Chapter 862 The Cold Festival
Chapter 862 The Cold Festival
While the nuns were raining havoc upon the poor necromancer, Gojo was back in his kingdom setting a whole festival. With a single order, he rallied lords and nobles from all the kingdom's lands, persuaded merchants to visit, and even dragged pilgrims and monks into the mix. Hundreds of thousands of people marched across the snow, melting it just by existing as they approached the capital.
The capital's street buzzed with life and the royal guards ran around in panic, doing their best to keep the people in order. The king had made a drastic decision, using his powerful magic, he had emptied half of the royal treasury's gold and dragged it into the training ground of the knights.
Everyone in the castle stared out of their windows in fear as the people of the city stared at the black clouded sky, lightning fell down, rumbling with extreme power and shaking the ground. The sundering fire of the lighting forge crackled with strange magic, putting most blacksmith forges to shame as he called upon great magic. n/o/vel/b//in dot c//om
From the gold and jewels he had taken, Gojo had melded a massive golden throne decorated with jewels and precious stones, dripping with mana and divine magic. With what was left, he called a group of a hundred old gnomes, all masters of their crafts, and gave them one order, to craft a single set of jewelry. Gojo wanted necklaces, rings, wrist and ankle bracelets, earrings, a veil, hair accessories, and everything, all doubled.
As the gnomes worked themselves to death, Gojo took his time as he dragged an army of a thousand men and women, all of whom were called masters of sewing. He didn't care where they came from, what he cared about was their skill. Some of them were war prisoners, criminals, commoners, nobles, and even demons, devils, and monsters.
As they knelt, their heads glued to the ground, Gojo walked before them dragging ten chained mother demon spiders, some were massive spiders and some were taking a humanoid shape. His only order was for them to put their lives on the line to make a set of clothes, the purest of the pure, a white robe of immaculate and legendary craftsmanship, decorate it with gold, silver, and the rarest of jewelry. If he deems it to have a spec of imperfection, he'll skin them alive and make a robe of that instead.
As he left them pouring their life into that, Gojo headed into another location where he gathered over five hundred people, the smartest of the smart, the brightest of the bright. As those elderly and young geniuses looked at him, he provided them with a single image. Their job was to praise, write poems, describe, and knit the most intricate of words, glazing, revering, and crying their eyes and tongues over what he showed them. Every single person who would hear what they wrote, if they didn't think they were some insane and crazy boot-licking worshippers, Gojo would hang them by the tongue to dry in the sun life fish.
On the other side of the castle, alchemists racked their heads trying to develop something they never made in their lives. By the orders of his majesty, they've joined a certain craftsman to make makeup, nail polish, and different paints, some would be used to dye fabric for the clothes, but Gojo had said he rather get silk with a natural white color rather than dye it. But he's willing to let it happen if there isn't any other option.
But, everyone's busy secluded seemed like fun compared to the people stuck in the most important part of the castle for this event, the kitchens. Gojo had riled over five thousand expert cooks, housewives, maids, and servants from all regions of the kingdom and built them a kitchen inside the castle's inner arena.
As thousands of carcasses rolled into the butchering section and knives started raining down, the massive white dragon writhing in pain on the side moaned in agony, Gojo had dragged him here and impaled him on the ground to cool the kitchen. Below each stove was a chained salamander, growling in rage as they couldn't escape and were used to cook food.
This was the primary stage, Gojo had wanted to get one person to rule this hellish kitchen, and so he asked them all to cook. He'll be coming here personally with a certain person to taste the food and decide. The one who wins gets to lead the place.
As Gojo walked between, everyone started shaking, if any of their food proved too bad for him or his companion, heads could roll. In the end, fifteen people were killed as they had poisoned the food, trying to kill him and his companion. Gojo simply cooked them in their own pots and fed them to the white dragon.
In the end, one woman reigned supreme over everyone else, her cooking blew everything else away, and Gojo's companion seemed to love her food. Thus, it was decided, that she stood above everyone else to rule the kitchen.
Gojo wasn't just throwing a festival, but this was probably the most important event for his kingdom, something that might not repeat itself in a thousand years. Everyone here understood that, all the people who knew what Gojo was announcing agreed that this event must be flawless as it was the first impression of the kingdom's most important asset.
Mages from all across the kingdom gathered to show off their spells and also investigate this new anomaly, to them such a thing seemed almost impossible, and they would want to study it if possible. But…all of them knew that such a thing was almost impossible with Gojo around.
The next morning quickly came and all the people of the kingdom gathered to witness it. This is what they were waiting for, a sight that no commoner nor noble had even dreamed of having the chance to lay their eyes up.
A large palanquin carried by a hundred powerful men, fifty on each side marched forth as their footsteps quaked the ground and stopped beside the massive golden throne. They all keeled, and the door opened.
From those massive doors, Gojo walked out, and with a smile on his face, he extended a hand into the palanquin. A small hand with sparkling golden nails held him, and she took a step outside. Lucy, donning everything that Gojo had made. The purest white robe and all the jewellery that he ordered, on her tiny body almost two kilograms of gold rested. With each step, her wrist and ankle bracelets rang like hundreds of tiny bells, releasing a faint whistle into the air.
The people gasped, it was their first time seeing a demi-god up close. This was indeed a pivotal moment in the kingdom's history, allying with a demi-god is sure to bring them a lot of power, hopefully stave off wars, and bless them for the rest of time. Rumors of her portfolio of gluttony quickly spread around, and people started dreaming of an age where they would never go hungry, as long as they prayed to her, filling their bellies shouldn't be a problem.
The wizards and mages stared at Lucy and Gojo as they walked to the golden throne and grunted in skepticism. She was still but a kid, they could indeed sense a powerful divine magic unlike that of paladins rushing from her, but it didn't make sense. Their magic told them she was indeed a demigod, there was no doubting that…but as mages always do…they had something to say.
"She's a demigod, we agree." A wizard said as he looked toward Gojo and Lucy, he started floating and magic sparked around his body. "Your majesty, I would love to congratulate you on this achievement. But, I can't help but wonder…"
Gojo and Lucy stopped walking. She couldn't help but feel nervous. She only saw the portfolio and asked if Gojo could give it to her as a joke, and he threw it at her. He was waiting for it, he planned for everything.
"To that…" Gojo lifted his foot, "I've got one answer to the likes of you." He laid his foot back on the ground and a massive gust of magic exploded out from his body. Both his draconic [Frightful presence] and [Awe presence] burst out, engulfing his entire dominion area.
"You are free to pray to whoever you like. But if you dare insult, question, try to sabotage, or even think of harming her, your only purpose will be to feed the yetis in the mountains." Gojos slowly turned his head, "You've already thought of harming her, don't you?"
With his glowing blue eyes, that wizard and fifteen others disappeared in the blink of an eye. He didn't want to kill them publicly, Lucy doesn't like that. But, those wizards are already dead, crushed inside his stomach and thrown into the yetis to eat.
Gojo walked Lucy all the way to her golden throne where she sat. Ten nuns of the local church of Bela, the goddess of ice and snow rushed toward them. They knelt before Lucy and pulled a large scroll.
"We've asked our goddess, our pale lady of ice. Bela, the silent snow about this matter. And per her word, Lucy here is acknowledged in the pantheon of cold." The nuns looked up, "Several statues of her are already made and being distributed toward all the local churches."
Gojo had asked the nuns to find out about Bela, and they ended up coming to him with a quest. If he were to capture a white dragon who pretended to be her and terrorized the northern lands, she'd endorse Lucy for him.
"With that!" Gojo lifted his fist up, "Bring the food! A feast for the gluttony goddess!"