Revive Rome: Wait! Why not make the empress fall in love with me first?-Chapter 489 - 1: Periphery District

The car was traveling on the huge city-interstate elevated bridge.

"Hmm-hmm~" Nora hummed along with the classical music in the car, smiling as she watched Mia and Miel racing around inside the vehicle.

"Nora, why is your car so big!" Mia exclaimed in surprise.

"Because we have many people," Nora said as she patted her head. "So, we need a bigger car."

"But this car is too big," Miel remarked. "It even has bedrooms and a dining room."

"Miel, look!" Mia opened the refrigerator door and found it full of various kinds of food and drinks.

"This isn’t right..." Miel hadn’t managed to stop her when Mia had already taken out a can and skillfully pried it open.

"It’s caviar!" she cried out joyfully. "Nora, may I eat it?"

"Of course," Nora laughed.

She had already opened it before asking... Miel was simply speechless about her companion and turned to ask Nora, "How much does this can cost?"

"I actually can’t remember," Nora said thoughtfully, then asked the driver, "Martin, what’s the price of the Golden Sturgeon caviar can in the fridge?"

"Miss, I recall it’s around 30 silver marks," the driver said.

The girls: ......

So expensive! It’s even priced in silver marks!

"Is it that cheap?" Nora said awkwardly. "It must not be a very good brand, maybe we should get a different one..."

"No need, no need!" Miel hurriedly interjected. "Mia really likes it, right, Mia?"

"Hm?" Mia had just scooped a spoonful into her mouth and murmured unclearly.

"What’s that?" Eleanor, who was sitting on the side, suddenly asked as she looked out the window.

Everyone followed her gaze outside and saw on the edge of a dilapidated building in the distance an armed helicopter hovering in the sky, its aerial machine gun roaring and turning like thunder, the grand sound of gunfire audible even from the elevated bridge.

Accompanying the whirlwind of bullet strikes, the edge of that abandoned building crumbled and fell like collapsed building blocks.

"They’re clearing out the gangs in the abandoned building," the driver answered.

"Abandoned building? Gangs?" Eleanor asked with a frown.

"Eleanor, you should know about the Empire crisis at the beginning of the Fourth Epoch," seeing that her close friend was a bit puzzled, Nora, as the host, began to explain, "At that time, a huge economic crisis erupted within the Empire, especially in Solomon City, which was hardest hit by the real estate bubble. Countless families became bankrupt overnight."

"In the peripheral urban districts, there’s a large number of properties under development that have been left unfinished due to a sudden break in the funding chain. These buildings are mainly concentrated in the northern part of Solomon City, hence leaving behind a large number of half-built, uncapped, or capped but undecorated abandoned buildings."

"After that, there was the invasion by foreign tribes." Although the people of Solomon commonly referred to it as "Barbarian invasion," considering the feelings of Eleanor and Sigrdrifa, Nora replaced it with the neutral term "foreign tribes." "Political turmoil, economic stagnation, and then the Magic Tide hit—thus, a large number of foreign national armies broke into Italy+."

"After the Solomon Church established itself and gradually took control of the city’s order, they drove the leftover population of these foreign nationals into the abandoned buildings in the peripheral districts, without providing them with any water, electricity, materials, or public services, so the order there was very chaotic, dominated by gangs everywhere."

"Why doesn’t the Church take care of them?" Eleanor asked, puzzled. "I mean, why did they drive them to the outskirts? Couldn’t they be accepted as citizens of Solomon? Just because their bloodlines don’t belong to the Latin Nation?"

"It’s not that," Nora clarified. "Uh, our job market here has relatively high educational requirements. A bachelor’s degree is the minimum barrier to employment."

"Primary school, middle school, high school, and university add up to 16 years. Tuition, alongside rent and living expenses, totals up to almost 300-500 silver marks. Many families from foreign nations don’t value education, unwilling or unable to spare that kind of money, leading to their offspring’s education quickly declining. The poorer they are, the less able they are to provide good education for their children. If they cannot find jobs, they become poorer, and it becomes a vicious cycle from generation to generation."

Eleanor listened, her face a picture of confusion.

The Holy Solomon Empire she was familiar with relied mainly on apprenticeship for civilian employment, which also had a strong family inheritance aspect. For instance, in the blacksmith trade, an old blacksmith would typically pass down his skills to his son, but he would also recruit some young apprentices as assistants.

Apprentices had their food and lodging covered but didn’t receive any salary. They had to show the same reverence to their master as they would to their father, in exchange for the master’s guidance in the trade. This period was usually quite long, depending on when the master planned to retire before fully passing on his skills to the apprentices, allowing them to start their own businesses.

However, like Nora mentioned, just the cost of education was 300-500 silver marks—that was an astronomical threshold for entry to a profession. Keep in mind that even an entire lifetime of running a blacksmith’s shop wouldn’t earn that much money!

"So they... can’t find work? How do they live?" Eleanor asked.

"If they can’t even afford rent, then they’re forced to live on the streets," Nora replied with a slightly downcast tone. "But the central city area—that is, the inner city limits of the ancient Seven Hills City—does not allow the homeless to stay."

"So they get driven to the outskirts, where no one cares, and it’s all crime and violence. Every month, many gangs rise. Some gangs occupy small areas, and then, as their strength grows, they set their sights on the main city, trying to sneak in to make money through smuggling or theft."

"Then the city officials, receiving reports from victimized companies, would hire security companies to go to the outskirts and take down these gangs’ strongholds... just like what you just saw."

"Miss, we are about to enter the underground tunnel," the driver suddenly said.

"Hmm, okay." 𝘧𝑟𝑒𝑒𝘸𝘦𝘣𝑛𝑜𝘷𝑒𝓁.𝘤𝘰𝓂

The light outside the car abruptly dimmed as the vehicle descended into the tunnel highway.

Eleanor cupped her chin contemplatively and gazed out the window, the tunnel lights casting flickering shadows in her azure pupils. Aske knew at a glance what she was thinking and asked Nora:

"The gangs living in the abandoned buildings, they’re mostly not good people, right?"

"Mmm, those who live in the abandoned buildings are generally violent criminal groups. The upper floors of the abandoned buildings have better lighting and ventilation environments, and ordinary impoverished people generally can’t compete with gang members," Nora candidly admitted. "Innocent people who don’t join gangs usually live on the streets between the abandoned buildings, in densely packed slums made of makeshift building materials."

Eleanor gave Aske a dry look, which plainly said, "Do I not know this? Do you need to remind me?"

As for Nora, she keenly noticed the exchange of glances between Eleanor and Aske and couldn’t help but be taken aback.

It always felt that Eleanor’s attitude toward Aske today was a bit too affectionate, no? Am I imagining things?