Thankfully, nothing bad happened overnight. Many people of different races continued filtering into the capitol though, and it was quite packed by the morning. With only one day left until the coronation, the celebrations had kicked off right at sunrise from what I can tell. Before sunrise, multiple street stalls were wheeled in and people began cooking various foods. I'd imagine much of the rest of the city looked quite similar. The dwarves were the ones who introduced us to fried foods, and while some of the dishes in the stalls were unfamiliar, most at least seemed quite similar to things we'd already had in the past.

It wasn't long after dawn that a messenger first arrived to inform us that Kao would be arriving soon, and we'd have at most five minutes before he'd need to leave again. The messenger also left the impression that he was somewhat upset that we were being so disruptive, and that whatever we were doing had better be worth their time. If it weren't for the fact that we were a large factor in their victory during this war, I doubt the audience would have been approved. I can't blame them either though, as asking the soon-to-be king to come see you does put questions on sovereignty in this situation. That said, this was the sort of surprise that warrants such behavior.

About a half-hour after the messenger left, a large number of dwarves in very fancy military clothing arrived escorting Kao to visit us. He was dressed in some very fancy regalia. That was something I hadn't really considered, but he likely had to take a lot of extra time to be seen as presentable in this situation, which meant that the five minutes we were taking was actually quite a bit of extra time in preparation before and after the meeting. Kao, however, didn't let it show if he was at all bothered by the situation.

Given the short time we had, I cut right to the heart of the matter, and informed him that we've brought a replacement mana crystal for ParTor as a coronation gift for him. Given that this coronation happened a little sooner than I expected, the crystal is pretty much the same size, rather than being a little bigger than the original, as I'd intended. Since we had to keep our meeting short, we briefly discussed what should be done with it.

I agreed to assist in installing the crystal on a specific timeline in their historic bathhouse alongside some of my workers and some dwarves. I informed him of what happened when we installed our new large crystal, involving how it takes a little bit of time for it to ramp up to full capacity and that some individuals ended up getting sunburned. He thought it would be a good symbolic event if we opened it up and installed it at the beginning of his coronation, which will take a few hours in total. By the end of it, the crystal should be up to a decent portion of it's total power, and be noticeable.

After being coronated, he'll give a short address to the population. Unfortunately, I'll end up missing it since I'll be monitoring the crystal's installation. Zaka should be present to see the even though, so we'll have a representative present. Our discussion was short but fruitful. A decent number of the guards that were with him remained to help escort some of us with our wagon to the bathhouse.

After we arrived there, we were informed that they were going to keep a significant amount of military presence here with us overnight, and we'd be staying here in this area. Since we were actually in the bathhouse now, I got the opportunity to look things over. Their design is quite a bit more ornate than ours, and has a lot of different features to regulate the amount of water flowing into what is their crystal room. Their crystal room was clearly broken into by the demons as, much like ours, it didn't have a natural entrance except through water pipes.

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In order to even get the crystal in to be able to lower it into position, I'll have to do a bit of construction. There are multiple sleeping and guard quarters all around the area as well. ParTor was a national treasure, so I'm not surprised. I was informed by the guards assigned to us that previously, the royal family had an equal number of guards as ParTor did, and as such that is the number that Kao has assigned to the area now.

I've requested various items like ropes and pulleys be made so that when the time comes we can properly lower the new crystal in place. We want to minimize exposure to it once I remove it's quartz sheath, so no one gets severely injured. I'm confident that I'll be able to get everything ready to install the crystal by the beginning of the coronation, but I need to be conscious of the fact that I have to manage my mana effectively while I work. We're trying to keep this as something of a surprise, so I'll have to rely on the handful of other demons with stoneshaping I brought with me, rather than recruiting local dwarves to help.

After working around the clock, we set everything up and were ready to install the new crystal once the coronation began. Rather than ropes, given the sheer weight of the crystal, we ended up using chains. Unlike with our crystal, which was only wrapped in stone, rather than both stone and quartz like this one, once the sheath was removed, the intensity of the mana from the crystal was quite a bit lower immediately, but I could sense the amount of mana increasing quickly.

We got the chains wrapped around, hoisted it up, lowered it down, and removed the chains over the course of about fifteen minutes. By the end of those fifteen minutes, based on the intensity of the light coming off the crystal, I'm sure a few people will have sunburns again. A temporary wooden cover was moved over the hole next, while I used stoneshaping to start closing it off fully.

I ended up closing the hole up in less than one mana cycle, while overnight making the expanded hole had taken multiple. Being so close to such a large crystal and infused water really does increase your mana regen by a large amount. We finished our work quite early, so the coronation ceremonies were still ongoing. The royal palace wasn't too far away from the bathhouse area, so we were able to sit outside and roughly see what was going on.

The streets were packed with people even further out than we were from the event. I suppose, considering this also symbolically represents the war ending, it's not surprising it's such a large celebration. Those closer to the bathhouse were already starting to notice something was up with the mana in the area as we exited the bathhouse.

Everyone was really just waiting for Kao to exit the palace onto a balcony. Important individuals were inside the palace where the actual coronation was taking place. Based on the fact I couldn't see Zaka anywhere, I assumed he was inside. As we waited, more and more people around the town started to notice the change in the ambient mana levels. While quite a few would make glances at the bathhouse, a smaller number seemed concerned. My guess is that some individuals have never been in a place with heightened ambient mana like this, and as such it felt unsettling.

By the time Kao arrived on the balcony draped in royal regalia, the crowds had gotten quite loud. I half expected some kind of bullhorn, or voice amplification magic, but no such thing was used. The crown quieted down as they noticed Kao, and although I couldn't hear it, it was clear he was addressing the crowd. Only those closest probably heard what was actually said, but as he talked, there were whisperings that were clearly being sent backwards through the crowd.

One of the dwarven guards informed me that this afternoon the speech will be hung in places around town for anyone to read, so missing out on hearing it wasn't actually as unfortunate as I had assumed. At one point, the whole crowd that was close enough to hear Kao's speech all turned their heads toward the bathhouse, so I can only assume that the new crystal was mentioned.

The speech actually went on for a surprisingly long amount of time, lasting about 30 minutes. After which there was a ton of cheering. Not long after that, the crowds started to disperse. A messenger came to fetch us about an hour later and told me that I've been invited to the celebratory banquet in the evening.

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