Chapter 110: The Collision of Civilizations

I had never been so overjoyed about a piece of land.

It was just a piece of land, no different from the land we had seen countless times before. The flat, thick soil was covered with grass sprouts already beginning to show tender green, and a few tall coniferous trees were scattered here and there across the land. A river called the Silver Star split the land down the middle, curving before us in a delicate arc and stretching elegantly into the distance, like a chain of the Milky Way fallen to this place.

From now on, this small plain, fully the size of four or five Morning Light Cities, belonged entirely to us. Our generous native friends had given us this widest and most fertile piece of land.

“We have never had a tribe of over ten thousand people, dear brothers. This land is too large for any of our tribes. I hope you can live here. No one would refuse to be neighbors with warriors most favored by the gods.” Evlinna’s grandfather, High Priest Odaoni, said to us with deep gratitude. Forgive me, but I must be honest: this respected elder was not as wise as people expected. His fanatical reverence for the gods sometimes blurred his vision and led him to wrong judgments because of religious fervor. That was almost a common failing among all venerable native leaders. Only Mr. Eckdin would sometimes speak objective words not lacking in reason; he should count as a very rare exception among our hosts.

“This is our camp.” Looking at the busy figures of the soldiers, I said loudly and happily to my friends beside me.

“You’re wrong, my friend.” Fred spoke up then to contradict me. His objection drew glances of surprise from all of us.

“This place will become a village, a town, a city, and in the end one of the most striking cities on this continent. All of this will be born in our hands. Do you know? It will become a miracle. I firmly believe it. It will!” The way Fred spoke then was like talking in a dream, yet it brought us a strength that stirred us especially. With his words, I seemed to really see this land before my eyes gradually turn from its current bleak scene into a beautiful city full of pretty houses, fine streets, and lively shops. For us, that should still be a very distant thing, shouldn’t it? If any other person had told me that this place would become a grand city, I would have answered his overly active imagination with a smile. But when the same words came out of Fred’s mouth, they seemed so believable, as if they would come true tomorrow.

“Tomorrow, send someone to contact Hugh and tell him where we are. Once we find a suitable and secret transport route, our supplies can begin to be delivered. If possible, I hope he can come here in person to see what we still lack if we are to be self-sufficient. After all, we cannot keep living here by relying on outside supplies.” Fred began giving orders without pausing. He said to us loudly in an encouraging voice: “We lost a country, my friends, but we will build another one. So let us begin by building a city!”

Although my noble friend had astonishing grand visions, things still had to be done one item at a time. After setting up temporary tents, we immediately set about organizing our defenses. In fact, we never once forgot that a powerful Cretan army was still chasing us. Even though Colonel Pekra had given us a one-month guarantee, and even though, as a group of unfamiliar invaders, the chance of finding us in the vast sea of forest was extremely small, the most worrying thing about war was its uncertainty. No one could guarantee that those troublesome guests would not appear before us early the next morning.

Quite a few native residents came to help us, some of their own accord, some led by their tribal chiefs. They helped us pitch the tents, and then assumed everything was finished. Then they discovered that we were actually using all sorts of methods to build huge logs into many strange-shaped structures. Obviously they had no idea what these structures were for. One by one, they stood at the side with great interest and watched.

“Mr. Roll, what… what are you doing?” Evlinna asked in a low voice. Just by saying that much, the girl’s face turned as red as if she had a fever. After everyone had recovered from the epidemic, the various tribes gradually dispersed and went back to the areas where they lived. The High Priest’s tribe lived on two tall mountains not far from here—of course, their dwellings were not always fixed—so in the last few days Evlinna had been spending every day at our place. She had a strong curiosity about the world outside the Holy Fox Highlands, and she would not stop until she had asked us clearly about almost everything she did not understand.

“…Building a camp.” Roll really could not think of a better answer.

“Then… what is that thing you built out of wood?”

“A wall.”

“That tall… tall thing, with a small platform on top and a ladder behind it, that kind of thing is…” Evlinna bit her lip lightly and asked shyly.

“A watchtower.” I noticed that Roll had a special ability: no matter what question you asked him, he could answer with just one word.

“Watch… tower, what is that used for?” Evlinna struggled to chew over this word she had heard for the first time.

“Guarding.” Roll still answered without any expression. With answers like that, I guessed Evlinna’s confusion would never be solved. I shook my head helplessly, stepped forward, and said to Evlinna.

“The purpose of a watchtower is to discover enemies before they approach, so we can prepare earlier. Because it is higher than the surrounding terrain, you can see farther. Why? Do you want to climb up and look?”

“I… may I?” Evlinna asked in surprise.

“Of course. You are our friend. Why not?”

Evlinna had clearly never been up on such a tall man-made structure before. After climbing up, she looked a bit scared.

“It won’t fall, will it?” the native girl asked with some worry.

“No, look, it is very sturdy.” To prove my words, I stamped hard on the wood beneath my feet. This action startled Evlinna. She nearly screamed.

After coming down from the watchtower, we led the pretty native girl up onto the wall. There I pointed out our works to her one by one:

“This is the wall. When others attack us, it can give us protection. That is a spiked barrier. When enemies charge at us, it helps slow them down. That is a catapult. It can throw big stones a long way to attack enemies. That road lets our cavalry charge out quickly. These battlements give archers protection…” As I explained, Evlinna watched without blinking and listened seriously, as if she wished she could stamp everything I said into her mind.

“Mr. Gid…” After I finished the introduction, the girl said to me with a serious expression, “The things you have built are all amazing. I have never seen such clever things. My people have never thought that things could be used this way. You truly are amazing, much smarter than us. I admire you, and I admire people from the outside world…”

Evlinna’s praise gave me a certain sense of superiority. To be fair, although I was full of goodwill toward our native friends, I still inevitably had some proud vanity before them. In my eyes, their civilization was indeed very backward. If it were a different time and a different situation, the ones in need of help would surely be them, and the ones able to provide help would surely be us.

“…But, sir…” Evlinna did not stop her words during her praise. “Why? Why are all these clever things used in this way? What is the meaning of killing enemies and keeping ourselves from being killed? There are not that many enemies on the Holy Fox Highlands. Sometimes we have conflicts with the Elves, sometimes with other races, or with other tribes, but we do not need to guard against their attacks all the time.”

“These things make me uncomfortable, sir. I feel like you are guarding against us. That makes me… makes me sad.” Evlinna kept her head down while saying this, but when she finished, it was Roll and I who lowered our heads. I did not know how to answer her. Nearly four years of military life had made me certain that these things were all very necessary. But I could not refute Evlinna’s words. What she said made a lot of sense. Perhaps, perhaps we were closer to “civilization” and more “advanced” than these simple, backward people, but what had those things brought us? They made us unable to sleep soundly without being on guard. Without the protection of force, we felt danger all the time.

“I’m sorry. I know you are brave warriors and should always keep fighting in your minds. I also know those outsiders called Cretans are about to invade this land, so you must prepare. But… I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to oppose what you are doing. I just feel… feel…” Seeing the gloom on our faces, Evlinna seemed to realize something and tried to explain. But the words she could command made her feel unable to fully express her feelings. She shook her head anxiously, not knowing how to tell us exactly what she felt.

In fact, there was no need for further explanation. We all understood her thoughts clearly. A strong sense of guilt struck at my heart, making me afraid to raise my head and look at the young, kind native girl in front of me.

“It is we who should say sorry, Miss Evlinna.” At some point, Fred had already been standing behind us. He looked at our native friend with a face full of guilt and said heavily: “We have brought the flames of war to this land. Perhaps what we have brought is a disaster you cannot imagine. I assure you, when all this is over, we will tear down all the walls. We will build on this land the first city without walls in this world, and welcome people from everywhere with friendship and sincerity. But for now, we must do this. Kind miss, you have nothing to apologize for. It is we who should apologize…”

A city without walls—I could not imagine what it would look like. The beautiful scene Fred described was so attractive that it made one’s heart long for it. Perhaps such a city had never appeared in this world before, but for some reason, I believed with absolute firmness that in the future, perhaps near, perhaps distant, all cities would remove their walls and friendly welcome people from all directions.

That day would surely come.

“Mr. Guderian…” Evlinna’s soft voice sounded again.

“Do you have any other questions?”

“Well…” Evlinna lowered her head even further. Her voice became smaller and smaller, until we could barely hear it. “What you said was really nice. Truly, it sounded really nice. But… can you tell me… what is… a city…”

…

A day later, a very standard military camp appeared before us. Considering that we would be staying here for a long time, we did not stop the pace of construction. Under Fred’s command, the soldiers began to build houses out of wood. To my delight, quite a few soldiers had once been carpenters, or had once worked as carpenters, so they were no strangers to building wooden houses. This saved us a lot of trouble. Two more days passed, and the first wooden house appeared in the camp. Although it did not look very impressive, it had doors and windows, a roof and walls, far beyond what ordinary field tents could compare to. Perhaps it was the first wooden structure on this backward land. I thought that perhaps hundreds of years later, when the city Fred had spoken of truly appeared here, this wooden house might be kept as an important memento, left as evidence for future generations to remember us by.

After the wooden house was completed, I deliberately asked Roll to invite Evlinna to come and see it. On the one hand, of course, this was to help Evlinna satisfy her girlish curiosity. On the other hand, after hearing Evlinna’s comments about the things we had built, I sincerely hoped she could see that outside civilization was not only about making people kill each other, but also brought convenience to people’s lives.

Sure enough, after seeing the wooden house, Evlinna was so astonished that she almost jumped. She stepped on the floor and touched everything in the house, as if she wished she could wipe every piece of its wood. The quick-handed soldiers had already begun putting the furniture and household goods they had made into the house. We demonstrated the use of each one to her, telling her how these things could improve our lives and help our health. Evlinna’s eyes could barely take everything in. These pieces of furniture, which we would have described as crude, looked to her like the peak of craftsmanship, simply masterpieces created by the gods. Her joyful expression made us feel reassured: at least, the civilization we presented to this kind friend was not only filled with the smell of bloody slaughter.

“Then… how do you move house?” Although she had seen these impressive new tools, Evlinna clearly could not immediately understand our way of life. “Your priest—I mean, Mr. Guderian—if you feel your god tells you to live somewhere else, what would you do? For example, if the Silver Star River flooded, or if the game here disappeared, how would you live?”

“Our god is merciful and does not force us to live anywhere in particular.” There were only two words that could make Millia’s eyes light up and make her speak with eager persistence: one was “sickness,” and the other was “god.” Although Millia’s faith was not fanatical, preaching her faith had become a habit.

“The god Daremoth teaches us to be strong. He says, if you want happiness, fight for it with your hands; if you want peace, fight for it with your hands; if you want abundance, fight for it with your hands. Hardworking people will surely be blessed by me, and wise people will surely be blessed by me. He taught clever people how to manage water, so people could store it when water was plentiful and use it when water was scarce. He taught us to farm, so we could have plentiful grain. You will slowly understand all of this, Evlinna. We will show you by doing all these things.”

The young girl looked at Millia with admiration. There was no doubt that, in her eyes, Millia and I were the two she respected most among this group of friends. Her respect for me was naturally due to the coincidence between my peculiar habit and the deity they believed in, while her respect for Millia was entirely because of Millia’s noble devotion and devout, firm belief.

“Your god is truly great, Sister Millia,” she said softly. For her race, perhaps those words were already blasphemy against the gods.

“Actually, your gods are also great. Perhaps you just have not chosen the right way of listening. All deities are kind and great. Their teachings to people are not very different. They all teach people to be hardworking, kind, wise, and brave. They hope people can attain all the virtues of this world; they just use different ways. The reason our understanding of divine words goes astray is that we cannot catch up with their wisdom, cannot understand their profound thoughts, so some people twist their meaning.” Millia said with loving kindness, her expression like a mother teaching her daughter, or a teacher educating her student.

Her words made Evlinna fall into deep thought. Perhaps for the first time in her life, the young native girl seriously thought about the deities she believed in. Everything that happened later proved that this conversation had an extremely important influence on her.

“Sister Millia, you are truly amazing. You can use writing to record the words of the gods, so more people can understand and spread them. If only we had skills like yours. What a pity that we don’t even have our own script. If it were not for the merchants from outside who often taught us the common tongue, I couldn’t even speak with you.”

“Understanding the will of the gods does not necessarily require language, Miss Evlinna.” At this point, Poirot, who had been silent all along, spoke up. Among us, besides Millia, only he was qualified to talk about faith so seriously.

“To understand your faith, you must use your mind, and your heart. To make more people live better, to let people be born safely, live happily, and die peacefully—that is the wish of the gods. When you can understand this, you will be able to make the right decision for your faith.” Poirot said to Evlinna with a big smile. The gods, in his mouth, sounded as familiar as his own neighbors.

“I understand!” Evlinna nodded vigorously.