Chapter 315 Celebration Feast


    A grand celebration banquet was being held in the main hall of Border Town’s castle.


    In addition to the witches, the high-ranking staff in City Hall and the First Army all fully attended this feast. There were the nobles Barov Mons and Carter Lannis, and also Iron Axe and Kyle Sichi who were from a civilian background. Especially for thetter, Rnd had to spend a lot of effort to persuade him toe out of theboratory and attend this ording to him “meaningless” banquet.


    To include his subjects in this joyful event, besides giving a public speech he’d also ordered the kitchen staff to bake arge amount of white bread by using the leftover refined starch from manufacturing explosives, and distribute the bread to all of the town’s people. As long as they were in possession of an identification card, they could get a limited amount of delicious food at the City Hall. Even while the First Army was on their way home, most of the town’s inhabitants had already learned of their victory in battle.


    Of course, they may not necessarily understand the purpose and significance of the expedition, but as long as there was free bread it counted as a day of celebrate for them.


    This was also Rnd’s first time imitating those “lofty” banquets hosted in King’s City.


    There was no barbecue and norge pieces of stewed meat, all the food was cut into small pieces and splendidly arranged on spotlessly white tes. At the edge of the table stood several basins that contained all kinds of seasonings, so that they could vor their food ording to their own taste, simr to the buffets ofter generations.


    “Wee back,” Rnd said, carrying two sses of wine to Anna, “The journey must have been hard for you.”


    “You already said that at the pier,” Anna took one ss, “And my answer is still the same, ‘it wasn’t hard’.”


    When their sses faintly touched each other, her eyes were filled with a sweet smile. Seeing this, Rnd had to struggle to resist the impulse to embrace her on the spot. Instead, he went on and exchanged a celebration cup with the other witches.


    “What about me?” Lightning shouted.


    “You’ll also get your share,” Rnd said, calling over a waiter from whom he then took a ss of cider for her, “Work hard.”


    “I demand to drink white!” The little girl looked at him with big eyes.


    “Uh huh...” After thinking about it, Rnd finally decided to fulfill her wish. After all, this kid’s curiosity had always been quite high, so if he refused her all the time, maybe she would learn from Nightingale and sneak into the kitchen, but she’d be stealing wine instead, “Alright, but only one drink.”


    “Yeah!”


    When Rnd handed her a weak white wine mixed with ice and grape juice, she suddenly approached and gave him a kiss on his cheek.


    “Keke... Is this the custom from the Fjords?”


    “Sure,” Lightning nodded seriously, “That’s what my father told me!”


    Because it wasn’t the first time they saw it, the other witches of the Witch Alliance didn’t feel that it was too strange. However, Sylvie’s eyes became round from shock before throwing an usatory nce at Rnd, and saw he was moving along while wearing an awkward expression – does there really exist such a custom of kissing the head when celebrating heroic deed in the Fjords?


    Then it was time to exchange a toast with the ministers.


    When it came to the chief alchemist’s turn, the man leaned over and whispered, “Your Highness, since you gave me the ‘Intermediate Chemistry’ I have already read it twice, but, there are still a lot of things that I can’t understand.


    “If you are talking about that sub-atomic constitution of matter, that part involves a lot of physical knowledge, so you have to read another book to understand it.” Rnd pointed out, “So, I suggest that you first read the ‘Elementary Physics’ before going through the remnants of the Intermediate Chemistry again. This way, many of your doubts should be answered.”


    “That’s what I was going to do, but...” he hesitated for a moment before continuing, “Your Royal Highness, why are the colors used on the cover of each ancient book different? Does it have any special meaning to it?”


    “That is...” Rnd pondered for a moment, “The color represents the requirements and time needed toprehend it.”


    “It was like this?” Kyle mused, “From green to purple. So, it seems that the deeper the color, the more profound is the knowledge recorded within. In that way, ‘Advanced Chemistry’ must surely be ck?”


    “No, it is orange.”


    “Ah,” Kyle got startled, “Why?”


    Rnd smiled, “Who knows?”


    ...


    Halfway through the banquet, Rnd stepped out of the hall and went to the castle terrace. Standing in the gently blowing evening breeze, he couldn’t help but feel a slight chill. Half of autumn has already passed he realized, so in other words, it wouldn’t be long before the lengthy winter would cover the whole Western Territory with snow and bring about the Months of Demons.


    But the situation during this year and the previous year had be as different as ck and white. The trade with Margaret’s Chamber of Commerce had brought in a lot of floating amount of money, and in exchange for food and materials many of these gold royals were paid to the people in the form of a sry. ording to statistics from the convenience market, the recent sales of products has shown a lot of growth, from which some of the goods would significantly improve the people’s quality of life. Sales for products such as steak and eggs was growing especially quickly.


    There was no doubt that this was a sign of the gradual improvement in the living standards for the people. In particr, the indigenous poption had all received new free housing, while their sry,pared to before, had also increased a lot. Nowadays, they had even started to buy food which they usually could only enjoy during festivals. The newly introduced poption was still at the stage where they were busy saving money in order to purchase a house, but when they manage to settle down the market was bound to usher for a new peak in sales.


    What exactly do people need? Sometimes, eating and drinking one’s fill was already enough to be grateful to their Lord and follow him until their death.


    During this era, most civilians were easy to please.


    “Your Highness, beware of catching a cold,” Nightingale said, and appeared behind him with a thin coat in hand. She threw the cloth to Rnd, took out a piece of dried fish from a bag and came to stand beside him, “What’s going on here?”


    “Nothing,” Rnd said, showing her a smile while he put on the coat, “I just suddenly had the urge to see my territory.”


    “It seems the town is still very busy,” Nightingale said and pointed to the still brightly lit town square, “It’s already night time and there are still so many people who haven’t gone home.”


    “That’s because today was the first time they were showing the new drama, ‘Dawn’,” Rnd exined happily, “Furthermore, it was also the first show after the troupe’s several months of departure from Border Town. So, the vigers have probably been full of anticipation to see Miss May and Misses Irene again.”


    But that being said, Miss May would soon be Lady May Lannis. He actually had never expected that his own Chief Knight would act so decisively to hold the hands of the Star of the West. When the other side had informed him with a sincere face about his intention, he was first stupefied for a while before he was finally to respond. The wedding of the Chief Knight needed the approval of his Lord, but Rnd naturally had no objection to this kind of happy event. In the end, the wedding for the two was scheduled for after the end of the Months of Demons, more precisely, for the day when Border Town officially became a city.


    “It was a dead ce when I first snuck into this town,” Nightingale eximed, “But now, even while standing in the castle, it seems I still feel the joyful atmosphere surrounding us.”


    “Life will improve, day by day,” Rnd looked up, looking at the cloudless night sky as he took in a deep breath. There were still many things left to be done such as expanding the scope of education, setting up a public health care, increasing the amount of cultural constructions, encouraging birth rate and so forth. All these things would transform the Western Territory into a stable force andy out the foundation for the unification of Greycastle.


    Nightingale tilted her head and looked at him with keen eyes as she asked, “So what about us?”


    “Of course, the same is also true for you,” Rnd said as he patted her head, “I promise.”