In the Lord's Hall of Border Town, a grand celebration banquet was being held.
In addition to the witches, all the high-ranking members of the City Hall and the First Army were present, including Barov Mons and Carter Lannis, who were originally nobles, and Iron Axe and Kyle Sichi, who were born as commoners.Especially the latter, it took Roland a lot of persuasion to pull him out of the laboratory to participate in this, in his words, "meaningless" banquet.
In order to let the people feel the same way, in addition to the public speech, he also ordered the kitchen to bake a large batch of white bread with the refined starch left over from the production of explosives, and distributed it to the people of Border Town. As long as they had an ID card, they could receive a limited amount of delicious food from the City Hall. While the First Army was on their way home, most of the people in the town already knew of the victory of the battle.
Of course, they might not understand the purpose and meaning of this expedition, but as long as there was free bread, it was a day worth celebrating.
This was also the first time that Roland imitated King's City's style of holding an "elegant" banquet.
There was no barbecue or large pieces of stew, all the food was cut into small pieces and served on white plates. There was a variety of seasonings placed on the side, which could be dipped according to their own taste, similar to the buffet restaurants of later generations.
"Welcome back," he carried two glasses of fruit wine towards Anna, "You must have worked hard on the road."
"You've already said the same thing at the dock," Anna took the wine glass, "and my answer was still the same, it wasn't hard."
The glasses slightly touched, the girl's eyes were filled with a sweet smile, Roland resisted the urge to hug her on the spot, and then raised his glass to the other witches to celebrate.
"What about me, what about me?" Lightning shouted.
"You also have a share," Roland called the waiter who served the wine, took a glass of cider, "You've worked hard."
"I want to drink white!" The little girl raised her head and said.
"Uh …" He thought for a moment, and finally agreed to the other side's request, this little devil was always very curious, if he kept refusing, maybe she would learn from Nightingale and quietly sneak into the kitchen to steal wine to drink. "Okay, but only one glass."
"En!"
Just as Roland handed her a glass of low-alcohol white wine with ice and grape juice, she suddenly leaned over and kissed him on the cheek.
"Ahem … is this the Fjords' etiquette again?"
"That's right," Lightning nodded vigorously. "My father said so!"
Since it wasn't the first time they had seen this, the witches didn't find it too strange. Instead, Sylvie and the others widened their eyes, and then looked at Roland with accusatory eyes, making the latter turn his head away rather awkwardly. Was there really such an etiquette in the Fjords for kissing the leader during a victory party?
Next was a toast to his subordinates.
When it was the Chief Alchemist's turn, he leaned over and asked in a low voice, "Your Royal Highness, I have read the 'Intermediate Chemistry' that you gave me twice, but there are still many parts that I don't understand."
"It talks about the microscopic composition of matter. This part involves a lot of physics knowledge. You'll have to read another book." Roland pointed out, "I suggest that you first read the entire 'Elementary Physics', and then read the incomplete chemistry book from the beginning, so that many of your doubts can be answered."
"I also plan to do so, but …" He hesitated, "Your Royal Highness, why does the cover of each ancient book have a different color? Do they have any special meaning? "
"Well …" Roland pondered for a moment, "The color represents its level and the difficulty of obtaining it."
"Is that so?" Kyle said thoughtfully, "From green to purple, it seems that the darker the color, the more mysterious the knowledge, so the 'Advanced Chemistry' must be black?"
"No, it's orange."
"Ah?" Kyle was startled, "Why?"
Roland smiled, "Who knows."
…
Halfway through the banquet, he walked out of the hall and came to the castle terrace. Under the gentle evening breeze, Roland couldn't help but feel a trace of coolness. Half of autumn had passed, and he realized that it wouldn't be long before the long winter brought by the Months of Demons would cover the entire Western Region.
However, this year was completely different from the previous year. The trade with the Margaery Chamber of Commerce had brought a lot of liquidity. In addition to exchanging these Golden Dragons for food and materials, a considerable part of it was distributed to the people in the form of salaries.According to the statistics of the convenience market, the sales of various goods had increased a lot recently, and some goods that could significantly improve the quality of life, such as steaks and eggs, were growing very rapidly.
There was no doubt that this was a sign that the living standards of the people were gradually improving. In particular, the natives had new free housing, and their salaries had increased a lot compared to the past. They began to try to buy food that they could usually only enjoy during festivals. The newly introduced population was still at the stage of saving money to buy a house. When they could settle down, the market would inevitably usher in a new peak of sales.
In the end, what did the people need?Sometimes, as long as they had enough to eat and drink, they would be grateful to the lord and follow him until their death.
In this era, most of the civilians were easily satisfied.
"Your Royal Highness, be careful not to catch a cold." Nightingale appeared behind him, holding a thin leather coat in her hand. She threw the coat to Roland, took out a piece of dried fish, and stood beside him. "What are you thinking about here?"
"Nothing," he smiled and put on the coat. "I just suddenly wanted to see my territory."
"The town seems to be very lively," Nightingale pointed in the direction of the brightly lit square. "It's already evening, but there are still so many people who haven't gone home."
"Because today is the first day of the new play 'Dawn'," Roland smiled. "It's also the first time the troupe has returned to the town after a few months. The people probably can't wait to see Miss Mey and Ms. Irene again."
But then again, Miss Mey would soon become Ms. Mey Lannis. He really didn't expect that his Chief Knight would act so quickly and take the Star of the Western Region into his hands. When the other side mentioned it to him with a sincere face, he was stunned for a while before he reacted. The wedding of the Chief Knight required the approval of the loyal Lord, and Roland naturally had no objection to this kind of thing. Finally, the wedding date was set after the end of the Months of the Demons, which was the day when Border Town was officially built.
"When I first sneaked into the town, it was still a dead place," Nightingale sighed. "Now, even standing in the castle, I can feel their joy."
"Life is always getting better day by day." Roland raised his head, looked at the bright, cloudless night sky, and took a deep breath. He still had a lot to do, such as expanding the scope of education, establishing public health care, strengthening cultural construction, encouraging childbirth and so on … These would all be transformed into a solid force in the Western Region and lay the foundation for the unification of Graycastle.
"What about us?" Nightingale asked with a sly look in her eyes.
"Of course," Roland patted her head. "I promise."