Chapter 480: The Wedding
Translator: TransN Editor: TransN
Three days later, the wedding of Chief Knight Lannis Carter and Star of the Western Region May was held on castle grounds.
Besides family members, there were also members from the Star Flower Troupe, the City Hall and the Witch Union.
In this age, a wedding ceremony was always witnessed by the church. Weddings of royal families and the n.o.bility were witnessed by a regional Bishop, while n.o.bles and businessmen High Priest or Priestess. Ordinary citizens needed to go to the church by themselves and pay several silver royals to ask the Priest to preside over the wedding. Of course, people who could not afford it just lived together unwed.
Since there was no church in the Western Region, the City Hall was the wedding witness. Roland planned for the City Hall to dispatch officers to issue marriage certificates and do the registration for free. Carter"s wedding would be a great role model—he had already thought of the slogan, "Convenient, legitimate and free of charge".
When the bride appeared in her wedding gown, everyone was impressed. She was not a witch, yet she was a big star, and this drew crowds. Even Roland had to admit that Carter had a good eye. If it were not for the publicity and pleading from the knight, Roland would not have shown the wedding gown.
Dressed in his handsome black attire, the bridegroom Carter Lannis looked extraordinary. The two of them standing together were like a heaven-made match.
"They look so great together." Anna said.
"We"ll have our day eventually," Roland squeezed her hands gently and said, "by then, everyone will know you."
"Mmm." She smiled sweetly.
Marrying a witch was easy, however, getting the recognition of subjects was difficult. It could only be achieved by those with absolute might and great prestige. Hence, the most fundamental thing was to subside the civil war within the kingdom and become the only king of Graycastle. After that, he could marry Anna—he did not want others to think that Anna was his hidden plaything, like previous n.o.bles.
However, Roland believed that it would not be too long. Since the Months of Demons had finished, the town was fully preparing for the coming spring attack. Soon, there would be a fierce attack and Timothy’s throne would be destroyed completely.
"The rings, please. Er, next..." The officer from the City Hall was unfamiliar with the new wedding process written by Roland. He lowered his head to look at his notebook, "you may kiss each other now."
"Wow!" a.s.sembled guests broke into a round of applause, especially Irene, a member of the Star Flower Troupe. She excitedly grabbed Morning Light and swayed from side to side, and then grabbed others to clap and cheer for May.
"Just kissing," Lightning twitched her mouth, "each time, my father returned from an expedition, he was kissed several times."
"Coo..." Squatting on Lighting’s head, Maggie turned her head away. She put her wings in front of her face, however, the eyes of a pigeon are on both sides of the head.
"Is this wedding procedure really suitable, Your Highness?" Scroll put her hands on her forehead.
"It"s a particular case. Not every couple needs to do this," Roland smiled. "After all, it"s used for publicity, the more attractive, the better." Speaking of this, he turned to Soraya. "You need to paint this moment in detail!"
"Rest a.s.sured, leave it to me." The latter watched the two newlyweds without blinking, the Magic Pen in her hands was s.h.i.+ning.
Carter was obviously nervous. After his initial shock had subsided, May stood on tiptoe and kissed him.
Applause broke out in the yard.
"Please welcome His Highness. He’ll give his blessing!"
Roland left the crowd and joined the newlyweds. He patted Carter"s shoulder and said, "Well done." Then he turned to May, "May you be forever happy."
"That, that"s it?" Carter hesitated.
"Of course! Now go home and rest. I"ll give you two days off." Roland smiled. "Vader should arrive in the town this afternoon. Leave your work to him."
"Thank you, Your Highness," the newlyweds answered in harmony, smiling at each other.
The wedding ended in the sounds of fireworks, which were simulated by Echo.
In the afternoon, Barov and Karl came to the castle office to report the progress of the Three Supplies Project to Roland.
"So far, the water supply equipment has been installed in all the living quarters and more than half of the heating pipes have been laid," Karl said. He pointed to the town planning map and continued, "but the power supply will need more time. Except the factory district under your guidance will complete the installation soon, the four residential areas are still in the phase of trenching and slotting. After you went to Longsong Stronghold, this part of the work almost stagnated."
Roland nodded and knew they could do nothing about it. No one other than him understood what a circuit was or how electricity operated. Maybe in April, possibly May, all the townspeople would have electric lighting. Roland said, "It doesn"t matter. Now that the Months of Demons is over, the heating can wait for some time. Next, the most important thing is the power supply program and the building of Kingdom Main Street. The former concerns the efficiency of time use, and the latter is the key to strengthen the relations.h.i.+p between the two areas once the city building is completed." He continued, "In addition, don"t dismiss the redundant workers after finis.h.i.+ng the construction of Kingdom Main Street. We need them to build the road to the shoal."
"Do you mean the spot towards the southern mountain area?"
"That"s right. It’ll be the entrance to the sea." Roland affirmed. After Tilly and her group returned to Sleeping Island, Lotus would come back to the Western Region. At that time, with the help of Countess Spear, it would take less time to break a new path in mountains. "In addition, once the City of Neverwinter is established, these redundant workers will be my subjects and I want to confer citizens.h.i.+p on them as soon as the construction of Kingdom Main Street is finished." He turned to Barov, "I"ll leave it to you."
"Yes, my lord!"
"Don"t stop the construction of communities. You can expand them to the s.p.a.ce between the town and Stronghold or the south bank of the Redwater River. The population expansion remains to be a major priority, and I want to triple the urban population by the end of the year."
Barov sucked in a breath. "My lord, that will be close to 100,000 people."
"I believe we can afford them in the Western Region," Roland said with a deep voice, "you can take it as your goal."
Indeed, the Kingdom of Graycastle had population potential. A big city of 20,000 inhabitants could afford a suburban population of at least 100,000. The more prosperous a city was, the bigger scale the latter was—this phenomenon could also be seen in modern agriculture. There was no limit in the Western Region, plus since the steam engine had come into use, there was no need to have so many people working on the material supply.
"Lastly, since electric lighting is now available in the factory district, you’ll need to switch to working eight hours a day in three s.h.i.+fts once the city construction is completed, especially the ammunition processing department," the prince said to the supervisor of the City Hall, "The salary of each s.h.i.+ft should be calculated according to the past daily wage. The more they do, the more they get. You can promote it from now on and I hope the factory can operate constantly until we unify Graycastle."
"Yes, Your Highness." Barov answered and made a bow.