Revive Rome: Wait! Why not make the empress fall in love with me first?-Chapter 389 - 4: Clashing Head-On

The two continued on their way, quickly arriving at a meat shop.

Here, they sold both raw and cooked food: chicken, duck, pork, beef, you name it. Aske stared at the meat stand for a while, wondering if he should just pick the freshest cuts of each and lug ten pounds of them back home (yes, he could carry that much). Nora then excitedly dragged him over to the cooked food stall next door.

"Roasted turkey legs!" she pointed at the oven across from them and said, "Aske, have you gotten a bit tired of pork lately? Want to try something different?"

"How did you know?" Aske was speechless. It’s always pork on the menu, but isn’t that the problem of a certain sassy cook?

"Hehe." Nora giggled pretending to be dumb, then she spoke to the Frank uncle behind the counter, "Two turkey legs, please wrap them in a thick layer of greaseproof paper."

In this world, the language of the Frank people in the Divine Luo Empire was basically a dialect of Latin, so when Nora spoke Latin, the other party could barely understand.

Frank uncle wrapped two roasted turkey legs for her, and with an apologetic expression, he said,

"Sorry, because of the Emperor, we have to go to war with your homeland. This is not the true intent of us Frank people. I only hope that when God exacts his punishment upon His Majesty, he doesn’t take his anger out on all Frank people."

Nora: ????

The amount of information in his words was so large that it took her a while to collect her thoughts. Seeing this beautiful girl look somewhat dazed, the uncle uncertainly asked,

"Aren’t you from Italy?"

"Ah, I’m a native of Solomon City." Nora stated honestly.

"That makes sense." The uncle crossed himself, "To declare war on the Holy See, the Emperor must be mad. May God bless him and forgive his transgressions—before that, please forgive Bavaria first."

The guy really wasn’t wrong. In a sense, Emperor Otto’s mind was a bit abnormal, Aske thought to himself.

But, had the news really spread this quickly? Hadn’t the Weisbach family controlled the narrative?

After leaving the meat shop, Nora stared blankly at the turkey legs in her hands, while Aske was still contemplating Emperor Otto’s matter.

"I didn’t even register what he said just now... It turns out he was referring to the upcoming southern campaign." Nora tore off a small strip of the turkey flesh, but then quickly tossed the meat away:

"Hot! Hot! Hot!"

"Of course, it’s hot if it’s just out of the oven." Aske casually remarked, and Nora pinched his ear.

"What are you doing?" Aske was somewhat speechless.

"If you burn your hand, you’ve got to pinch your earlobe." Nora said solemnly.

"Why not pinch your own earlobe?" Aske asked.

"Because my fingers are greasy." Nora responded.

"My thanks to you for rubbing grease on my ear." Aske was totally speechless.

"I’m just joking." Nora took out her handkerchief and cleaned his earlobe, "Have you ever heard of that psychological tolerance test?"

"What psychology?" Aske inquired.

"A girl wants to confess to a boy she secretly likes, but she’s not sure if he’ll agree," Nora said with a sly smile, "so she can deliberately tease him a little, like spilling a drink on him by accident."

"If the boy doesn’t show any resentment, it would suggest that in his heart, the girl is at least tolerated and holds a position with some level of fondness. The likelihood of success with her confession is expected to be higher."

"That’s not always accurate though," Aske said offhandedly, "I’ve seen the kind that are really nice guys; doesn’t matter if it’s a young, pretty girl, or even a big burly man throwing a slipper at his face—as long as an apology is made, he wouldn’t get angry."

"Are you that kind of nice guy?" Nora asked curiously.

"Of course not," Aske said.

"Then that settles it!" Nora said with a giggle, "And since you didn’t feel repulsed, that means there’s a high chance my confession of love was successful... Oh my, I forgot I’ve already confessed."

"This psychological test really isn’t very accurate," she said as she put her burned fingers to her mouth, blowing on them gently.

Aske: .........

This girl was getting craftier by the day, always finding subtle ways to remind him "I like you," and each time, making him feel a strong sense of guilt.

"My turkey leg must be cold by now," Aske said.

"Why did yours cool down faster?" Nora asked, curious.

"Because I’m cold-blooded," Aske replied.

"Is there a way to make you a bit warmer then?" Nora asked lightly, her smile unchanged.

"Sure, spending more time with something warm would probably do it," Aske replied.

"Let’s swap turkey legs then, mine is still quite hot," Nora said as she exchanged her turkey leg with the one in his hand, then took a bite.

"How does it taste?" Aske asked.

"Not bad, tender, flavorsome, and juicy. Just the skin’s a bit thick," Nora commented.

"The skin on turkey meat is on the thicker side," Aske said. "If you don’t like it, you can peel it off."

"That won’t do," Nora said, taking another bite. "I want the whole thing, including its thick skin."

Aske: ???

"Thick skin?" he paused, asking.

"I meant the turkey skin," Nora said without missing a beat, smiling. "You heard wrong."

Aske sighed internally. She was indeed right to scold me like that; I have to admit...

"What’s going on up there?" Nora stood on tiptoes, looking toward the crowd. "What’s everyone crowding around for and making a fuss about?"

"Let’s go have a look," Aske suggested.

When they reached the center of the market, they saw a priest, surrounded by the citizens of Mingxing City, standing on a wooden crate loudly reading a piece of news to the crowd:

"By the decree of the currently reigning Pope Innocent of the Holy Throne, Emperor Otto of the Holy Solomon Empire is to be subjected to the highest punishment of Excommunication! Emperor Otto shall be stripped of his membership from the Solomon Church! His title as Emperor is hereby annulled! He is to be exiled from the Empire lands! He shall not be forgiven for at least a year!"

Next to him, another person standing on a crate, who looked like an official from Bavaria, also unfolded a document and started reading it out loud to the people:

"By the decree of the currently reigning Emperor Otto of the Holy Solomon Empire, it is announced that the Excommunication issued by the Solomon Church is not recognized. The Emperor will personally lead the army to the Church Court to have a direct confrontation and inquiry with the Holy Throne!"

Below, the crowd had clearly divided into two factions: one side supported the Pope, scolding the Emperor for betraying God; the other side supported the Weisbach family, claiming that since the great Duke had said so, the Emperor probably had his reasons.

Overall, there were far more citizens supporting the Pope than those on the other side. However, no fights had broken out, since the other side supported not the Emperor but the Weisbach family. As a result, the voices cursing and condemning the Emperor were prevailing at the scene.

"What are they doing?" Nora asked, curious.

She had understood what the opposition was saying but pretended not to have a clue.

"It’s a battle for public opinion," Aske said.

"I don’t get it, explain it to me," Nora implored, tilting her head up cutely at a 45-degree angle, deploying her charming look tactic, along with pretending to be dumb and acting coquettishly.

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