7 Ism not Undead! (1/2)
After Lunch, Mia ordered the group to get back in the same single file line as they had been in before lunch, and the group continued marching to the west through the Ancient Forest. During this time Ethan was curious about what this Kingdom of Vorbei was like so he continued conversing with Hans and Friedrich. This time however, while he did learn several more words, he was mostly focussing on practicing using the words that he had already learned as well as getting the pronunciation and grammar correct. He knew from studying other languages in the past that one shouldn't try to learn too much all at once. For this reason, as much as he wanted to learn more of the vocabulary, he decided to only do so in moderation.
During this time however, Ethan did have an interesting conversation with the twins in which he learned about the Vorbei Kingdom.
”So, does the Vorbei Kingdom have a king?” Ethan asked.
”Yes. His Majesty is named King Karl X. He has been the king for only a year and a half, ever since those murderers from the Western Empire killed our previous king, Karl IX.” Friedrich replied.
”That started a big war with the Western Empire which only ended recently. Neither side won; it was a stalemate.” Hans added.
In these responses, there were some words that Ethan did not know, but he mostly figured out their meaning from context or from sounding vaguely similar to Dutch or English.
[I guess in this world there are assassinations of world leaders in this world as well.]
”Is the Western Empire a historical* enemy* of the Vorbei Kingdom?”Ethan asked.
In asking this, Ethan did not know the Vorbei words for 'enemy' or 'historical', so he used the Dutch versions for these words which he had learned in high school, changing the pronunciation slightly to sound like other Vorbei words, and added the correct Vorbei endings that regular nouns and adjectives would use in Vorbei hoping that these would sound similar enough to the Vorbei versions to get his question across. While he had been learning Vorbei, he had noticed that a lot of the words sounded very similar to their equivalent in Dutch which he had already studied, so he hoped that it would be the case with these words. It seemed to work as Hans and Friedrich seemed to understand him and answer his question.
”Not really. In fact, we haven't had much dealings with them until about a decade ago when a recent conquest of theirs had let them expand into the region.” Hans Said
”Since then, they've been doing everything that they can to to try to conquer the Vorbei Kingdom, which is the last major power in the region other than the Western Empire.” Friedrich added.
Ethan once again had already learned most of these words, and the ones that he didn't he understood from context and Dutch and English cognates.
[I guess that thisVorbei Language really is very similar to Dutch. It is good to know that I can, at least in this case, ”Vorbeify” Dutch words and Hans and Friedrich can still sort of understand what I am trying to say. Language aside, I really should learn more about this Vorbei Kingdom if I want to survive here.] Ethan thought.
”What are the politics of Vorbeilike?” Ethan asked (using a 'Vorbeified' version of the Dutch word for politics).
”It is a feudal system. Low ranked nobles answer to high ranked nobles who in turn answer to the King. Nobles mostly have some autonomy on their own land though.” Friedrich said.
”Although, the past few generations of Kings have slowly started to centralize power around the royal family. This has led to a divide in power between the Royalist Faction led by the Vorbei Royal Family and consisting of the nobles who are the most loyal to them like our Captain on one hand, and the Nobles' Faction led by the Von Gelds who resent the fact that the King has acquired more power that used to be reserved for nobility on the other hand.” added Hans.
[Good to know. So, I suppose that their politics are very similar to medieval Europe as well. I wonder what the scale of this country is though.] thought Ethan.
”How big is Vorbei?” Ethan asked.
”It is about 700,000 km². We also have a population of more than six million people. We border the Great Sea to the south, The Western Empire to the west, and various tribes in a mountainous region to the north. Most of the eastern half of Vorbei is a part of this Ancient Forest that we are in right now. Not many people live in this forest apart from a few remote villages. There are too many dangerous monsters in here and the soil is not that good for farming.” Hans said.
”Of course, the western half of Vorbei makes for great farmland. The land is mostly flat, and the soil is very fertile. We also have rivers running throughout it. Unlike those tribes to the north who live in a mountainous area, we have a lot of arable land in this Kingdom, and can produce more food than we can consume.” Friedrich said proudly. ”We used to export a lot of it before the Western Empire conquered our neighbors to the west...”
[So, in terms of landmass, Vorbei is about the size of Texas, and their population is comparable to Missouri. I suppose that that is not really a small country, by medieval standards. Anyway, it is good that their people don't starve. I want to know more about what is beyond this Ancient Forest though.] Thought Ethan.
”What is East of the Ancient Forest?” Ethan asked.
Hans and Friedrich both started laughing after Ethan asked this.