Chasing Time

“Next, we have the most noble recipient of the Order of the Garter, the Grand Cross of Saint Michael and Saint George, the Grand Cross of the Bath, the Victoria Cross and the lower grades of Knighthood, the leader of the anti-colonial movement, the bell-ringer of the East India Company, the hero of the Crimean War, a Fellow of the Royal Society, a lifelong dear friend of literary giants such as Dickens and Great Dumas, a steadfast supporter of scientific luminaries like Faraday and Darwin, having served as assistant under-secretary, deputy under-secretary, and permanent under-secretary in departments of the Home Office and the Navy Department of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, the inaugural Cabinet Secretary and head of the civil service, the first graduate and most distinguished alumnus of our school. Please welcome Sir Arthur Hastings to deliver a speech on the occasion of the fiftieth anniversary of the founding of the University of London.”
Arthur's gaze swept across the crowd before him, looking at the young faces and murmured, “Agares, what do you think I should say?”
The Red Devil's wraith hovered behind him, saliva almost dribbling from the corner of his mouth, “Look at these ignorant souls; they still worship you as a hero. Why not say something they'd like to hear?”
Arthur took a deep breath and let out a deafening roar, “Oxford is a bunch of whores' bastards!”
“Oh!!!!”
The audience erupted into thunderous applause.
“Cambridge is the same!” he added immediately.
The applause grew even more fervent...
(The protagonist, possessed by a devil, travels through 19th-century Britain in a world without magic)

The Shadow of Great Britain

Arthur and others, dressed in plain clothes, stood at the entrance to St Giles Church.


Closing their eyes, they could feel the worldly hustle and bustle of the place—the loud cries of vendors selling their wares and the conversations of people passing by—as if this place were no different from the other grand squares and streets of West London.


In reality, this place indeed had its own glorious past.


In the 16th century, St Giles Church was just a rural village outside the city of London, with only a few groups of villagers and a handful of families that had lived there for generations.


But a law enacted in 1541 changed the fate of this area due to the increasingly crowded living conditions within the city of London, and the Parliament planned to extend the city to the outskirts. A major road from the Holborn bar to St Giles Church was laid out.


Chapter 17 Orphan of the Fog City?