Chapter 460: The Marriage between Beastmen and Humans

After leaving the arsenal, Horn did not feel hungry because he had eaten late.

So he took a dozen gendarmes with him and headed south along the Para River.

The soles of my boots stepped on the damp fir boards. From time to time, I could see two or three beastmen carrying bags or pushing carts walking by on the brown and black wooden path.

Under the shade of the trees by the river, you can still see couples snuggling together in groups of three or four.

"Your Majesty, look." Rafael, who was following beside him, reminded Horn.

Horn, who was originally admiring the beautiful scenery of the sparkling river, looked in the direction he pointed and was shocked.

They wore human linen robes and rubbed each other's ears or teased the fuzz in their lovers' ears.

Yes, during Horn's travels, five out of ten couples he saw were humans and beastmen.

As Horn built Autumn Dusk Island into a stronghold, it gradually became the de facto capital of the beastman kingdoms.

The King's Council of the United Kingdom of Beastmen is located on Autumn Dusk Island. Usually, any conflicts between beastmen are resolved under the mediation of the Senate.

Moreover, compared to the countryside, this dilapidated town was an international city to them that was larger than the capital of Carthage.

Many kings of small beastman countries simply adopted the offline monarchy system, moved their entire families to the island, and handed over all state affairs to the prime minister.

Horn also fulfilled his original promise and gave many beastman nobles residential land, allowing them to build houses on the land themselves.

In addition to returning to the old capital, the most important reason for their migration was -

Compared with the beastmen in Daze Township where there are more women than men, there are a large number of male bachelors on Qiumu Island.

When those female beastmen who were originally unable to marry work together with human laborers, they often say "Brother, you smell so good".

As a subspecies of humans, there is no reproductive isolation between beastmen and humans, and the children born will not have mixed genetics, but will be either beastmen or humans.

Unlike dwarves, there is a certain degree of reproductive isolation between them and humans.

If a female dwarf and a male human get pregnant, there is a high probability that the baby will be difficult to deliver because it is too large. It is extremely difficult for a male dwarf to make a female human pregnant, but if successful, there is a high probability that a healthy mixed-race dwarf will be born.

Therefore, objectively speaking, there are not many obstacles to intermarriage between beastmen and humans.

For these bachelors who were born as refugees, their criteria for finding a wife are "real female and alive."

Although their faces were a little rough, they were good enough to exist. The only dispute was that the male humans and female beastmen tried to ask for dowry from each other.

This is a custom handed down from the ancient Ai'er Empire, where a dowry is required when marrying a wife.

However, since both parties were very poor, they often borrowed money first and then got married in the church.

You must first have a marriage certificate before you can start applying for housing allocation. The sooner you get married, the earlier you can get in line.

Currently, any formal worker in a state-owned workshop under the name of the Papal Palace can apply to switch to a larger Insula suite when they get married.

However, a new batch of apartments are still under construction, so even if you get married, you still have to live in a small and low bachelor's attic.

After walking for a while on this wooden board path floating in the mud, Horn arrived at the Engineering Research Institute on the south side of the east bank of the Para River.

Unlike the Arsenal, due to the special nature of Starcast Gears, they did not keep it as secret as the Arsenal did.

However, since the Engineering Research Institute still has a certain degree of confidentiality, Horn also saw high and thick walls outside.

As the dean of the Institute of Engineering, Shilov would definitely not be present, and as the vice dean, Witt also serves as the mayor of the nameless town, so he was not present either.

The Engineering Research Institute is managed by Ceci, a pharmacist who has almost nothing to do with engineering.

However, since 80% of the design tasks of the Engineering Research Institute were completed by Shilov alone, the institute's main tasks were maintenance and improvement.

Therefore, this research institute is not actually conducting research and design on its own, but is studying why Shilov was designed in this way.

The research institute basically does not play much of a research role, and Horn came here to find them some real research work.

"Don't go through all that red tape. I'm just on patrol this time." Calling Ceci, Horn pulled his arm and walked into the yard.

There were several sawmills with prototype saw blades placed in the yard. Driven by Starcast gears and belts, they were sawing a short and thick log into pieces of wood.

The scattered wood chips were slightly warm, flowing down from the gap like a waterfall, piling up a thick layer on the ground. Compared with the large number of people and the thick smoke of the ordnance manufacturing factory, the engineering research institute seemed exceptionally quiet.

Outside a carpenter's shed, Horn dragged over a small stool and sat down. Ceci and several other research institute leaders gathered around him.

Ceci introduced them to Horn one by one, and Horn asked them to sit down and lecture them: "Why did I come to you? Do you know?"

"It's a matter of weights and measures."

Ceci pulled out a piece of paper from his pocket and said, "You requested that neither the human body nor the old length be used, nor special measuring tools be used. We in the Engineering Research Institute are too stupid to know how to set the rules."

"So I'm asking you to do research? I call you a research institute, not to ask you to study Shilov's designs, but I hope you can do your own research."

Looking at this group of idle watchmakers, waterwheel and windmill carpenters, and toy makers, Horn said with a smile.

"How about considering this as your first research project?"

Several responsible persons looked at each other and were embarrassed: "But this is too difficult, we really can't think of it."

"Have you all attended your usual natural theology classes?"

"Yes, the course is very profound, but we only studied it for a month or two, so we really can't figure it out."

A watchmaker raised his hand: "Your Majesty, can you tell me why we can't use the human body, special rulers or old systems?"

Looking at their clear and unknown eyes, Horn thought again and again and finally sighed.

If they were left to figure it out on their own, who knows how long it would take them to come up with this idea. The current solution was proposed by Shilov.

We can't just keep wasting time. In the absence of a supporting education system, there is no other way except for Horn to give them Eureka.

“The reason for not using the human body or the old system is very simple, for example, one cubit. If your arm is long, one cubit is very long, and if your arm is short, one cubit is very short.

The old system of one xu was equally unacceptable. The one xu in the mountainous counties was half a cubit shorter than that in the plain counties.

You can't use a guild-specific ruler either, as if it's based on a specific artefact, it's susceptible to warping, wearing out or getting lost over time.

Even if the standard instruments were manufactured with very precise craftsmanship, they may be affected by climate change or accidents over time, resulting in inaccuracy of the standards.

Needs are everywhere and will not change due to changes in time, climate and other macro-environmental factors. "

"What is that?" Ceci really couldn't imagine it.

Amid everyone's puzzled gazes, Horn pointed to the sun in the sky and then to the ground beneath his feet.

"Nature itself is the best and most standard measure created by the Father, and it is the same everywhere."

So in Horn's view, it is best to define it as a natural phenomenon.

Because natural phenomena are universal and apply to all countries and regions.

"So what natural phenomenon should we choose?" Horn deliberately asked the engineering priests.

One of them asked cautiously, "How high is the tree?"

"Isn't that the same as an elbow?" Before Horn could answer, his companion next to him responded.

"What's that? Or should we calculate it by the length of Autumnset Island? That won't change, will it?"

“That’s lake water,” the same group of engineering priests retorted to themselves, “it rises in the summer and recedes in the winter, so it’s not the same length throughout the year.”

"Then use an hourglass to calculate time, and then use weight?"

"It still doesn't work. I've already said that using measuring tools doesn't meet the requirements..."

Seeing that they finally started the discussion, Horn nodded with relief.

Although one month of natural theology and mathematics education did not enable them to develop independently, at least their logical thinking and critical thinking abilities were improved.

However, Horn had discussed this issue with Shilov before.

There is one thing that Horn is not sure how it will manifest itself, but it should be almost the same everywhere and the slight differences can be ignored. That is gravity.

(End of this chapter)