Honestly, I wasn’t accustomed to the dishes in the North. The anthropoids had some habits that belonged to wild beasts. They weren’t good with cooking. To the contrary, they enjoyed raw meat. Even Ling Yue liked seasoning raw meat with some salt, and then eating it raw. Watching her lick the blood off her fingers truly shattered fantasies you’d have about her.
I intended to introduce some colour to dishes to the North. The main dishes and soup would be prepared as per humanity’s cooking. Additionally, we chose fruit from the elven lands. Everyone would be given some meat skewers. Then, we’d share the Empress bread Mommy Elizabeth prepared in order to show the anthropoids the purpose of wheat.
The farmers in the North weren’t willing to plant wheat. The wheat in the North was a quite similar to soybeans. Once they were ripe, they were wrapped in shells. There were very few farmers in the North. Freya gave them wheat crops, but they were full of vigilance, because they’d never seen wheat before. Up until we introduced wheat, they planted a crop similar to tomatoes. What grew, instead, resembled potatoes.
There weren’t many of them. One strain provided roughly two potatoes. What they did was wrap it up in mud, throw it into the fire and finally eat it once it was baked. Anthropoids usually had those potatoes and raw meat for dinner. If they didn’t have salt, they’d just chew the raw meat. They smoked meat in autumn to preserve the meat.
Since salt was scarce in the North, bacon and salt could, therefore, only be enjoyed by noble tribes such as Ling Yue’s. I wasn’t sure if improving the environment would help increase the production volume correspondingly.
The coronation ceremony would be a bit too shabby if they ate that way at the banquet, too. I needed to change the nobles’ concepts of food with humanity and elven foods. That, in turn, would change the people’s tastes. As a subsequence, the North would be more civilised, and thereby resemble the South.
Admittedly, while I consider eating raw meat and drinking blood to be a unique characteristic of beasts, I wanted to make them more similar to humans… Perhaps… that was because I was a human. I suppose it was comparable to what we considered as bread.
My coronation was tomorrow. You could say today was the entire Imperial Palace’s most bustling day. It was late at night, yet the horses in the stable were still neighing. There were a total of four stables; but nonetheless, there were still people who had to leave their horses outside.
A bright flame was lit in the centre of the palace to make it convenient for everybody to move their horse carriages around and unload. Lots of people were moving about in the palace. All the nobles brought food when they came over as per Alex’s request. They offered food under the pretext of a gift from the North to the new King. That also managed to cover the fact that there was no food in the Imperial City.
The nobles had high very expectations for me, but I didn’t have a positive impression of them. They didn’t give me money when I needed it most. Plus, in all honesty, the life of the North was in their hands. They were comparable to tycoons. Just as Ling Yue’s tribe was responsible for the Brilliant Moon Stones, every noble tribe in the North was responsible for something.
My purpose in calling them to the palace this time was to try and confiscate them of their power and influence. I didn’t want autonomous politics under my ruled. I was the only one allowed to rule in the North, and all the important resources belonged to me, period. The four tribes managed to form their own armies, as they had money. I couldn’t let history repeat itself. I was very curious as to whether Alex invited Ling Yue or not, I thought.
Although the Moon Fox Tribe was previously considered exterminated, the tribe’s only descendant, Ling Yue, returned to the Moon Fox Tribe’s territory, I didn’t know if Alex still considered the Moon Fox Tribe one of the noble tribes. As such, I didn’t know if he invited her or not.
I didn’t invite her, since I didn’t really want for her and Lucia to meet. However, I ended up looking forward to seeing Ling Yue. I kept looking downstairs, hoping I could get a glimpse of a red silhouette. Unfortunately, I never found her.
“Your Highness, it sounds so noisy,” whinged Lucia.
Lucia held Nona, who was crying, and soothed her with pats. I held Vera. Vera looked in Nona’s direction with a strange smile. The reason I was holding Vera was solely because she wasn’t crying due to the noise outside. Nona went wild with her crying. Lucia held her the whole time.
“Mm, it is.”
“How about quietening the horses first?”
I laughed. I softly called, “Freya.”
Freya responded, and then knocked on the door. She came in and said, “Is something the matter, Onii-sama? There are lots of things to attend to outside. I have my hands full, so if you bring up something pointless, I will scold you. Onii-sama. Prepare yourself.”
“Take the White Deer King outside. Have him make a trip to all four stables and let him stay for just a while. It’s a little noisy right now. Nona and Vera can’t sleep. The people can be dealt with; however, the horses are taking it too far. If they disturb Daisy, I’m worried the horses won’t see the next day… I wouldn’t be surprised if Nier hacked them all.”
I peered at the flames outside. I noticed a fire-red silhouette appear next to the fire, which was located near the bonfire at the centre. She wore a long fire-red dress. The colour of her dress was very similar to the colour of her ears and tail. She had her tail plastered firmly to her body as though she was worried somebody would touch her tail.
I thought, “Wouldn’t it be better to put it inside the skirt, then?”
She turned her head around and looked up at the windows up high. She noticed that virtually all of the rooms were bright. She swept her gaze across the rooms feeling flustered. She then fixed her eyes on the window before me.
To be honest, I didn’t know if Ling Yue saw me, but the corner of her mouth curled up into a smile when she looked my way.
“One more thing…”
I tried passing my daughter over at the same time I looked down below. Vera was shocked. She grabbed my sleeve and called out to me. Nona looked at Vera and took pleasure in her misery. Freya quickly walked over and grabbed Vera. I let go, and then sprinted off to the door.
“Onii-sama!!”
“Your Highness?!”
“Waaahh!!”
Vera gave Freya a fright. It was the first time she held Vera at such a close range. She froze in place. She was dumbfounded and unsure of what to do. She didn’t even dare to shake her arm, as she was afraid she’d drop Vera. Freya shouted, “Onii-sama! What is this about?! What do I do?! What do I do?!”
“It’ll be fine. Hold Vera. I’m going down to lead the White Deer King.”
All I left them with was the echo of my voice. I rushed out and broke the “no running” rule in the corridor. I bolted downstairs as fast as I could. I ignored everybody who greeted me on the way. I ran so hard I got stitches. It was the first time I hated Freya for building the palace up so high.
“Ah…”
A fire-red silhouette was standing at the entrance of the Imperial Palace. She was in a dilemma. She was unable to decide if she could enter or not. I saw her once I reached the foyer.
She smiled, and then stretched her arms out: “Long-time no see.”
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