Chapter 90 Victory Celebration (Part 2)
Six marinated cattle were transported next to the bonfire by carts – if they weren’t escorted by the militia, Roland suspected that on its way through the crowd, the whole cattle would have already been carved up by the masses.
This was all of the food reserves the castle had left within the basement. So they wouldn’t have any meat to eat until the arrival of the next merchant ship. Thinking of this, Roland’s heart began to ache. In order to run this celebration, he had even used up all of the reserves he had.
The master chefs brought over from Graycastle were only responsible for wiping the meat and controlling the heat. In the end, the task of barbecuing was handed over to six people from the militia team. An iron bar was inserted into the cattle’s body through its mouth and then placed in front of the fire on a brick station. The flames were wildly burning so that even separated by two to three meters the heat waves were still clearly felt. Soon the whole cow’s skin issued a sizzling sound, oil began to emerge out of it’s pores, emitting a seductive scent.
Of course, the barbecue couldn’t be the only attraction, so on Roland’s signal, Iron Axe together with a team of militia entered the stage.
Since those gorgeous and complex court dance didn’t apply to such an occasion, and there wasn’t much time for training; they couldn’t even remember all the essentials steps, let alone show such a beautiful and complex dance. To ensure that it was an easy to understand dance which was still enjoyable, the dance of the sand people was clearly more in line with the interests of the civilians.
The dance started with Iron Axe and the others placing both of their hands on their hips, always putting the right arm through the partner’s left arm, forming a two rings around the bonfire. They were accompaniment by the sounds of horns and began to move clockwise, with each step, they would throw the other foot to kick forward while shouting “Ha!
“Is this the lead dance you talked about?” Carter asked startled. “Can you even call this a dance?”
“Of course, it is very easy to remember, the militia had only needed to practice half an hour last night to master the pace,” Roland answered laughingly. “Do you also want to try?”
Carter shook his head and refused the offer. He just felt as if something in his heart would soon break out with a bang – don’t, she was just a girl with an appearance which made men’s hearts beat faster. Don’t, she is just a sad memory from my youth.
The other militia members were clapping with their hands in the pace of the all the dancer’s footsteps, accompanying each round with faster applause. The extremely fast rhythm moved the masses, they one after another reached out with their own hands to clap in accordance. As the applause got faster and faster, Iron Axe and his teams dancing speed also became faster and faster. Soon the ring began to show signs of coming apart. It didn’t take long until one of the dancers accidentally fell, taking more of the dancers with him. Seeing this the crowd became shocked, but the militia did not stop the applause, instead it get wilder and changed into a storm.
Iron Axe propped himself by a militia member, stopping his fall and then he turned to the crowd and shouted: “Did everyone understand it? Who would like to try it themselves? Until you fall just like us! If you join the dance, you can afterwards dive into the sweet and delicious honey barbecue, the longer you dance, the more meat you get!”
If the nobility or the rich families were to invite them, the normal townspeople would never have been involved – subconsciously, giving them the feeling that they were superior compared to themselves. It was also common for the nobility to go back on their promises. But when they saw the militia members, which came from the usual crowd of civilians now beckoning them to dance with them, they were unable to hold themselves back.
After the first round of people joined, they were soon followed by a second and then a third round. So soon, a new dance started, but this time most of the dancers came from the masses. Although this was a very simple interaction, it still made them very happy, in addition with the reward of the honey barbecue in their sight, the participants tried their hardest to show the best possible performance.
This was exactly the scene Roland wanted to see.
In addition to the barbecue, there were also bread, fish-cakes, and ale that was distributed to the masses. The celebration was planned to continue until evening, but Roland didn’t plan to stay until then. He arranged for Carter to be in charge of the town square’s safety, and the assistant minister was responsible for the closing speech, then he left.
He instead attended a private party at the castle’s back garden.
When the evening came, the backyard was still brightly lit.
Just like in the town’s square, they had also started a bonfire. The difference was that they used chicken for the barbeque which were cut into pieces. The seasoning and oil were of their own configuration, completely imitating the atmosphere of a barbeque in the wild. This kind of novelty of self-service style was loved too much by the witches, that they could never part with it. Of course for Roland’s eyes, this was a rare spectacle – for example, Anna directly wrapped the chicken into her green flame after seasoning it, which soon gave off a delicious fragrance. Nightingale instead showed off her incredible knife work, one moment the knives were hidden and a second later the chicken was hung upside down, completely peeled and with all of its bones fell down.
And of course, for the wine, it came from Willow Town and was much more suitable for the tastes of women than ale. Actually, Roland wanted to say that minors were prohibited from drinking, yet Lightning had already emptied half a bottle by herself and since she was floating in the air, it would be difficult to persuade her Roland thought.
After around one hour within the barbecue, Roland was slightly tipsy. He leaned against a chair and watched the group of happy laughing girls. Seeing this Roland felt very pleased. This is the perfect life for a prince, he thought, and also for the witches. With their extraordinary abilities and appearance, they shouldn’t be the object of hunting. If they were born in my previous life, I’m afraid they would have become the dazzling focus of many people. But now, here in my territory, they can live a normal life.
At this moment, Lightning suddenly fell down, directly landing on Roland’s lap, and even before he had the possibility to react, she already had planted a kiss on his cheek.
Although this action was done very quickly, it was still captured by many witches.
When Lightning grinningly flew upwards again, she could see that Anna, Nightingale, and Wendy looked very surprised, so she waved her hand explained: “According to the rules of the Fjords when they hold a banquet to celebrate a victory, the woman can take the initiative to kiss the leader. Dad would let me kiss him every time. Isn’t this also a habit in Graycastle?”
“Of course not,” Roland instantly woke up from his half-drunken state, “uh… cough cough, Lightning you’re drunk, quickly go back to the castle and sleep!”
“How can that be,” Lightning protested, “When I was sailing, I had many drinking battles with the crew and I never lost.”
Roland recognizing that she would follow the order turned to Wendy, who nodded and then used her power to kindly blow Lightning to the earth. When Lightning was close to landing, Wendy took two steps forward, approaching the girl and catching her within his arms. Disregarding of Lightings shouting and struggling, she walked in a straight line towards the castle.
“Don’t worry about her, she just drunk too much. Please continue to celebrate, soon the dessert will be delivered.” Roland suddenly felt that the atmosphere had turned a little strange, especially when he looked into Anna’s eyes, he felt a chill rising up from his feet. The only one who was completely unaffected by what happened was Nana, she was still concentrating on eating her chicken wings, like nothing had happened in general.
After the bonfire was gradually extinguished, Roland requested Nightingale to escort Nana home. Then he went to the well and washed his face with cold water, already ready to go to bed. Roland didn’t take the former episode to heart, in his view, Lightning was still a minor child.
But when he arrived at the third floor, his heart suddenly begun to race.
He saw Anna who was leaning against his door.