RPAGF #462 - The marriage between beastmen and humans
#462 - The marriage between beastmen and humans
Leaving the armory, Horn wasn't hungry since he had eaten late.
So, he led a dozen military police officers south along the Pala River.
Their boots stepped on the damp fir planks of the brown-black boardwalk, where two or three beastmen carrying bags or pushing carts occasionally passed by.
Under the shade of the trees by the river, couples could be seen cuddling together here and there.
"Your Majesty, look," Rafael, who was following beside Horn, reminded him.
Horn, who had been admiring the sparkling river scenery, looked in the direction he pointed and was surprised.
They wore human linen robes, whispering sweet nothings to each other, or teasing the fluff in their lovers' ears.
Indeed, on this journey, Horn noticed that among every ten couples, five were humans and beastmen.
During Horn's construction of Autumn Dusk Island as his main base, it gradually became the de facto capital of the beastmen kingdoms.
The King's Council of the Beastmen United Kingdom was located on Autumn Dusk Island. Usually, any conflicts between beastmen were resolved under the mediation of the Senate.
Moreover, compared to the rural areas, this dilapidated town was a larger international metropolis than the capital of Big Gaji for them.
Many kings of small beastmen countries simply adopted an offline monarchy system, moving their entire families to the island and entrusting all state affairs to the prime minister.
Horn also fulfilled his promise, granting many beastmen nobles residential land and allowing them to build houses on their own plots.
Besides returning to the old capital, the most important reason for their migration was—
Compared to the beastmen of the Great Marsh, where yin was dominant and yang was weak, Autumn Dusk Island had a large number of male bachelors.
Those female beastmen who originally couldn't find husbands often had "Brother, you smell so good" moments while working with the human laborers.
As a subspecies of humans, beastmen and humans do not have reproductive isolation. The children born are either beastmen or humans, without mixed genetics.
Unlike dwarves, who have a certain degree of reproductive isolation with humans.
If a female dwarf and a male human marry and become pregnant, there is a high probability of difficult labor due to the baby being too large. It is extremely difficult for a male dwarf to impregnate a female human, but if successful, it is likely to produce a healthy mixed-race dwarf.
Therefore, there are not many objective obstacles to intermarriage between beastmen and humans.
For these bachelors from refugee backgrounds, their criteria for finding a wife are truly "female and alive."
Although their faces are a bit rough, having one is better than nothing. The only dispute is that both male humans and female beastmen try to demand dowries from each other.
This is a custom passed down from the ancient El Empire: one must have a dowry to marry a wife.
However, since both sides are penniless, they often owe it first and go to the church to get married.
One must have this marriage certificate to apply for housing allocation; early marriage gets a place in the queue sooner.
Currently, any full-time worker in the state-owned workshops under the Papal Palace can apply to change to a larger Insula suite upon marriage.
However, the new batch of apartments is still under construction, so even if they marry a wife, they still have to live in small, low bachelor lofts.
After walking for a while on this boardwalk floating in the mud, Horn arrived at the Engineering Research Institute on the south side of the east bank of the Pala River.
Unlike the armory, due to the special nature of star-forged gears, they did not maintain strict secrecy like the armory.
However, since the Engineering Research Institute still had a certain degree of confidentiality, Horn still saw high and thick walls on the periphery.
Sylph, the director of the Engineering Research Institute, would definitely not be present, and Witt, the deputy director, also served as the mayor of the nameless town and was also absent.
Instead, Cécile, a pharmacist who was almost unrelated to engineering, was managing the Engineering Research Institute.
However, since Sylph completed 80% of the design tasks of the Engineering Research Institute alone, the main tasks of the institute were repair and improvement.
So, this research institute does not actually research and design itself, but studies why Sylph designed it that way.
The research institute basically does not play much of a research role. Horn came to find some real work for them to research.
"Don't bother with those formalities. I'm just here for an inspection this time," Horn stopped Cécile, grabbed his arm, and walked into the courtyard.
In the courtyard, several sawing machines with prototype saw blades were placed, sawing a short, thick round log into pieces of wood under the drive of star-forged gears and belts.
The scattered sawdust carried a faint warmth, flowing down from the opening like a waterfall, accumulating into a thick layer on the ground.
Compared to the crowded and smoky armory, the Engineering Research Institute seemed particularly quiet.
Outside a carpenter's shed, Horn dragged over a small stool and sat down. Cécile and several other heads of the research institute gathered around.
Cécile introduced them to Horn one by one, and Horn then asked them to sit down and lecture them: "You already know why I came to you, right?"
"It's about weights and measures."
Cécile took out a piece of paper from his pocket: "You asked us not to use human body parts or old lengths, nor to use special measuring tools. We people in the Engineering Research Institute are too dull and really don't know how to stipulate it."
"So, I'm calling you to do research, right? I call you a research institute not to study Sylph's designs, but to hope that you can have your own research."
Looking at this group of idle clockmakers, waterwheel and windmill carpenters, and toymakers, Horn said with a wry smile.
"How about treating this as your first research project?"
Several heads looked at each other, but were embarrassed: "But this is too difficult. We really can't think of anything."
"Did you all go to the natural theology class usually?"
"We did. That class is profound, but we only studied for a month or two and really can't think of anything."
One of the clockmakers raised his hand: "Your Majesty, can you tell us why we can't use human body parts, special rulers, or old systems?"
Looking at their clear and unknown eyes, Horn thought again and again and finally sighed.
If he let them think for themselves, he didn't know how long it would take. The current method was still proposed by Sylph.
He couldn't keep wasting time. Without a matching education system, there was no other way besides Horn giving them a eureka moment.
"The reason for not using human body parts or old systems is very simple. For example, an elbow. If your arm is long, an elbow is very long. If your arm is short, an elbow is very short.
The old system of 'xun' is also not advisable. A 'xun' in the Mountain County is half an elbow shorter than a 'xun' in the Plain County.
You can't use a guild's special ruler either. If it is based on a specific man-made object, then it is easy to deform, wear, or lose over time.
Even if the standard instrument made at the time was made with very precise craftsmanship, its own may be affected by changes in time and climate or accidents, resulting in the inaccuracy of the standard.
It needs to be everywhere, and it won't change because of time, climate, and other major environmental changes."
"What is that?" Cécile really couldn't imagine it.
In the puzzled gazes of everyone, Horn pointed to the sun in the sky and then pointed to the ground under his feet.
"Nature itself, this is the best and most standard measure created by the Holy Father. It's the same no matter where you go."
So, in Horn's opinion, it's best to define it by natural phenomena.
Because natural phenomena are universal and applicable to all countries and regions.
"Then what natural phenomenon should we choose?" Horn deliberately asked these engineering priests.
One of them asked cautiously: "The height of a tree?"
"Isn't that no different from an elbow?" Horn hadn't answered yet, but his companion retorted.
"What is it then? Or should we calculate it based on the length of Autumn Dusk Island? This shouldn't change, right?"
"That's lake water," the same group of engineering priests were self-refuting, "It rises in summer and recedes in winter. It's not the same length all year round."
"Then use an hourglass to calculate time, and then use weight?"
"Still not good. I said that using measuring tools does not meet the requirements..."
Seeing that they had finally started discussing, Horn nodded with satisfaction.
Although a month of natural theology and mathematics education failed to make them independently develop, at least their logical and thinking abilities had improved.
However, Horn and Sylph had discussed this issue before.
There was something that Horn wasn't sure how it would manifest, but it should be about the same everywhere and could ignore minor differences—gravity.