Kettle to the Mettle and the Simpsons Bubble

[portie79]

Just finished the Kettle to the Mettle side quest with Gerolt and something he said kind of contradicted with my understanding of which year we are in.

SPOILERS!

Drake
I couldn't help but notice the kettle you've been working on, and seeing that you had just finished, I took it upon myself to look out the order. I'm sorry to report that it was due for delivery some time ago, and that...well...the order was canceled.
Gerolt
..Eh?
Jalzahn
Gerolt, how could you forget? When was this order placed?
Drake
Two, um...years ago.
Gerolt
WHAT!? B-But we did all that work! I did all that bloody work! No, no, no! This can't be happenin'! Now where am I goin' to find a hundred million gil to pay off me bleedin' notes!?
Jalzahn
Pardon? You mean to say you were doing this for money all along!? And there I was thinking that I'd at last discovered a modicum of decency in the gutter that serves for your soul. I should have known better.
Gerolt
Hold on a minute! It's all comin' back to me now! This order came in 'round the time you barged in here, rantin' and ravin' about yer godsforsaken Zodiac Weapon, distractin' me from me work!

If we take Gerolt's word for it, that means 2 years past between patch 2.2 where Jalzahn showed up and now. I don't remember any other quest or dialog where we received such a clear indication of time passing, since my understanding was that we are +1 year from 2.0 start as Heavensward started. Does this mean that another year passed between 3.0 and 3.2?

Did the Simpsons Bubble burst and we are moving forward in a steady pace?

[FJerome]

Gerolt is very very drunk pretty much all the time, so there's probably some amount of fudging possible there still. The order was placed two years ago, Drake's pretty reliable, but Gerolt may be mistaken about when Jalzahn showed up?

[Anonymoose]

Comedic effect, I'm guessing, drawing upon (as FJerome just said) Gerolt's warped sense of reality.

[EDIT]
After reviewing all four languages, I think it's actually a meta joke about how long it's been since the real-world time you started working on relics with Jalzahn.

In Japanese he claims that he firmly remembered the date of delivery for a two year old order when you and Jalzahn showed up talking Zodiac Weapons and saddling him with to-dos. And German seems to claim the order was cancelled two years years ago. In English, he claims that the order was placed two years ago, at the same time you showed up.

Going by how the text laws have operated since 1.0, no matter what, he had to have received the order in 3 Seventh Umbral Era, and, no matter what, it was 5 Seventh Umbral Era when we started and it hasn't been a full year since. If this is the case, I'd be surprised if the order wasn't cancelled before the game started and he's just looking for someone to blame. But (as far as I can tell) the different languages only line up if you use real-world time, right? Making it a joke?

EDIT
Oof, Reddit sure took that "two years" thing and ran with it. Let's review, for the sake of completeness.

Jalzahn
Gerolt, how could you forget? When was this order placed?

Drake
Two, um...years ago.

<...>

Gerolt
Hold on a minute! It's all comin' back to me now! This order came in 'round the time you barged in here, rantin' and ravin' about yer godsforsaken Zodiac Weapon, distractin' me from me work!

Jalzahn
ゲロルト……。
お主、その発注をいつ受けた？
(Gerolt... When was the order received?)

Drake
……2年前です。
(...2 years ago.)

<...>

Gerolt
ああン！？　何だとクソジジイ！<br>テメェが「ゾディアックウェポン」の話を持ってくるまでは、しっかり覚えてたンだ。
(Aaan!? Watch our tongue, you old geezer! I remembered perfectly until you showed up with all this talk of a "Zodiac Weapon".)

Jalzahn
Meister Gerolt. Wann wurde die Bestellung denn aufgegeben?
(Master Gerolt. When was the order cancelled?)

Drake
Vor zwei Jahren, zehn Monden und 27 Tagen.
(Two years, ten moons, and 27 days ago.)

<...>

Gerolt
Ich hatte den Kessel fast fertig, als du mit deinem nervigen Zodiak-Geschwätz ankamst und mir all die Arbeit aufgehalst hast. Ohne dich hätte ich meinen Liefertermin spielend eingehalten!
(I had the kettle almost finished when you arrived annoying me with your Zodiac-chatter and saddled me with all the work! Without you I would have made that deadline!)

Jalzahn
De quand date cette commande?
(From when was this order dated?)

Drake
... D'il y a deux ans.
(...It was two years ago.)

<...>

Gerolt
Eh, oh! Fais gaffe à c'que tu dis, Papy! J'te signale que j'me souvenais parfaitement de la date de livraison jusqu'à c'que tu viennes me tanner avec tes histoires d'armes du zodiaque!
(...Oh, ho! Be careful what you say, Gramps! I'll remind you that I perfectly remembered the delivery date until you came to me with your histories of the zodiac weapons!)

When did Jalzahn show up? April of 2014.

To me, it looks like either a discrepancy and the order was placed in 3 Seventh Umbral and he forgot, or, more likely, it's a meta joke. After all, from 2.00 to 3.00, did they change how many years since the Battle of Silvertear Skies? From 3.00 to 3.20, did they change how many years since Alexander was summoned? Those two years just vanish out side of Kettle to the Mettle.