Civilization Chronicles: Rise of the Divine Creator

As for the worker who was responsible for this whole mess, Christina scolded her, docked some of her pay, then gave her a big bonus for inventing something new, all in line with her management policies of strictly adhering to the rules but also rewarding innovations and discoveries.

Needless to say, the young girl was very, very confused by the end of it all, wondering if she had done something wrong, something right, or some combination of both.

A more refined method for naturally carbonating drinks was worked out in the food lab over the next few months, with several different flavours soon becoming standard.

The abundance of Maple Sugar available to Christina from the recent winter harvest also made it cheap and easy to sweeten the fizzy concoctions while also ensuring that all of them were at minimum Peak-Rank Mortal Grade Tier 1 beverages.

Due to them being fermented drinks, all of the new sodas had a small amount of alcohol in them as well, but the content was so low it was barely even noticeable and could be further diluted by simply adding regular juice before serving, so Tina wasn’t concerned about serving it to kids, who, by the way, almost universally went crazy for it after the first sip.

Again, Lucas warned his Junior Sister not to let people drink too much of this, as it was quite bad for your health to do so, but that didn’t stop Christina from thinking of it as a unique treat which could be served on special occasions, like her 16th birthday.

At the massive bar, set up to serve drinks for the party, soda was actually even more popular than wine or distilled spirits. The bitterness of alcohol was something of an acquired taste, but the sweetness of sugar?

A popular option was actually to mix a bit of carbonated soda with different kinds of hard alcohols, essentially getting the best of both worlds. There were, of course, purists on both sides who felt that mixing the two drinks was sacrilege, but the ’cocktails’, as Lucas dubbed them, were still a huge hit with most.

The first part of the banquet program was even re-named by the Manor’s staff from ’appetizers’ to ’appetizers and cocktails’. That was now big a deal the new drinks were.

.....

"TIIINAA!!! You have to tell me where you got your dress!" Brynn Campbell, who was back in Misty City as a representative of her family, practically threw herself onto her friend as soon as she was able to make her way through the crowd.

Audrey, who was also back, had acted a bit more restrained, but not by much.

Even Olivia, who was usually the very picture of a calm, composed noble daughter, had a fiery glow in her eyes as she hovered nearby, obviously also interested in this critical piece of information.

All the girls from the Balfour Family, Danika Emerson who was still staying as a guest in the Manor, Becky and the orphan girls from around Misty City, and even some of the older generation women who were closer to Christina were all surrounding her, begging her to tell them just who the genius behind her outfit was.

Eris, having been advised by her Senior Brother, was sticking together with Celestina, so she wasn’t being hounded as directly, but even with the Marquess standing next to her, several brave souls still wandered up to her to ask about her dress.

As for Celestina herself, she had to deal with all the thinly veiled probes from the adults and masters, both male and female.

The three women were flattered about all the attention at first, but after a while, it started getting a bit annoying, especially when they saw the true culprit behind their current plight laughing and relaxing with his usual crowd of eccentric inventors, craftsmen, and researchers.

Lucas, having anticipated this problem already, had made Celestina, Christina, and Eris all promise they wouldn’t reveal where they had gotten their dresses from until the end of the evening.

At the time, Lucas had framed it as building suspense for his new yet-to-be-named clothing brand, but now they saw the truth. The sneaky boy clearly just wanted to put off the headache of dealing with the ravenous potential customers for a few more hours.

It wasn’t long, however, before Celestina realized that there was a work-around to this conundrum. She and her two female Disciples had promised they wouldn’t tell anyone who the genius dress designer was, but that didn’t mean she couldn’t point the clamouring crowd towards someone who wasn’t bound by that oath.

This option also came with the added bonus of being able to get back at the subordinate who had betrayed her trust and violated her body for her own selfish benefit!

"If you really insist on knowing before the announcement is made, I believe my trusty adjutant may be able to help you," Celestina flashed a predatory smile as she turned her eyes towards the nearby Allina Crest.

*Pft... cough cough cough...*

When over 100 half-crazed, starving eyes instantly turned and fixed on her, Allina couldn’t help gulping hard, which had been a big mistake seeing how she was in the midst of sipping her soda.

Coughing and choking ensued, incapacitating the voluptuous Vice-General just long enough for a tight enclosure to form.

Surrounded and heavily outnumbered, Allina did what any competent commander would do in her situation, she diverted the enemy’s attention while making a swift retreat.

By the time Lucas realized what was happening, it was too late.

His male colleagues, his brothers in arms, the ones he trusted with his most precious secrets and inventions, all immediately abandoned him or turned traitor, joining the horde of rabid women bombarding him from all sides with requests for one of his dresses.

This disturbance naturally caught Christina’s attention as well, and seeing how the secret was already out, the princess, who felt that she could be a bit selfish on her birthday, decided to ’enlighten’ all her friends as well.

And that was now the first part of the evening came to a close, with Lucas being swarmed while cursing at the world and everyone in it for betraying him.

Or at least, that’s how the appetizers and cocktails course of the banquet would have ended, had an even more shocking development not occurred a few minutes later, one that was set off by a single announcement by the herald at the garden square’s main entryway.