Today, Landon had gone to meet Chef Benita and Chef Blake to talk about his upcoming birthday party.
Yes!!!... His birthday party.
Landon was born on the 3rd of November.
Last year, he had his birthday in the Capital... and on the 20th of November, he was off to Baymard.
The journey took 4 months and 2 weeks, before he arrived.
And ever since March, he has been working nonstop in developing Baymard.
Time sure does fly by when one was busy.
"Your majesty!!! my children love those story books that you wrote.... Especially the Christmas stories." Chef Benita said excitedly.
"Hmm.. my son loved the Father's day one... he said that on that day, he would get me a gift..hehehhe." Chef Blake said cheekily.
Landon smiled as he listened to them.
Over the past few days, people had been talking about the new story books that were being sold in the stores.
Landon had made 2 story categories: Holiday stories, and Fantasy stories (like disney stories).
There were 5 disney stories that he had selected: Cinderella, Mulan, Tarzan, The Sword in the Stone, and the three musketeers.
And finally for the holiday stories, Landon had made stories on: Valentine's day, Christmas, Mother's day and Father's day.
Each Category within the holiday section, had at least 10 story books on them.
For example, there were 15 Christmas stories that were being sold in Baymard.
Of course Landon had changed some major concepts about Christmas, so as to fit this era's beliefs.
Back on earth, Christmas was a time for celebrating the birth of Jesus Christ.... As well as the time when children gave their wish list to their parents.. in hope that Santa Claus would fulfill their wishes.
But over here, they didn't know about Jesus, and neither would they believe in Santa Claus.
So Landon had to come up with new holiday stories for the people.
In respects to religion, the empires within the Pyno continent all had different beliefs and non-beliefs.
The empire of Deiferus, believed in the Goddess, Serena.
They believed that she was responsible for creating the stars, the moon and the land.
She blessed the land and people, as well as cursed them.
So all marriages were blessed by her ministers, who were called 'Sermo Ministers'.
As for the empire of Terique, they believed in the sea god... Memphis.
It was said that only by offering sacrifices to this sea god, would one stay blessed in this life.
The people would drain the blood of either a lamb, white wolf, or any white furred animal.. and dump it into the ocean, streams, lakes or wells, for the sea God to bless them with whatever they desired.
The empire of Carona believed in the god of fertility, light and happiness, Kleponia.
It was believed that kneeling in her temple for 4 hours twice a month, would also give the people blessings as well.
While the empire of Yodan believed ved in absolutely nothing.
To them, Gods didn't exist since they couldn't see them.
And finally, Arcadina believed that the souls of their forefathers were now being transformed into Gods.
They believed that praying on their land, would allow their dead fathers, mothers and ancestors, to continue to bless the people and the land.
So since these people believed in their ancestors and not Jesus, Landon had to modify the Christmas story.. as well as other modern day holiday stories...to fit their beliefs.
And although Landon didn't believe in their religion, he had no right to change them.
Everyone was entitled to believe in whatever they wanted to.. as well as pray or worship whatever God or person they desired.
No one could or should demand that these people stop praying to their ancestors.
As for the named of the holidays, Landon still didn't want to change them.. as he felt like anything else would be a downgrade.
Holiday names like Christmas and Valentine's day, were already amazing names... want else could one call Christmas?
Anything else would just sound wack in his ears.
Maybe it was because he was already used to those names, as he felt that changing them would really make these holidays seem strange.
With these stories, Landon was sure that the citizens would understand why we celebrate them, as well as appreciate them more .
And instead of having Christmas on the 25th of December, Landon had decided to have it on the 7th of December.
Firstly, snow usually started falling around December 18th, so he didn't want others to walk around in the snow just for the celebration.
Secondly, the public school would have finished this semester's work on November 15th... and their exams would be held from November 20th, till Tuesday December 2nd.
So everyone would be available for the celebrations.
Speaking of the children, they started this semester in August... so November would make it 4 months.
Of course after their exams, they would also start their 4 month long holiday as well.
As for those at the Academies, since they literally lived and had classes within the academies, they only had a month long break (December)... before they resumed school by January 7th.
So in general, everyone's exam period ended by December 2nd leaving them enough time to prepare for Christmas on December 7th.
In future, more stories would be printed and more holidays would be added.
but for now, these holidays would have to do.
The reason Landon put them off for now, was because most of those holidays would fall in Summer.
Holidays like Independence day and labour day, would definitely have to take place in summer.
Heck even his Coronation would be definitely be in summer, since there was no way that he would make a parade during winter.
Hence he decided that he would add more holidays during Spring.
.
All around Baymard, both children and adults were completely fascinated with these books.
"(Sniff sniff)... mummy... daddy.... I love you," said a cute little girl with pigtails.
She held onto the books and cried her eyes out, as she looked at her wonderful parents.
She had just read the mother's day story.. as well as the father's story.
She really felt like she was blessed to have both in her life.
This story made her have a deeper understanding of what her parents had gone through daily for her.
They fed her, clothed her, as well as roofed her... although their living conditions had improved immensely, that didn't mean that she should feel ungrateful towards them.
Only by working hard in school and in life, would she be able to take care of them later on in life.
The stories from these books were really touching.
For Mother's day, the story looked at a young boy who was ungrateful to his mother..
The boy had lost his father, and only had his mother by his side.
This boy didn't appreciate all that his wonderful mother did for him.
He didn't want to study hard in school... he joined bad gangs... did bad things... and even stole money from his hardworking mother just to give his girlfriend.
But to his surprise, the woman took all his money and ran away.
And when he finally realized that he was wrong, his mother who had been sick for several years, suddenly passed away.
But the thing that made the little girl cry.. was that even till the end, the boy's mother kept smiling at him and telling him that he was her greatest treasure of all time.
The story had several moral lessons within it.. and also showed the children what might happen if they kept being ungrateful to their loved ones.
The little girl also secretly vowed to never be that kind of woman who married or got together with someone because of money.
The more the little girl read the stories, the more pain she felt.
Before Baymard had changed, her parents always suffered to get food for the family.
Her dad would go out hunting, and would even return with heavy injuries on his body.
Her mom would clean the house and sew clothes for her and her dad.
And even when there wasn't enough to eat, they would give her all their food and stay hungry.
And finally during winter, they would wrap themselves around her when they slept.
Just remembering the past made her cry even more.
Why did her parents always say that they were fine when they weren't?
Why didn't she notice that they were also suffering more than she did?
And even though she was just a child, shouldn't they tell her... so that she would be able to assist them in whatever they were doing?
Although she had noticed it, she didn't think that it was that bad since they always assured her time and time again, that they were fine.
Truthfully, she was really thankful to his majesty.
Ever since he came, everyone had excess food, good clothes, more money and better homes.
Although she knew that things were better now, she still felt hurt that she didn't realise how much her parents had given up for her.
"Father.... mother... (sniff sniff) .. thank you for taking care of me".
Her parents looked at her and smiled.
"Silly girl... we do this because we love you too." her father said while rubbing her hair.
"My little baby don't cry.... you are very precious to us.. so cheer up okay?" Said her mother as she wiped the little girls tears away.
"I...(sniff).... I ... know... I love you both (sniff sniff).
And I'm not little anymore... .... I'm 10 years old!"
"Hahahhahhahah" her parents laughed.
.
While everyone was getting emotional from reading these stories, Landon continued his birthday plans with the Chef Benita and Chef Blake.
Although he had never cared about his birthday before, he still wanted it to be perfect since all the citizens would attend the celebration.
"Your majesty, I think we can make this happen" chef Benita said.
"Hmmm... Your majesty, we will try to create these new dishes for the celebration." Chef Blake said.
"Good!!! I'm counting on you both."