When Gloria woke up from her sleep, rubbing her eyes the next morning, she found that Aurelio had already gotten up and was sitting at the dining table, leaning over it and reading a book. She sat up, stretched like a cat, and while putting on her armor, she asked, "Good morning. What time is it?"
Aurelio didn't answer but just nodded and took out his pocket watch from his pocket, opening the lid to show it to her. Throughout this whole action, his eyes never left the pages of the book.
Gloria stood up and took a look at the watch face, saying, "Okay, thanks. It's already nine o'clock. I seem to have slept for too long." With that, she smiled sheepishly.
Aurelio casually said "Hmm" with his attention still focused on the book.
"Did I miss breakfast?"
"Not really." Aurelio glanced at the female knight but quickly looked back at the book, "Not everyone in every place can afford to have breakfast every day."
"Is... that so?"
"Generally speaking, people usually have one meal close to noon and another in the evening. As for which meal is the main one, it varies from place to place, but that's roughly how it is. Countries like ours, which prefer three meals a day, are rather unusual." Aurelio explained, "The reason is simple. Most countries are relatively poor."
"I see. That makes me feel quite proud of Serencia." Gloria laughed, "So, where's Mr. Elvin?"
"He went out. He said he's going to prepare lunch."
Gloria sighed and said, "Oh, I'm in a hurry to rejoin my unit in Ventona. I'll have to wait a while longer! I thought I could get there yesterday, but now it's going to be delayed for most of the day."
"He said he'll guide us when he comes back. I tried to refuse, but it didn't work." Aurelio said, "Since we're already late, don't rush. That's more in line with the habits of the people of Serencia."
Gloria smiled at that and then said, "Hmm... I guess that's the only way. What book are you reading?"
Aurelio picked up the book and showed the cover to her. On the leather-bound cover, several large words were written prominently: "Gatheria".
"I've read this book too. But only some fragments." Gloria said.
"The knight order uses it for teaching."
"Yes. When teaching tactics, they sometimes use the battle examples in it. I haven't read the whole thing, and I'm not very familiar with the author's story. I heard there are a lot of the author's personal insights and such." She glanced at the book in Aurelio's hand and continued, "You're almost done reading it. You should know more than me. Can you tell me about it?"
"Yeah, actually this is my second time reading it." Aurelio said as he closed the book and turned to the female knight. "Gatheria is an ancient place name, probably in the south of the Liberia Kingdom. It's a mountainous area that hasn't been fully developed even now."
"Yeah, I know about the Gatheria Campaign. I just don't know exactly where this place is. Who's the author?" Gloria asked.
"Marcus Cornelius. That's how it's spelled." Aurelio opened the book and pointed to a part in the preface, saying, "He's a general."
Gloria leaned in and saw that the yellowed pages were filled with densely printed small words. The words seemed to be in Serencia language. The grammar was generally similar, but some spellings were a bit different. Maybe it was a dialect similar to Serencia language or ancient language. She didn't know much about these and couldn't really tell. Anyway, the font was very neat and elegant, but it was still a bit difficult to read. The fragments she read in the knight order weren't like this.
"More than 1,700 years ago, there was a great war between humans and elves. That's the background of this book."
Gloria nodded and said, "Humans were always at a disadvantage."
Aurelio continued to explain, "Until this general took over. The first battle he led was the Gatheria Campaign, and he achieved a great victory. In the previous twelve years, humans hadn't won a single time."
"Elves are really powerful." Gloria said after recalling for a moment, "I remember that humans organized an army of 100,000 and trapped a few thousand elf mages in a valley. I remember it was said to be a very fierce battle, and the general himself was even personally killing the enemy. Although they wiped out the enemy completely, they paid the price of 20,000 lives."
"This battle was... the crossroads of human destiny." Aurelio thought for a moment and came up with this metaphor, "Before the war, there were more than 20 million humans on the continent, while there were only a few hundred thousand elves. Twelve years later, the number of humans was nearly halved."
"Good heavens, it was that tragic?"
"So humans couldn't afford to lose anymore." Aurelio added, "After this battle, humans and elves had wins and losses against each other, and finally, humans won the whole war. So, it was the elves who became extinct later. After the war, Cornelius retired. He wrote about the process of the war, the part after Gatheria, into this book."
"I see. And the author's name seems..."
Just then, a loud "Dinner's ready!" came from outside the door. Almost at the same time, the door was pushed open and Elvin walked into the house. He was carrying a long wooden tray in his left hand, and on the tray were three freshly baked, steaming hot river perch.
"Come and have a taste." He placed the tray on the dining table and said to the two young people beside him. He was full of energy, not looking like someone who had just heard the sad news of his old friend's death last night.
"Then I won't be polite!" Gloria thanked him and took the smallest one, blew on it a few times to cool it down a bit, and then took a bite.
"You too." Elvin turned to Aurelio.
Aurelio nodded gently and also chose the smaller one from the remaining two. Unlike Gloria who was eager to eat, he stared at the fish for a long time.
"Roasted river perch was my teacher's favorite before. Maybe he thought that I was the same as my teacher, so what my teacher liked, I would like too. But... I really dislike this stuff." He thought, feeling a sourness in his heart. He closed his eyes and brought the fish to his mouth and took a gentle bite. The fishy smell of the freshwater fish burst in his mouth.
When Mr. de Leto was alive, whenever it was a fasting day when meat was not allowed and he prepared dinner for his disciples himself, this kind of fish was always there. But Aurelio had always been 反感 to the taste of fish. In the ten years since his teacher disappeared, he had never touched similar fish dishes again.
At this moment, his tongue tasted the most unpleasant flavor from his childhood again. But he couldn't tell whether what made him the saddest was the fishy smell in his mouth or the bitterness in his heart.
"What's wrong?"
Aurelio opened his eyes and saw that Gloria had only fish bones left in her hand and she was staring at him. He hurriedly explained, "Nothing." With that, he forced himself to endure the heartache and ate the roasted fish in big bites. Gloria knew he was hiding something and wanted to say something, but in the end, she held her words back.
"Yeah, nothing." Aurelio thought as he put the fish bones back on the plate.