"What in the northern plaza?" Riya couldn't help but ask.
"The northern plaza is a place where every day free food is given to the homeless and poor people. The homeless people would receive two meals each day." Aditya certainly didn't want to see the people of his own Empire getting sold as slaves. Although it is impossible for him to ban slave trading, he can at least try helping out the homeless people by providing them with two meals each day.
Especially during the months of winter, it is impossible for the homeless to survive without any food. With the huge amount that the Istarin Empire currently has in stock all thanks to Riya's help, it wouldn't hurt to feed the homeless ones.
"That's good." In The Celestial Terrain Empire, no elf would ever die of starvation. Not even the prisoners would die of hunger. Riya has never seen or heard of anyone in her Empire dying because of hunger.
"Milady, there is something that I wished to show you at the northern plaza."
"Alright."
"Milady, let's take a carriage to the northern plaza. Walking there would take more than two hours."
Under Aditya's guidance, the roads have been reconstructed. The roads were widened so that both carriages and people can move and walk without crowding the roads. Trees were planted on both sides of the roads. Soldiers were assigned to keep regularly clean the snow off the road.
After a short walk, in exchange for 5 silver coins, the carriage driver agreed to take them to the northern plaza. The carriage was very simple. Aditya and Riya sat at the back. The carriage was pulled by a horse.
"Are you guys new here?" Asked the carriage driver who was a 26 years old man with brown skin and blond hair.
"I live in this city but this is my lady's first time here." The carriage driver nodded his head. He couldn't understand why would both of them cover their faces. Whether they wore masks or not, it wasn't his problem. So he decided to not ask anything about it.
"How much do you earn per day?" Aditya asked. In times like this, Aditya would be able to learn of the progress that the people have made under his rule. He would have a better idea of how the people of this city currently lived. He would be able to know if his citizens are satisfied.
Before this kind of carriage service didn't even exist in the capital. But now things were progressing so fast. Seeing the changes within the city, Aditya couldn't help but feel proud of himself. He also realized which areas of the city needed to be improved.
"I earn somewhere around 100 silver coins per day." The carriage driver replied. With the ever-growing increase in population, it wasn't hard to find customers for carriage drivers.
"Is it enough?"
"Haha! It's more than enough. Even if I were to earn 25 silver coins per day then also I would be satisfied. With cheap food prices, I won't have to spend too much money on food. My children can get basic education at a very cheap price. And as a citizen of this city, I am enjoying many kinds of benefits that his Majesty has provided us." Hearing this, a small smile appeared on his face. Unfortunately, no one saw that smile as his face was hidden under a mask.
"What kind of life did you have 6 months ago?" Riya couldn't help but ask out. She knew the condition of the entire Istarin Empire was really bad. Especially the capital was on the brink of dying.
"I used to live in a small village which is located 13 km to the northeast of the capital. Every month I used to come to the capital to sell the goods that my family had grown. But thanks to his Majesty, the condition of our whole family became better. My big brother is a soldier. Because of him, we easily got a place to settle down within the capital."
"I decided to become a carriage driver."
It took them 15 to 20 minutes to reach the northern plaza. After getting out of the carriage, Aditya held Riya's hand. He held the paper oil umbrella with his other hand.
"This place is beautiful." The northern plaza was built around a giant Banyan tree that was almost 100 meters tall. The northern plaza was built with the giant Banyan tree at its center. The 400 meters radius around the giant Banyan tree was surrounded by a 2-meter-thick ring of water. But right now the water ring around the Banyan tree was frozen due.
The giant Banyan tree was covered in white snow making it look like a giant white monster from a far distance. The green grasses around the Banyan tree were also covered in snow. This was the place where the homeless people were served food every single day.
"I don't understand. Usually, these kinds of big trees would be cut down to make more space." Riya was no longer in her character. She didn't even realize it.
"Actually Watson and I decided to keep his tree growing. We wanted to add a little bit of greenery to the city. When the snow stops falling, this tree can be seen from a very far distance."
"What did you want to show me?" Riya asked.
"Something very interesting." Aditya took her hand and began walking behind the Banyan tree. Behind the giant Banyan tree, there was an area that was restricted to normal people. Only Aditya and people with permission can enter this place.
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"What is this place?" 400 meters beyond the giant Banyan tree, an area of more than 2500 meters was separated from the rest of the city by 3 meters tall thick wooden walls. The whole place was guarded. There were even big writings on the walls which states that the public is not allowed to enter.
"Let's go inside." Aditya removed the mask as there was no need to hide his identity there.
Following Aditya, Riya also removed the mask that she wore to cover her face. As Aditya approached the gate, the guards recognized his face. They quickly opened the gate to allow their King to pass.
While passing the guards, Aditya nodded his head at them to show his appreciation for their hard work. Seeing this the guard's eyes lit up in excitement.
As Riya stepped inside, she widened her eyes seeing hundreds of crystal domes. Various kinds of plants were planted in those crystal domes. "Aditya, what is this? Don't tell me you used crystals to build those things?" Crystals were very expensive. Even the lowest grade of crystal with the least transparency will very costly. And Riya was able to see through the crystal domes. This meant that these domes were built from crystals of the highest transparency which must have cost him a huge amount of money.
"These things are not crystals. They are called glasses. Glass is similar to crystals but they are more transparent and can easily be produced."
"Glass?" Riya curiously walked near one of the greenhouse domes. Touching the glass, she widened her eyes.
'This glass indeed does feel very different from crystal.' Riya inwardly thought.
As if knowing what Riya was thinking, Aditya explained. "You see before winter came, I knew that the Istarin Empire would face a food problem. I wanted to grow food even in winter. So I came up with this idea. These glasses domes will keep the snow away and will also trap the heat of the sunlight which would allow plants to grow."
"The glass can be made from sand." Looking around, Riya realized the whole place had hundreds of dome greenhouses. Many different kinds of crops were grown here.
"But unexpectedly you come and helped us with the food problem."
"Why you didn't tell me about this?" Riya felt a little annoyed at the fact that Aditya kept such a secret from her.
"Most of the time you were working at the farming land; accelerating the growth of the crops. I didn't get a chance to show you this." When Riya would return to the Dragon Palace, she would be very tired from exhausting all of her mana. These 2 and half months, Riya didn't even come to Azure city which was a few kilometers away from the Dragon palace. She, Julia, and Alicia, all were busy with their own work.
"Actually in the future, I am planning on selling glass." Glass would replace expensive crystals making glass one of the most sought products in the market. All the profits generated would straight come into Aditya's pocket. Not only that, he can scale up his business using the wide range of business networks that Alicia had. In a few months, it would be even possible for Aditya to send glasses to various continents. When that happens, the Istarin empire would become insanely rich.
The glass would especially become popularly become noble. As rich people are always attracted to shiny objects. Crystals which were a replacement for glass in this world were only used by nobles as the crystals were very expensive. But the cheap availability of glass would make it a product that can be afforded even by the commoners.
For the next two hours, Aditya showed Riya everything. After two hours, the goddess of nature felt satisfied and had seen everything in this place. Aditya and Riya decided to leave and have lunch somewhere. For the rest of the day, Aditya kept showing Riya various famous parts of the capitals. Before dinner, both of them returned home. Riya was very satisfied with today's date and Aditya got to see how the capital was developing.
Today was a very exciting day for both of them.
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But for some people today was full of bitterness. One of those people was Alicia. After learning that Aditya has taken Riya on a date, the goddess of wealth was angry. She also wanted to go out with him. In these two and half months, other than having breakfast, lunch, and dinner together, both of them very rarely met. Both were very busy with their work.
"Why I am being left behind?" Alicia didn't look least happy about the whole situation.
"Calm down, will you? You can ask him to take you out in the future." In these two and half months, Julia has drastically transformed. Although her appearance didn't change, something else changed about her. Julia now looked more feminine. Before she lacked the womanly charm and had a trace of a childish Aura around her. But now Julia had the Aura of a mature gentle woman. Her charm had increased to a frightening level after she started sleeping with Aditya every night. In many ways, the goddess of alchemy has matured a lot.
"Do you think it's that easy?" The goddess was too embarrassed to ask Aditya to take her out.
"Alright. Now calm down. I will help you out." Julia gently patted Alicia's head with a kind and warm smile. These days, Alicia started to feel as if Julia had become her mother. Especially the change in her Aura made her feel that. Now Julia very rarely lost her calmness. She was very gentle and warm to everyone in the Dragon palace. Everyone in the palace loved her kindness.
Alicia moved Julia's right hand away from her head. "Stop acting like my mother."
"Not mother, I am your big sister." Before it was very easy to tease Julia. But now the whole situation has been reserved. Now Alicia is constantly teased by Julia. Julia didn't even do anything to tease her. It is just that being around Julia, Alicia cannot maintain her usual calmness.
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