.
When he opened the door, it was the bearded Dragan.
"Jose!" Dragan finally knocked on the door, and he knocked far earlier than the church did; perhaps it was only six o'clock.
"Dragan? What are you doing here so early? "
Joseph was a little curious.
Dragan, although he often comes to drink, usually has to be the third or fourth bell ringing in the church.
"I came to save your life!" Dragan stepped inside the tavern, backhandedly closed the door, "a look at your boy does not know the situation."
"Did something happen?"
"The Kaiser has arrived in Kartar, said to be more than 50,000 men!" Dragan said with conviction.
Karta was the border city of Odin, formerly the border city of the Han River, and probably somewhat similar to the geographic location of Leno, the border city of Arata a thousand years ago.
"What does the Kaiser invasion have to do with my life when the military expenses of the Fico City Army cost tens of millions of Odin coins every year?"
"This time is different from previous years!" Dragan said, with a serious face.
The war in recent years has actually more resembled a kind of diplomacy, such as sending bards to give advance notice before the fight, then slowly sending troops to arrive, a symbolic fight, a few hundred or a few thousand dead on each side, and then hastily retreat.
After getting the "fruit of the war," they report to the king and claim that they have won a great victory and wiped out the enemy army.
"Different? What's the difference? "
"The Kaisers didn't lead their archduke to fight this time! Rather, it was their king himself who marched! "
"The king himself marched?"
Joseph probably understood what was going on.
The noble system of the Kaiser Kingdom was much the same as that of the Odin Kingdom, with the king and the royal family at the top, and then the grand duke, which was something like a title, usually held by a relative of the king, and might also be bestowed on someone who had achieved great success.
"Yes! I heard that this King Kaiser is a good-for-nothing fellow-of course I heard it from a friend, and now it seems to be true.
He only succeeded to the throne last year, and he's fighting over this year! "
"Sit down and talk," Joseph said without leaking the slightest trace of nervousness, lighting the lamps and candles for himself.
Dragan remembered that he was still standing and hastily sat down, only to find that Joseph had already poured all the water by the way.
Unfortunately, it wasn't wine, and Dragan took a sip to moisten his throat.
"The bards are all fronts.
Kaiser's army has been out for over half a month before they were allowed to come over.
Counting the time, Karta has probably been under siege for days, and may have already fallen."
"If Kartar falls, then the Han River is also in danger." Joseph said, geographically speaking, it is indeed so.
"That's what I'm worried about." "The lord of the city got the news before we did, and I hear he's all pissed off and has been cursing the Kaiser people all day at the city hall for being unruly."
Inexplicably, Joseph imagined the scene of the big-bellied city lord cursing, inexplicably feeling some humor.
The Fico army is not actually in Fico city on weekdays but is located further north near Orpheus city, which means that even if the city lord Quinn immediately issued a transfer order for the Fico army to fire to Han River to support, it is still a little too late in time.
If a bard had been notified in advance, then it would not have been as bad as it was.
"Even if the Han River falls completely, it doesn't have much to do with me, right?" Joseph asked.
If the Han River were to fall, the Kaiser would take a lot of time, long enough for the Fico army to receive orders to come over, and even if the Fico army was blocked in various ways and did not arrive on schedule, the Kaiser would not necessarily continue to attack the Fico city.
That would stretch the battle line too long and might be too costly, which is not good for a wise monarch.
"There's a lot at stake!" Dragan shook his head, "It will take at least a half month for the Fico army to even get to us.
By then, Han River might have falle...nd the Kaiser must have plundered enough of what they wanted.
Han River without a population, that's not good!"
If Kaiser dares to occupy Han River, they must be prepared for a full-fledged war, which is usually a war of plundering the population at best.
"So the lord of the city is already preparing to draft those of us in the city to support Han River in going to war.
This is for us to fight!" Dragan had a serious face.
"So that's how it is," Joseph clarified, nodding, "support Han River on support Han River, the military pay for joining the army does not seem to be a lot."
"You know this..." Dragan was speechless.
He had thought Jose would be as scared as he was ready to run away.
He did not expect Jose to have this reaction, "the battlefield but to die!"
"And not necessarily dead," Joseph said, "and they should only need to defend the city until the Fico army arrives.
Nothing dangerous."
"City Lord Quinn has always been generous....
may give each person five hundred Odin coins as a reward for joining the army.
I'm not sure."
"Five hundred...." Dragan's face changed for a moment.
As the saying goes, people die for money.
If it is five hundred Odin coins, he said Dragan also had to say to go to the Han River trip, protect the family, defend the country.
It has always been Dragan's duty to do things.
Of course, it has to be a big Odin coin, not a small one!