The first day following, Malin woke up in the guest exclusive lodge of Duke Brice, took Matilda and Maya to the hunting grounds, and then demonstrated the new rapid-fire firearm to the arriving nobles with a stag as his target. Malin hit the skull of the stag within a hundred yards, reaching its brain. The impressive penetration pleased everyone—in an era of muzzle-loaded firearms, achieving such a feat was extremely difficult.
At noon, they feasted on the grilled meat of the unfortunate stag, and then continued the demonstration in the afternoon. This time, the target was an unlucky bear; the bullet entered its lower abdomen from four hundred yards away, striking its heart, showcasing the deadly precision with a practical demonstration.
After dining on its meat in the evening, Malin brought back a heap of trimmings to feed the cubs of Lady Spotty.
The girls had already gone to sleep, and Malin’s two companions were exhausted. After washing up in the bath, Malin had no choice but to carry them to bed as they had fallen deeply asleep.
Then, Malin slipped into the empty space in the middle and fell asleep right away.
The next day, Malin opened his eyes to find himself in a strange, large bed with the girls nowhere in sight. The style of the room had completely changed—it had become very modern.
The oil lamp had been replaced by a switch lamp embedded with a crystal stone that emitted a very soft light.
Malin touched the blanket on him, finding it was not the woolen type from before, but a very soft artificial product with no visible stitching.
Hearing mechanical noises from downstairs, Malin crawled out from under the blanket, which made him realize that his nightclothes had also changed to silk.
This fabric was priceless in Thanan, and Malin really couldn’t figure out what time it was.
Definitely not before the Great Destruction since the small bedside lamp contained a demon crystal.
Pulling back the curtains, Malin saw a gigantic floating... airship?
Wait a second, what was this all-Thanan-style contraption? It didn’t match the history he knew.
Curious, Malin saw people disembarking from the ship.
Driven by curiosity, Malin got dressed—the coat fit perfectly.
Glancing at himself in the mirror, he still looked like his 1.4-meter-tall self—with no difference. This was strange, for if it were a deep dive, there would not be clothes that fit so well.
With that thought, Malin opened his room door to find a bustling corridor, filled with men and women in various clothes resembling styles of the 1940s from Earth’s 20th century Western world.
He understood their language—it was Sydney, with a bit of an accent, but largely unchanged.
"What is that big thing outside?" Malin asked.
"It’s the Thanan band, here for Carterburg’s quadrennial Arts Festival."
The man who answered Malin took a second glance at him, "You look like you have elven mixed heritage, from Eternal Night Island or Naples?"
"What?" Malin was puzzled.
The man wanted to say more, but his companions stopped him, "Let’s go downstairs quick, I heard that Miss of the Haus family will be attending this time."
Haus? A name Malin had not heard before, puzzled, he followed the crowd down to the lobby, just in time to see the Thanan people—they were not dressed as Malin would expect in mandarin jackets or qipaos, but in normal shirts and trousers.
The leading Thanan seemed to be chatting with the person in charge of the hotel.
Malin looked up and saw the five-star emblem—so, this hotel is still owned by the family?
At first, Malin found it a bit strange, but after pondering, he found it interesting; after all, it was his descendant. Hmm, since it was in Carterburg, Malin tried to guess—it probably wasn’t Faye’s and Nova’s child. The former would likely be in Sydney’s capital (if it still existed), and the latter would obviously be in Rongma.
He also wondered if the two royal houses still existed in this era.
But at least the trip to the past had made Malin very curious. He had taken a good look at the Thanan people and then went out to see the floating crafts, discovering they really were ships floating in the air; although they didn’t conform to aerodynamics, as a means of transport for a dance troupe, they should be okay, right?
He touched his pocket and found paper money; the head on it had changed—it was no longer the Mowish he knew, but at least it was still money, so Malin went to a nearby newsstand to buy a newspaper.
On the front page of the newspaper, Malin saw a familiar surname—Crown Prince of the Sydney Kingdom visited the Farole Kingdom by appointment, and conversed cordially with the Crown Prince of the Farole Kingdom; the two of them proposed cooperative intentions regarding a package plan for arms control, alliance, and commerce, preparing for the increasingly dangerous possibility of military standoffs and conflicts between the north and the south.
The Sydney Kingdom? The Farole Kingdom?
Looking at the two Crown Princes, Malin couldn’t recognize them; considering he didn’t know how many years had passed, he had no idea if they were his descendants, but both lads had black hair, which endeared them to Malin—after all, he himself had black hair, and in the Western Human World, black-haired people were not that common.
It seemed like the monarchy was still around before the war, but why didn’t the newspaper from Carterburg say ’our country’, instead referring to it as the Sydney Kingdom?
Thinking this, Malin took another look at the name of the newspaper.
The Carterburg Vanguard.
Yes, it was indeed Carterburg.
Malin glanced again at the flag on the nearby square—it did not bear the Mowish family crest, but rather his own five-star flag.
What’s going on here?
As Malin was pondering, he overheard someone nearby saying, "I think the Carterburg Free Territory is indeed leading the way in technological trends. Look at the bell tower in the distance, the anti-gravity magic circle is very mature. Our Holy Kingdom in the north can’t achieve such large-scale implementation even now."
Malin turned his head and saw several individuals who looked like northerners chatting with their backs to him.
The Carterburg Free Territory? Has it become independent?
What was going on here? Malin was completely baffled; to him, this world had indeed become very peculiar.
Turning to the second page, Malin saw a title—Miss Jane Haus, the lady of the Free Territory, will attend the concert in place of her mother. This is the first time Miss Jane Haus will attend an important event as the acting lord. Cheer for our Miss Jane, compatriots.
Well, the person above was familiar to Malin—wasn’t that Matilda, only with black hair?.
Her eyes, too, were very much like Malin’s, black in color.
Other than that, she seemed like a smaller version of Matilda... Ah, the big-tailed fox was just too cute.
To confirm that this was indeed a descendant of Matilda, Malin decided to go to the concert later on.
But the surname Haus... Had some other bastard married into the family later on?
It seemed, it was time to buy some history books to find out more; it was very intriguing indeed.
With such thoughts, Malin turned the page, only to be left utterly astounded by the content on the third page.