Three hours later, the annual meeting ended. The staff of the government complex saw the ministers exit the White Hall one after another.
Riz was the last to leave the hall. Mainly, because he was currently full of thoughts.
"Where are you going next?" Theodora got up from her seat. Promptly, inquiring about her fiance's next destination. Somehow, it has become her habit.
"Hmm..." It took him a while to answer her question. Based on his mind's clock, the current time is around eleven in the morning. It's still too early for lunch. "Maybe I should check up on my companies. I've no pressing matter to solve anyway. I might as well tour around the city. Wanna join?"
Theodora shook her head, rejecting the offer. "I've works piled up in the office."
"I'll see you later then." He hopped on his iconic black carriage Theodora used earlier. "Gramp, go to the 1st Blue Street."
"As you wish, your majesty."
....
Five minutes later, the carriage arrived at 1st Blue Street, Business District. As per normal business day, this area is congested with people and carriages. The coachman stopped the carriage at the side of the road so as to not block another carriage. He hurriedly opened the door for the king.
Riz stepped out of the carriage. His hand reached out the left pocket of his pants and passed some coins to his coachman. "Gramps, I'll probably be here for a while. Go and kill your time in the nearby cafe."
"Thank you, your majesty." The old man bowed his head and drove the carriage away.
Follow on NovᴇlEnglish.nᴇtAfter his coachman left, he found himself standing in front of the nine stories building. This is the highest building ever constructed in Bideford with a height of 47 meters. Two years prior, he had proposed for all the scattered offices to gather in one place for easier management. As a result, this neo-classical style architecture building was built to serve as Gatharix HQ.
He definitely didn't go overboard with the building features. Although he plans to introduce an HVAC system, the electricity isn't discovered yet. Riz himself has little understanding of this field. His knowledge mainly comes from his housemate who studied electrical engineering.
Looking to his left and right, rows of buildings on the same street followed the same architectural style. Apparently, this style is still in trend. Everybody is adopting a steel-frame building now and the only difference lies in the number of stories. Aside from his HQ, the average story of buildings here remains at four or five. He most likely knows the reason for such limitation, money.
The usage of concrete and high-tensile steel has widely spread in terms of usage thanks to them being economical and having a wide range of applicability, these two materials have put stones in an unfavourable position.
As a result, he ended up making tons of money in the past two years,
Speaking of the street's name, he was responsible for the format. It's the street's number plus the colour code.
To make things easier for both people, visitors and coachmen, he ordered for the street sign to be made according to their respective colour codes.
- Blue for the business district,
- Green for the government district,
- Red for the residential district,
- Orange for the industrial district,
- Purple for the educational district.
Needless to say, the once European maze-like road layout completely vanished without a trace. And his preferable grid layout took place. The same goes for other cities and towns as well. Both layout and colour code has drastically changed the view of these places.
Riz snapped back to reality.
He has been standing at the main entrance of Gatharix HQ for a while now. Fortunately, none of the people passing by on the sidewalk recognises him. At most, they glance at him a bit and assume he was a lookalike.
Due to his unannounced visitation, no one came out to greet him.
"I should get inside instead of standing here like an idiot." He walked forward to the entrance. The doormen open the door from him and bow respectfully. Since they saw his carriage, they indeed realized his identity.
Inside, the lobby of his HQ is screaming the word luxurious. He was pleased with the interior design. It has the combination of colours he loves the most, black and gold. Black porcelain tiles on the floor lined up perfectly. Gold-decorated chandeliers at the ceiling. Brown coloured originates from the reception desk and the bookshelf becomes the third colour added to the lobby.
He walked to the desk. The receptionist gave him a polite smile. "Welcome to Gatharix HQ. How may I assist—"
Her typical textbook greeting came to a halt. In front of her, a man with a familiar face is smirking.
She braved herself despite her lack of surety. "Y-Your Majesty?"
"Yes, it's me." Riz returned the smile, "Is Luis available in his office right now?"
Nodded, "Sir Luis is currently available. Let me escort you there."
"It's okay." He rejected her offer. "I can go upstairs on my own."
Follow on Novᴇl-Onlinᴇ.cᴏmLeaving the receptionist dazed behind, he walked upstairs to the first floor. Each floor layout of this building is the same. The only difference for every floor is the interior arrangements.
Without minding the stares he received from the workers, he went straight to the manager's office. There is a nameplate glued on the door, [Luis Hines - Head Manager] was written.
He only takes a quick glance before knocking on the door.
"Who is it?" The voice comes from the opposite side of the door.
"It's me." He gave a short reply before turning the doorknob.
Luis was taken aback when the king's face appeared at his office. "Your Majesty?!! You didn't tell me you would come? If I knew, I would prepare a grand reception for you. Someone! Bring us some tea."
"Knowing your behaviour, I made the right choice of not telling you about my arrival beforehand. It's a waste of time to do that. You should focus on making money for me."
"Please, come on in and have a seat."
"Gladly" Riz took up the offer and sat on the grey sofa in the office. "Is this a new sofa you bragged to me on the other day? Pretty comfortable."
Luis shrugged, "Bragging is...a little harsh way to put it. I simply recommend it to you. This sofa was made by a family with a long history in furniture craftsmanship."
"Give me the address to their shop. I'll check it when I have some free time."
"No problem. What brought you here, your majesty?" He asked.
"Just doing a brief visitation."