It seemed that the free distribution of food was quite attractive, I think that at least half of the town’s inhabitants had come, Roland thought. In the end, more than one thousand people stood side by side, filling up the complete square beside the woodpile, there was no place for any other activities. He even discovered that some children had climbed up on the roof of the surrounding buildings so that they had a free look of everything.
Since it was their first time with this celebration, there were still some shortcomings. Roland thought that it was now the right time to enter the stage and to hold his speech.
This was now his second public speech he had held on this square, thanks to this his attitude was much calmer than the last time.
“My people, good afternoon. I’m the fourth Prince of Graycastle, Roland Wimbledon.” He still used the same introduction as last time, but today its effect was completely differently than it was the last time. His voice hadn’t fallen yet, but the crowd already cheered, “Long live the Prince, His Royal Highness!” “Long live His Highness!”
Roland suddenly felt a kind of warmth spreading through his chest, this time, he hadn’t arranged for any propaganda from his own people. So when he heard the spontaneous cheers from his own militia and the townspeople, he felt a sense of accomplishment and satisfaction in his heart.
When their voices finally calmed down a little, he continued, “The Months of the Demons is finally over! Thanks to the militia’s heroic struggle, the demonic beasts weren’t able to cross the wall one step. This year Border Town had only to pay a very small price to fight off the demonic beasts. This proves that, as long as we unite, even if we don’t rely on the power of Longsong Stronghold, we can still get a foothold here! They wanted to threaten our town with food, the fear of hunger and cold, trying to force us to yield. But today’s victory told them, that all this was futile! “
“Right, I do not want to go back to that place anymore!”
“With His Royal Highness, we don’t need to fear a day of hunger during the winter!”
“At last they cannot blackmail us any longer, His Royal Highness is too kind!”
“Let us celebrate this splendid and glorious triumph together,” Roland shouted, taking advantage of the rising emotions within the crowd.
“It is a day to be remembered, and I declare that from now on the first day after the end of the Months of the Demons will be known as the ‘Victory Day’! The celebration today is precisely for this purpose! My people, enjoy this day to the fullest! Now, let the dance begin!”
With this a torch was thrown into the pile of firewood, the flames jumped up, instantly setting the whole atmosphere on aflame.
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 barbecue which were cut into pieces. The seasoning and oil were of their own configuration, completely imitating the atmosphere of a barbecue 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.