Birthday is the day when a person is born. Modern people basically celebrate their birthday every year. Even if they don’t, they can still hear happy birthday from relatives and friends.

But in this ancient era where Aila lives, not everyone can celebrate their birthdays. Commoners and slaves don’t even know when they were born.They don’t celebrate their own birthdays every year, they don’t have that habit, they only celebrate in special years, like Lucis, when he was still a prince, he only held a birthday party when he was ten years old,After ascending the throne, he also celebrates his birthday every five or ten days.

This year happens to be the twenty-fifth birthday of Lucis, and it is also the tenth year since he ascended the throne, and because Lucis never holds a coronation ceremony, this birthday is not only a celebration of his birthday, but also a celebration of his ascension to the throneThe tenth anniversary.

And a powerful country like Sathia mainly celebrates its birthday, not to mention that other countries on the African continent will send envoys to give gifts, even those island countries on the sea, and even the mainland of Mio will have people visiting, which can be said to be unprecedented.

And it is less than a week before this day, whether as a lover or a guest, Ella should give Lucis a gift.

Of course, Ella didn't think about what to prepare until now. In fact, she started to prepare when she knew when Lucis' birthday was, and she just waited for the time to send it out.

As a result, her gift hadn't been delivered yet, but Lucis sent a big surprise first.

Lucis, who finally finished the recent backlog, invited Ella to visit the Royal Menagerie.

"That's very strange. How could you even think of going there? To see Semet?"

Ella raised her hand and asked the maid to help her put the translucent outer shirt on her upper body. The long outer shirt imitating the modern sun protection shirt is long to the calf, which can cover the exposed arms of the long suspender skirt and barely play the role of sun protection. The beltA tie will not affect the activities, it is more suitable for activities in the palace.

Speaking of which, she hadn't seen Mr. Lion for a while.

"Semet became a father again recently." Although he doesn't care much about his lion, Lucis still has a good understanding of its current situation.

"But we're not here to see it this time."

Ella became even more curious: "What are you going to do?" It can't be to see Mrs. Snake, right?

Other than that, she didn't think there was anything else in the zoo that Lucis should invite her to.

Rousses didn't say, "You'll find out when the time comes."

"All right."

Ela held her hand, and Lucis took her hand naturally, holding her in his arms, and the two led a group of people to the zoo.

The beast garden is far away from their bedroom, and it is located in a relatively remote corner of the palace. It takes a lot of time to walk there, but neither Lucis nor Ayla like to sit in a sedan chair in the palace, and they don't hate walking, so just treat it asIt's a walk.

On the way, Ella was still guessing what Lucis wanted to take her to see. If she wanted to go to the zoo, it should be to see animals.

"Did the recent missions send any special animals?"

Ella could only think of that.

Lucis smiled: "Yes, smart girl, if you keep guessing like this, the surprise will be gone."

Among the tributes sent by foreign envoys, many are rare items that Sathya does not have. Among them, animals also account for a large part. Many animals in the palace animal garden and bird garden come from here, including thoseThis is how parrots came to Sathya in the first place.

Ella stopped guessing what Lucis's surprise was, and obediently waited for the answer to be revealed.

But first they got to see Semet and his new babies.

Semet's lions occupy the largest space in the zoo, where tall acacia trees are planted in the shape of a grassland, and there is a large rock in the shadow under the tree. The mighty and domineering Mr. Lion KingHe was lying on it and yawning lazily, surrounded by a group of lionesses who were also napping, and on their bodies, a few energetic furry were crawling around.

These little guys are the descendants of Semet. They are well raised and taken good care of. They look chubby like walking furballs.

Ella really wanted to stop and pet the little lion cub, but the lion cub's parents were all sleeping, and she couldn't bother her, so she could only bid farewell to them with regret and continue walking with Lucis.

In addition to the lions in the zoo, there are many animals that are common in Faroe Islands. Ella looked at them one by one, and finally saw Lucis's so-called surprise.

That's a few horses.

Different from the breeds of horses bred by modern selection, these horses are closer to modern wild horses. At first glance, they look like donkeys, but they are taller and larger, and their heads and ears are very different from donkeys.

"You mentioned horses before. I asked people to find them, and finally found them deep in the eastern grasslands."

And that piece of grassland does not belong to any country. There are several tribes living on the grassland.Sith wrote a letter to the lord of the dependent country, exchanging all the tributes they were going to send this year with horses.

This country itself is not rich, but it needs to pay a large amount of tribute to Sathya every year for protection. Now Sathya is willing to use a group of horses instead of tribute. When the small country hears that there is such a good thing, there is no way it will not agree.Immediately sent soldiers to the grassland to capture hundreds of wild horses, and sent them to Sathia before Lucis' birthday.

The horses in front of Ella were just a few of the one hundred horses. The rest of the horses were sent to the ranch when they arrived in Boiman.sent to the palace.

Although people on the continent of Feiluo have not domesticated horses, they have already domesticated donkeys, so after seeing horses that resemble donkeys, they naturally know how to domesticate them.

The horses led to them by the attendants were not so beautiful compared with modern horses. Their necks and limbs were thicker, their manes were short and straight like a row of brushes, and their coat colors were more messy.The face is tan, the mouth and abdomen are white, and the four legs are black. It looks very similar to the modern existing wild horses.

But their eyes are equally beautiful.

Ella stroked the head of the horse closest to her with her hand, and the latter let her stroke it docilely. Although they were wild horses, they behaved very docilely after being tamed, and they were not very resistant to human contact.

The horse that Ella caressed was a docile mare, not very old. Ella fed the mare with the fruit she got from the attendant next to her. Coupled with language communication, this beautiful little mare was happyHe promised to run with her on his back.

Seeing her grabbing the reins and trying to get on the horse, Lucis quickly stepped forward to stop her: "I can't ride yet."

No matter how tame these horses look now, they are still wild horses that have not been trained. They have not adapted to running with humans on their backs, and accidents are likely to happen if they ride horses now.

And there wasn't enough room in the menagerie for her to run around on horseback.

Ella can ride a horse. She lives in the depths of the fairy forest. When she wants to leave the forest to go to nearby villages and towns, she always rides a horse. So her riding skills are actually very good. This is why she prepared directly without thinking about it.The reason for the horse.

But when she was about to step up, she knew that her behavior was wrong, not only because of what Lucis was worried about, but also because the skirt she was wearing was not suitable for riding a horse.

"Well, beautiful girl, it seems that we can only run together next time."

Ella decided to order a few sets of riding clothes later, and then a set of harness. The danger of riding a horse without harness is much higher, even if she can ride a horse, she has to be careful.

Reluctantly bid farewell to the little mare, Ella passed by the living area of the lions on the way back. The daytime is not their activity time. The lions in captivity live a relaxed life and do not need to worry about predation.Most of the day is spent in sleep.

And they don't have to worry about the safety of their cubs when they sleep, they can't leave this area anyway.

But this time when Ella and the others passed by, Semet just woke up for a while, and looked towards them drowsily.

When seeing them, the big lion yawned a lot, then threw off the child, walked out from his group of wives, trotted slowly to the bottom where there was a stone building, and the top was two metersLooking at them through the cracks in the wooden fence above the stone wall beside the fence of the tall hardwood fence building.

"Hi, Ella, I heard that you left the palace to go somewhere else?"

The big lion is very tall, almost 1.5 meters when squatting. Ella only needs to lower her head slightly to look at it: "Yes, we just came back."

"Then it's just in time for you to come back." The big lion flicked its tail, and the end of the tail like a furball was like a cat teaser, attracting its cubs, and soon they gathered around, and imitated the movement of predation behind the big lion.Bite its tail.

The big lion turned his head to look at his cubs, and turned to Ella in an impatient tone: "Do you want cubs, I'll give them to you."

It sounded like a joke, but its tone was very serious, and Ella was stunned for a moment.

When she used to watch the animal world, she knew that lions were impatient with their cubs, but she never thought that they would be so impatient that they wanted to give them away.

Ella said helplessly: "You want to give them to me? Are you sure their mother will allow you to do this?"

Speaking of his savage wives, the great lion's impatience languished at once.

"Well, you're right, if they know, they'll have to fight me."

Male lions are not afraid of their hens, but it is not necessary that they do not want to conflict with them.

After dispelling the idea of giving away the cubs, the big lion did not give up. It was really annoyed by these cubs.

"Then you take them away and send them back in a few days." At least let it be quiet for a few days.

Ella rejected the lion's unwise request again: "That's not okay, the lionesses will be angry."

These cubs are not even full moon. Such a young age is when the mother's love is the strongest. If you take them away from the lioness, these lionesses will definitely riot.

It is also because they are too young, even if the big lion is impatient, he dare not be too rough with them, otherwise it will hurt the child, and it will be the one who gets beaten.

Just like now, don't look at the cubs following it, the lionesses are still staying in place, in fact, the mothers of these cubs are staring at this side with half-closed eyes.

Ella can guarantee that if she dares to hug the cubs, these lionesses will rush over immediately.

"Well, it looks like I'll have to endure it for a while longer."

When the cub is a little older, it won't have to be so restrained.

Aila watched as it whipped the lion cubs with its tail. Although the strength was not strong, it made the cubs howl, a little worried that the rough father would accidentally hurt them.

So she said: "Although I can't take them away, you can leave."

Anyway, the main function of the male lion in the lion group is to patrol the territory and mark the territory to deter other animals, but this is not needed in the zoo, so the use of the big lion to the lion group is basically nothing other than providing the genes of the offspringSo it leaves at this time, maybe the lionesses will be happy that the object that may be dangerous to the children is not there.

When Semet heard the words, a pair of animal pupils lit up: "You are right, why didn't I think of that."

"Hey, Ella, tell Lucis to let me out of here, even if I live in another place."

In order for the lions to live well, the area they live in is actually very large, and it takes half an hour to walk around at a normal speed. Although this area is actually a bit small for the real wild lions.

Lucis deduced from the big lion's eyes on himself, and Ella's words: "It wants to figure it out?"

Ella spread her hands: "Well, or give it another place to live."

Lucis's answer is of course, the missions have visited recently, and he will start to meet these missions after completing the work. He needs to bring Semet with him to support the scene, but now it's just a little earlier.

Lucis asked the steward in charge of the zoo to open the door of the lion park and let Semet come out. At the same time, he ordered them to prepare a temporary residence for the big lion. These days, after receiving the mission every day, the big lion was sent toTemporary shelter for rest.

As soon as the door opened, the big lion Semet couldn't wait to shake off a group of cubs, walked out of the lion park, and walked to Lucis's side obediently, and the lioness in the lion park took a look at him and got up indifferentlyOff to pick up the pups.

·····

Lucis's birthday this year coincides with his tenth year in office, which is an extremely important event for the entire Sathya.

In the past, on the king’s birthday, not only would a grand celebration banquet be held in the palace, but the entire capital would also hold a celebration. Everyone in the capital, whether they were slaves, commoners or nobles, could participate., There is also a banquet prepared for everyone outside the palace, and everyone can participate in it.

And on this day, the king will also reduce part of the labor of the people, and at the same time pardon the prisoners in the royal prison-of course, those who are pardoned are prisoners with minor crimes, and those who have committed serious mistakes are generally beheaded directly after the sentenceOr become slaves and be sent to work elsewhere, such amnesties do not include them.

So this is a day of universal celebration. For the entire country, the king's birthday can even be said to be a very important festival, and the royal banquet on this day cannot tolerate a single mistake.

If Lucis had a wife, then the queen would be in charge of the banquet, but now Lucis and Ella are not married, so the palace master will be in charge of the banquet.

The palace manager Wadiye originally planned to bring Ella with him when preparing the banquet, mainly to let her familiarize herself with the steps so that she could take over these things in the future.

If Ella wants to be with Lucis all the time, these things must be learned, so she didn't refuse, but they just started, and a malaria outbreak happened, and she left with LucisKaman, so in the end it was Wadiye who was in charge.

But Ella was not really uninvolved, at least Najid showed her the menu of the banquet that night, and she also made a lot of comments.

So the day before the birthday party, Ella was invited by Najdo to the kitchen to help them see if the preparations were all right.

Everyone in the kitchen also tried their best this time to prepare the most surprising birthday banquet for His Majesty the King. All kinds of fresh ingredients were piled up on the cooking table. They had already started preparing for it a few days ago.The dishes on the day of the banquet, because some dishes take a long time to cook, and the work on the kitchen side today is mainly to try out the dishes for the banquet to ensure that there will be no mistakes when making the next day.

Ella was invited into the kitchen to help with the tasting.

Najido’s cooking skills are already very good. Since he and Ella learned a lot of new cooking methods, his cooking skills have improved by leaps and bounds. With his full exertion, the food he made is more Sardiyah in taste.The tastes he likes are also impeccable. Ella may not like them, but it cannot be said that they are not well made. He gave him thumbs up from beginning to end.

And the highlight of the banquet dishes is the birthday cake prepared by the bakers.

Since the bakers learned how to make cakes, this kind of food quickly occupied the table of the nobles and became their new favorite. Nowadays, all kinds of cakes are indispensable on the tables of the nobles, and some fanatics even use cakes directlyInstead of bread as a staple food.

And this banquet needs to prepare a particularly huge birthday cake. The shape of the cake was drawn by Ella herself and the materials used for each item were determined. The bakers tried to make a small cake before, and the final result was not onlyThe style is good-looking and the taste is also very good. This time, we will make a larger finished product according to this style. However, in order to ensure the freshness of the cake, they did not start preparing the cake today but are processing various materials that will be used tomorrow.It took time for the project, so Ella didn't taste the cake, but she watched the progress of the bakers and looked forward to the noodle's birthday cake.

When trying the dishes, Najido thought of one thing: "Your Highness, shouldn't the batch of beer that you asked someone to make earlier should be delivered? If it is later, I'm afraid I won't have time to deliver it."

Ella asked a businessman to buy a large amount of hops to make beer. Because of the huge amount, she handed over this batch of beer to the royal brewery for production.

In fact, the royal brewery has always been only responsible for making wine, because the beer that the Sathyas drink is a semi-liquid drink made from bread, which is easy to make and cannot be stored, so the beer has always been made by bakers.

But the beer that Ella asked them to make was made from malt and hops, which required some craftsmanship, as well as enough space and materials, so she handed over the matter to the brewery.

It was also the first time for the people in the brewery to make this kind of beer. They used up the batch of hops strictly according to the recipe given by Ella, and made a large batch of beer. Although some of them were brewed badly, most of them were successful.

After confirming the success, Ella asked the brewery to keep it a secret. She planned to use this batch of beer as a drink for Lucis's birthday party, which was a small surprise.

The reason why Naguido knew it was because some of his relatives worked in the brewery, and he was specially asked to help when making beer. From the perspective of the people in the brewery, the brewing formula given to them by Her Royal Highness containedPart of it needs to be cooked. In order to do the best, and they have a relationship, of course they invited Najib, who is the best cook.

And Najido is also a drinker. He not only agreed to help, but also followed the progress of the beer. After knowing that the beer was brewed, he had the cheek to ask Ella for some tasting.It is to go to the brewery to buy some beer after His Majesty's birthday banquet is over.

After the first batch of beer was brewed, the people in the brewery also started to buy hops for brewing after seeking Ella’s consent. They had a wider road than Ella, and they could find a larger fleet of merchants to help them buy them.The hops, plus Ella transferred the hops purchase contract she made with the businessman Hafre to the winery - the condition is that as long as the quality of the hops sent by Hafre is qualified, the winery needs to followThe price in the contract was purchased, and the price cannot be lowered—the gap in the middle was filled. During the days when Ella left, they brewed a new batch of beer. After the birthday party, the brewery can start selling this batchBeer, and Ella, who provided the recipe, could have gotten a large share, but she deliberately lowered her share to ask the brewery to keep the price of beer as low as possible when selling beer.

Although it is not a good thing to drink frequently, it does not seem to be a bad thing if civilians can have a taste once in a while.

When she mentioned it, Ella remembered that she had forgotten about it.

Counting the time now, maybe the third batch of beer is coming out soon.

She thanked Najido: "I forgot in a hurry, thank you for reminding Najido, I will send someone to send a letter to the winery and ask them to deliver the wine."

Najido said with a smile: "The winery has been ready for a long time, but you haven't seen you to inform them. They are worried that there is something wrong. They came to me to inquire about the news. Now they are at the warehouse. I let youJust go and tell them."

People from the winery will regularly send wine to the palace, and the warehouse will receive it. Today they are here to deliver wine for tomorrow's banquet.

Ella nodded: "Then I will trouble you."