The entire kingdom was awash with activity. Everyone now knew about the upcoming celebrations. The victory was going to be commemorated memorably.
Set to span five intense days, the festivities and the celebration would be commemorated in each city. However, the main celebrations would be held in the Inner sanctum of Tristan.
You have to understand something about the Inner Sanctum. This was not just someplace you could waltz in whenever. It was the heart of Tristan City and surrounded by 8 different walls.
Up till now, not even the wealthy could enter freely. Only those with sufficient status. It could be said that after the expansion of the city, the Inner Sanctum became like an extension of the palace.
A few families had their manor there as well, but all these were descendants of the founding fathers of Tristan. The first generation to set up a wall around the city, although back then it was just a fortress. Would they have imagined it would become a Kingdom that encompassed the entire continent, or at least the parts that were known and explored?
Lady Maara placed her hand on her chest and let her tears flow freely. She was standing on the very deck, right where her father died.
Of late, she had come to treat it like a shrine, visiting there every day. She had no remains to bury him, and she still had not had a chance to set up a memorial for him. This was the reason she had broken down in tears.
As she regretted her decision to come here alone, she signaled the men who were standing by to proceed. Her father was one of the few kings to die in the line of duty, and she had to honor that. It sounded odd but kings hardly give their life for their kingdom.
She hoped the sculptures would get it right. As Queen, Lady Maara still had an awful lot to do before the big festivities. Oddly enough, she came alive in a party just as much as she did in a fight, she had her grandaunt to blame for that.
Raised to be a Princess and a Queen, Lady Maara was well-versed in all manner of pleasantries and entertaining of guests. Just as she was supremely regal as an individual, so did the palace.
The good thing was, her staff were also just as dedicated. They knew what was at stake, and they outdid their best.
Their city had been the crown jewel of the continent for the longest time. However, due to the balance of power among the 9, none had made a move on the other.
Now they got to be a part of something as big as the coming together of cities to form a Kingdom. The first in the continent. They understood their Queen and her almost pathological need for perfection. They could not afford to be anything less than.
While every city would get to celebrate the festivities, the main event would be in Tristan. This is where the top people, the shot callers, and the movers and shakers in each city would congregate. This is where the Cities would jointly become a Kingdom officially in the eyes of the people.
To make this happen, and to facilitate movement across cities, airports were being constructed in every city. With every rich person rushing to own an airship, there was no shortage of demand for it, although by now, only the monarchs could get one.
Herein lay the problem. When Barda invented the airships, he did not claim ownership of the designs, which meant that others could replicate it. Moreover, Barda was only responsible for making the capsules, several other ship designers had added their input on the ship design.
That being said, only Barda could make the best capsule. So far, no one had been able to replicate Barda's feat of processing fossil fuels. Many had tried but ended up dying fiery deaths.
There were several ways Barda could go about this. He could consult with Lady Ellen and had the refinery over to the Dark Flames Adventurer Team. After all, he was under the team when he brought these things.
The other option was to join the several shipping companies offering him amazing benefits for coming in with them in business. He could also choose to go in alone, design, and develop his line of ships.
All these were amazing alternatives but Barda did not choose either. The latter, going in alone, was quite tempting, but he disregarded it either way.
His only real choice was to partner up with Tristan. Why? Firstly, the war was still not over, and the airships were a strategic advantage.
Right now, they had 2 military advantages to the ship: the novelty of the idea and the durability of the capsules. The novelty of the idea had already run its cause. Others would be creating similar ships in no time. That only left the durability of the capsule.
No one on the planet could make Kevlar apart from Barda. Originally, Kevlar was designed to substitute the usage of fossil fuels in making tires. Barda felt like he was cheating by treating fossil fuels as a collection of chemical elements but that was what they were.
That being said, Barda no longer personally made the kevlar. After he made the refinery and the steel processing plant, most of these processes were automatic. How else would he have produced capsules for thousands of ships as well as the bodysuits for the millions of soldiers?
The refinery was fool-proof. It was built in such a way that the operators only needed to switch on the refinery and feed the crude oil at the main intake. They would then wait for the finished products on the other end. The Kevlar fabric, the refined fuels and gas, and other chemicals Barda wished to extract.
The only real value for Tristanites was the Kevlar and the gas to power the ships. Therefore, Barda had everything else piped to an underground storage tank he had made.
This was his second reason for choosing to work with Tristan. He had already set up everything. It could be seen as an act of Good Will on his part. Give them some tech, snatch their Queen. Not a bad deal.
Presently, Barda stopped his daydreaming and focused on the people he had in front of him. He was in a conference hall seated at the lead table.
Sharing his seat was Lord Abu to the right and General Morio to the left. This signified his position in the military, as the Lord Commander. The ones beside him managed the 2 main fighting units, the warriors and the mages.
Opposite the table was where the seats of the audience lay. The table was slightly elevated since the hall was flat, making the high table seem like a dais.
There were 25 officers seated in the audience seats, the most notable among them being Commander Caterina and Commander Manga. There were also several mages present, including Lord Althalos. This outspoken mage Barda had met had proven to be quite resourceful, although he was more like Lord Abu's attack dog.
Commander Greer was not present. Though he had recovered from the mental attack, he was still very shaken and not in a condition for such a high-level meeting.
For many gathered, such as Commander Manga, this was the first time seeing Lord Barda up close. They had heard rumors of his appearance and the like, but seeing him now, he had to admit he had a bit of a man-crush.
Why wouldn't he? Be it airships, guns, or armor, everything that made Manga's life awesome so far could be traced back to this man. His inventions had redefined his reality.
As a young man, he was just the right age to appreciate this kind of technology. He loved them all, and the man created all this was right in front of them. He wondered what new invention would come tumbling down.
This was a meeting to determine the next steps as a military. Everyone gathered here hailed from different cities previously, but they were all gathered as Tristanites.
The war may have come to a pause and Tristan may have the higher hand, but before they could go gallivanting across the sea to the other continent, they had to stabilize their Kingdom first.
Logically speaking, the entire known continent was part of Tristan, but many places were independent, whereas many others were run by bandits and warlords. The Kingdom was just forming, there was a lot more to be done.
"Now that we are all gathered, let's start the meeting!" Barda said.