Three days later, the wedding of Chief Knight Carter Lannis and Mei, the Star of the West, was held in the castle garden.
In attendance, besides the families of both sides, were all the members of the Star Flower Troupe, the City Hall, and the Witch Union.
In this era, the wedding ceremony was generally presided over by the church. The weddings of royal nobles were witnessed by regional bishops, followed by ordinary nobles and wealthy merchants. Depending on their status and wealth, they would invite clergymen or high priests to their homes for blessings. Commoners had to go to the church themselves, paying several silver wolves to have a priest host their wedding. Of course, many couldn't afford the price and simply lived together.
The church no longer had a foothold in the Western Territory. The wedding host naturally became the City Hall. In Roland's plan, the City Hall would dispatch officials to issue marriage certificates for free, and register both parties in the marriage. Carter's wedding was an excellent promotional example—he had even thought of the slogan: "Convenient, Legal, Zero Cost."
When Mei appeared in the garden wearing a wedding dress, a wave of exclamations rose from the scene. Although she was not a witch, her unique aura as a big-name actress still attracted everyone's attention. Even Roland had to sigh, Carter's taste was indeed good. If it weren't for the sake of better publicity and the knight's repeated requests, he would have been reluctant to take out the wedding dress so early.
As the other protagonist of the wedding, Carter Lannis, appeared in a black tuxedo, equally outstanding, coupled with his meticulously groomed handsome face, the two standing together were a match made in heaven.
"They look really well-matched," Anna sighed.
"We will have such a day sooner or later," Roland gently squeezed her hand, "Everyone will know your name then."
"Mm," she tilted her head and smiled slightly.
Marrying a witch was easy, but gaining the approval of most of the people was very difficult. It was hard to do this without absolute power or high prestige. Therefore, the most basic thing to do was to wait until the civil war in the kingdom subsided, and he became the undisputed King of Graycastle, before marrying Anna—he didn't want others to think Anna was just a witch he secretly kept as a plaything, like those nobles did in the past.
However, Roland believed this day would not be too far away. The Month of Demons had ended, and the town was about to operate at full capacity to prepare for the Spring Offensive. Soon, a thunderous blow would fall on Timothy, completely shattering his throne.
"The two exchange tokens...uh, what's next..." The official from the City Hall was obviously not familiar with the new wedding process written by Roland. He lowered his head and looked at the notebook, "The new couple kiss."
"Wow..." A burst of cheers erupted from the scene. The members of the Star Flower Troupe, especially Irene, excitedly grabbed Dawn and shook her left and right, and pulled others to applaud and cheer for Mei.
"It's just kissing," Lightning pouted, "Every time I come back from an adventure, my dad is kissed by those maids several times."
"Goo..." Maggie, squatting on her head, turned her head and covered her face with a wing, but...the pigeon's eyes were on both sides of its head.
"Your Highness, is it really okay for you to set this process..." Scroll covered her forehead.
"It's a special case, not every newly married couple has to do this," Roland smiled, "After all, it's for publicity, the more eye-catching the better." Speaking of which, he looked at Soraya, "You must paint this moment in detail!"
"Don't worry, leave it to me," the latter stared at the two without blinking, the magic pen in her hand shining brightly, it could be seen that she was also full of interest in this.
Carter was obviously a little nervous about this step. After being stunned for a moment, Mei finally took the initiative to stand on tiptoe and hug and kiss him.
A burst of warm applause rang out in the garden.
"Finally, please give blessings, Your Highness."
Roland walked out of the crowd and came to the two, patted Carter on the shoulder, "Good job." Then he said to Mei, "I wish you happiness."
"I, is that all..." Carter hesitated.
"Of course, go back and have a good rest, I'll give you two days off," Roland smiled, "Vader should be able to arrive in town this afternoon, just hand over the work to him."
"Thank you, Your Highness," the two smiled at each other and responded in unison.
Then the wedding came to an end with a burst of echoing simulated firecrackers.
In the afternoon, Chief Steward Barov and Minister of Construction Karl came to the castle office to report to Roland on the progress of the town's infrastructure project.
"So far, the water supply equipment in each residential area has been fully installed, and most of the heating pipes have been buried," Karl pointed to a town plan, "But the power...supply part is still far behind. Except for the factory area you directed, which is about to be completed, the four residential areas are still in the stage of digging ditches - this part of the work has almost stalled since you went to Longsong Stronghold."
Roland nodded. This couldn't be helped. Apart from him, no one else could understand what circuits were or how electricity worked. If he wanted all the townspeople to have electric lights, it might be after April or May. "It doesn't matter. Now that the Demon Month has passed, the heating part can be temporarily suspended. Next, the most important thing is the power supply project and the construction of the Kingdom Avenue. The former is related to the issue of time utilization, and the latter is the key to strengthening the connection between the two places after the city is built." He instructed, "In addition, after the Kingdom Avenue is completed, don't dismiss the surplus workers, but continue to build the road connecting the Shoal."
"You mean...the mountain area leading to the south?"
"That's right, that will be our entrance to the sea," Roland affirmed. When Tilly and her party returned to Sleeping Island, Leaf should set foot in the Western Territory again. With the help of Earl Sperl, opening up the mountain passage would inevitably be faster. "Besides, after Neverwinter City is established, those odd-job workers are also my people. When the Kingdom Avenue is completed, grant them formal resident status." He looked at Barov, "Leave this to you."
"Yes."
"In addition, the construction of the residential area should not be stopped, whether it is extending to the open space between the town and the fortress, or developing to the south bank of the Redwater River. The focus this year is still on expanding the population. I hope that by the end of the year, the city's population can be tripled."
Barov took a breath, "Your Highness, that's almost close to one hundred thousand people."
"And the Western Territory can completely afford so many people," Roland said in a deep voice, "You can treat it as a planned goal to do."
Graycastle was not without population potential. A large city with more than 20,000 people had a suburban population of at least 100,000 to support it. The more prosperous the city, the larger the latter scale - this was also a phenomenon limited by the backward agricultural level of the time. But the Western Territory did not have such restrictions, and with the use of steam engines, it did not need so many people to maintain the supply of materials.
"Finally, now that the factory area has electric lighting, after the city is built, it will be changed to three shifts for production, especially the ammunition processing part," the prince said to the chief steward of the City Hall, "Each time period will be calculated according to the past daily salary, the more you do, the more you get in return. Start promoting it from today, and I hope that the factory will not be idle for a moment until we completely unify Graycastle."
"Yes, Your Highness," Barov bowed and responded.