272 6.66 Goodbye Hiko-sama, It Has Been A Pleasure Being With You... (1/2)

We had pretty busy, the 4 Execom were entertaining the incoming merchants and gathering the sales for the past 2 weeks and gaining quite a popularity due to the fact that these ladies were being entertained by these 4 fine gentlemen.

I had cordially sent a letter of invitation to Tokugawa Iemochi and he had agreed to be there on the 16th June, 2 days before the actual wedding day to present us 3 gifts for the newlyweds.

It was a joyous moment and a stage was being erected in front of the community building where on the 18th June, there would be a plant shutdown for 2 days to mark the joyous occasion. Inuyasha and Kikyo were fussing about picking the dress that they wanted and in the end, they ended up with the same garb that they had been wearing.

Shikon no Tama was now in the safe hands of Sango's father who had made a special room in his house as an altar to place the sacred jewel.

Hiko-sama had bought a new kimono and hakama and was wearing a black and white for that occasion. Sango and Hoshi-sama also were fussing about what to wear and had decided to wear the same coloured kimono set as one another. Hahahaha.

Now just left me and Izumi... And Izumi had fashioned out our kimono from the materials she had acquired from the tailor from the trading district. It was red and black kimono and white hakama. It was a matching pair and it took some time to make the hidden pockets that I had for all my kimonos to be able to suddenly make huge wooden chest disappear when I slip it into the sleeves. Hahahahaha.

Ruffnut and Tuffnut were also dressed up for the day and their dragons were all trussed up like a Christmas's trees with tresses, wedding bells and wildflowers. They were the one who took responsibility in decorating the stage with backdrops, lighting and colourful lantern of all sort of sizes.

”Seems that everyone got worked up for this event, right? It had never been a triple wedding before and this would be the first time. Do you intend to mark the wedding date as Fukushima's official off day or something?” Tokugawa Iemochi gestured to me since he had arrived in the date he described and can't help to wonder at all the work and setup that had been done by the residents within a short while.

”Hahahaha...its alright, Your Majesty. Having too many holidays would definitely disrupt their work schedule. Furthermore, we just had a festivities day last month and it's coming up again by the end of this month too.”

”Ah...the Cake Festivities. It is really a wonderful experience and I also get to meet Princess Kazu. It's only been 2 weeks since I left and here I am again. Seems I can't get enough of this town, right, Himura?”

”Yup... It is quite a close-knit community here. Do you know that we had surpassed the 25,000 residencies here, Your Majesty?”

”Oh is it...? You had made more than double the expected residency here. It was somewhere 10,000 before right?”

”Yes, Your Majesty... That was more then 6 months ago and we had upgraded te lives if all residents here. Even the residents from theinnermost District had been employed by us since the shrinkage of the business and governmental.”

”I see...according to the journal... You truly had come a long way to get to where you stand right now. It was a good thing that I had removed the ex-Mayor, and also I had adopted your system within my Shogunate as well. Majority of people were not too happy about it but somehow we managed to appease them.”

”Yeah... I do agree with you, Your Majesty. I do have come a long way to reach this point. Oh... Here's the Immortal One that I had mentioned to you. Let me introduce him to you. He would be the one that would be holding the ceremony in place of Miroku the Hoshi.”

I walked with Tokugawa Iemochi and greeted the Immortal One and we three exchanged pleasantries. ”So, the commencement would start at 5 pm and there would be a dinner reception after this? That's great... I hadn't been involved with worldly matters for quite some time now and I would really love to taste of the Epic XO Sauce that I had been hearing from the offscreen crews past few weeks.”

”Hahahaha...be my guest Immortal One. It is an honour having you onboard.” I replied as I moved off when Tokugawa Iemochi and The Immortal One were having a rather engaging discussion between themselves.

It was after 3 pm and everyone was rehearsing their parts on the stage and there were 3 pairs of two-seater kind of sofas and a microphone stand in the centre as well. There was a huge majestic throne which they had emplaced to be in the centre of the stage and was prepared to be on a pedestal, which I guessed might be for Tokugawa Iemochi.

Fireworks were being set up, roman candles on the side of the stage and rockets that would be meant to be released were lined up on the 3rd floor of the open space on the community building.

Throngs of people were already there and a stanchion was erected as a form of a barricade. These people were well behaved and there was no need to deploy any patrolmen on site.

By 645pm, Inuyasha and Kikyo, Miroku and Sango, while Izumi and I were already seated at our respective two-seater sofas while we were Tokugawa Iemochi, was seated in the middle. The setting sun was behind us and fortunately, with the looming community building behind us, it cast a long shadow and shielded the gathering residents from getting sunburnt.

There was a deejay at the corner of the stage and he was belting out all the love songs on the turntable and those residents who knew the songs chimed in to sing along. The two speakers in front of the stage served as both for music and for the announcement. Huat ah...!!!

By 650 pm we were all seated and the deejay acting as the emcee announced the entry of His Majesty, Tokugawa Iemochi and we all stood up and bowed when he appeared on the stage. He was wearing his traditional kimono dressing and looked rather elegant.

The moment he entered, all the residents on the ground all bowed deeply at the direction of Their Majesty and on cue by the emcee, the residents all take up their usual positions when His Majesty Tokugawa Iemochi had taken his seat. He had a Mike on a boom near him so he doesn't actually need to walk and speak to the microphone the was placed in the centre of the stage, directly in front of me.

Tokugawa Iemochi made the first speech when the crew adjusted the microphone boom near him. Well, at least he doesn't need to Echo the Witch to help spread his voice when he makes the speech. Hahahaha. People can't see in this novel so we had deployed the use of microphones, amplifiers and those kinds of stuff since we had electricity being generated from the Windtech after all. Hahahahaha...

”Hello and good evening, I am Tokugawa Iemochi, the 14th Shogun in Japan and I hereby welcomes everyone to this auspicious gathering as we announce the matrimonial oath that would be made by our newlyweds. Starting from Inuyasha and Kikyo on the left, then by Miroku and Sango on the right and lastly by Yours Truly, the Town Mayor and Governor of Fukushima, Himura Kenshin and his partner, Izumi... ”

Some thoughtful AV technicians had set up several 150 inches projection screen all over New Kitakata Town to enable the residents to view the event since the grounds were unable to accommodate all the 25,000 over residents.