Chapter 261: Ceremony
Sam doesn't know that Watt is thinking of his needs and is possibly looking for a mate. He entered the divine dimension as soon as he entered the room.
He immediately started working on the panthers. The first thing he has to do is make them consume the fire poison of the scorpion and the wind poison of the spider.
Then he has to use some refining techniques so that the body and the beast cores would become stable.
He doesn't have do all the work himself, he can leave that to Yanwu and Sky who have a great elemental control inherently.
He just has to make sure that the beginning is stable and has no hiccups.
The next day, at the dawn the city is bustling with life and vigour.
All the citizens and nobles are celebrating. Although the war was won a few days ago, the celebration was held on this day because today was the day of the official announcement.
Sam along with his friends attended the ceremony escorted by a Marshall in a special carriage dragged by a Level 6 Horse type beasts. Sam must say that he was flattered.
He didn't expect this level of reception.
They were led to their designated seats.
The ceremony was being held in the imperial palace grounds.
There is a large stage in the ground. The stage has a long horizontal table with seats for Emperor, empress and some important officials.
Below the stage, there are thousands of seats arranged in rows and behind the rows, there are numerous commoners who are here to watch the ceremony.
The seats are divided into two parts. On one side there are invited guests like nobles, merchants, people from the four professional towers and so on the other side there are soldiers, generals and many other people who contributed highly in the war.
There are some people who are related to the deceased and they are arranged to be seated in the same division.
Sam and his friends have first row seat in the second division.
In five minutes, the emperor and the empress arrived onto the stage. Followed by the two Marshalls, the ministers and so on.
All the audience stood up as a show of respect and after that, the ceremony began.
Arc stood spoke to the people after letting them take their seats.
"Today, I am here to announce that the Arian which has been divided into empires due to acts of some foolish rebels has now reunited again. I am proud to announce that the whole western continent is now Arian empire.
Today, we are all here to celebrate this victory and appreciate the efforts of the people who contributed for this to happen…
Soon, the awarding started. Many people have gained merits in the war and are awarded the new lands they conquered. Some were given new noble titles, some were given promotions, some are given medals of honour.
The award ceremony went on for hours and after more than five hours, it is Sam's turn.
That's right. Sam was also being awarded and it is more of a transaction than an award.
This is the last part of the deal Sam made with Arc.
When Sam's name was called, most of them are surprised and bewildered. Only few people knew who Sam was and what type of contribution he made in the war.
He is the reason that the whole Orion collapsed that early. His military training methods, his contribution in destroying the resource points, he even killed the emperor.
Every single one of his contributions can give him a title of War hero but he did all of them.
Sam is wearing his everyday black feather coat and his professional badges are all pinned on his chest.
Emperor stood beside him and spoke to the audience.
"He is Sam. An eighteen-year-old Great realm cultivator. Not many people know him. But he is the biggest contributor in the war.
He destroyed the mines, herb fields and so many resources of the Orion. He is the person who created the training system of our army and he is the person who killed the Emperor of Orion."
His words shocked the whole audience including the ministers who are on the stage.
Only Marshall, some generals and some other soldiers know Sam's involvement. The ministers and even the empress was left out of it because of the possibility of them using politics to disturb the war.
Nobody wants a variable which could influence their position.
So, he didn't reveal anything about Sam or his involvement.
Now, it wouldn't be possible, because Sam's reward is something too eye-catching to give him without any notice or word.
"For all the outstanding contributions Sam has made, I am rewarding him with a city and that is the former imperial capital of Orion empire.
From now on that city will be called Sam's city.
By awarding the city, I don't mean to make him the city lord. The city is literally his.
Including all the lands and the properties. Everything with in the walls of the capital now belongs to Sam."
His words completely silenced the uproar of the people. They were completely stunned.
Some ministers stood up from their seats and are about to say something, but one glare from the emperor they sat back down as if it was an instinct.
Sam took the scroll which is the deed for his city, while Arc slipped something into Sam's hands and went back to his seat.
This is his deal. This is the part of the transaction he made with Ark.
The whole imperial capital.
This city would be the base he is going to build and the same time, his new cash machine. He would be the highest tax payer of the empire based on this place.
The ceremony ended and everything was done. He came to his house and got ready to leave the capital, but before that he has to visit the professional towers to discuss about some construction project.
He has to redo the whole thing in the imperial capital for his purpose and also discuss some deals which they could possibly cooperate together.
But even before he could go and discuss someone came to his home and that guy is an attendant from the Artisan tower.
He didn't know what this is about, but he has to go no matter what.
That evening he visited the Artisan tower. The attendant who invited him was already waiting for him at the entrance and escorted him to a meeting room and he was surprised to see the line-up.
There are more than twenty people inside the room all sat and the thing is recognized more than half of them. Because they are from the Orion. The tower head of the imperial capital tower and some main staff are here, then head of the southern star tower and he even saw Chaya here.
He didn't know what is happening, but he sure as hell know that it is something big.
He sat at his designated seat and a middle-aged man who sat at one end of the long table stood up and said.
"Artisan Sam, I am the head of the tower head of Arian.
Since, the Orion empire was no more, there is a need to restructure the whole network and we are here to discuss things regarding that. Since, you are an artisan with same rank as us and also a neutral party, I hope you will be giving your opinion regarding this issue without any bias."
When Sam heard this, he was surprised. He didn't think that he can have this much say in the Artisan tower's issues.
He thought for a moment and said.
"I wouldn't interfere in the opinion of the higher-level members of the imperial capital tower. As for the tower heads of the dukedoms of former Orion, I have some impressions on their workings.
If you show me the details of the person who is the current tower heads of the dukedoms and their counter parts who are vying for that seat, I can give you my opinion on the matter as third party.
Apart from that, I think it is not appropriate for me to be the deciding factor as the person who is not involved in the workings of the Artisan association."
The Artisans went into a deep thought at these words and felt that it made more sense. They cannot just let an outsider decide their positions, but taking the opinion of the outsider into account while considering their positions is certainly a more acceptable alternative.
And soon the screening began. To his surprise, there are more artisans who are qualified to be tower heads of various levels in Arian that he imagined.
In contrast, Orion severely lacked these many artisans.
The screening seemed to be going to take forever. The data is just like a bunch of resumes, with their trades, character traits, personal information, their speciality, there is even a bunch of information on the amount of income they brought to the tower.
He unexpectedly stumbled on this now and he has to deal with this long meeting which go on for who knows how long.
But he has to do so, because he just thought of something after looking at the number of artisans that are going to be removed of some real authority within the association. They could still be within the tower, but they were stripped of their titles and are now just some normal elders or so in towers, if he can use them, his plan to gain wealth would be a great success and can also save him a lot of man power.