Cheng Yan felt as if someone was calling him.

�Your Highness, wake up��

He turned his head away, but the sounds he had heard did not disappear, instead they became even louder. Then, he felt someone gently tug on his sleeve.

�Your Highness, my Royal Prince!�

Cheng Yan opened his eyes immediately. He did not see any of the things he had grown familiar with�the screen was gone, the desk was gone, and so too, was the wall which he had plastered with Post-its. They were replaced by a strange scene�rows of small brick houses, a round public square that was crowded with people, and a door-shaped gallows that was erected in the middle of the public square. He was seated on an elevated platform from across the square. The chair he sat on was not his usual soft swivel chair, but instead, a cold and hard iron chair. Sitting alongside him was a group of people whose gazes were fixated upon him. Among them were a few young women who were dressed as medieval ladies like what he had seen in Western movies, and they were busy giggling among themselves.

�Where on Earth is this? Wasn�t I working urgently on my blueprints?� Cheng Yan�s mind was vacant, perhaps caused by three consecutive days of working overtime that had pushed him to the limit mentally and physically. All he could remember was when he finally broke down, his heartbeat began to palpitate unsteadily, and he wanted nothing but to lie on the office table for a brief rest�

�Your Highness, please announce your verdict soon.�

The speaker was the person that had quietly tugged on his sleeve. His face was old, seemingly in his fifties or sixties, and he wore a white robe. At first glance, had a little resemblance to Gandalf, from The Lord of the Rings.

�Am I dreaming?� Cheng Yan thought as he licked his dry lips. �Verdict, what verdict?�

He soon knew. The people in the public square were all looking in the direction of the gallows, while waving their fists and yelling as loud as they could. Some even threw stones at the gallows.

Cheng Yan had only ever seen such an ancient instrument of death in movies. The gallows of two pillars extending upwards about four meters from a raised base. The top ends of the two pillars were connected by a crossbeam, which was embedded with rusty metal rings for a thick yellow hemp rope to travel through. One end of the rope was tied to the frame of the gallows, and the other end was tied around the felon�s neck.

In this strange dream, he discovered that his eyesight was extraordinarily good. He would usually require glasses to read the words on a computer screen, but now, he could clearly see every detail of the gallows, which was fifty meters away, without his glasses.

The felon was hooded and her hands were tied behind her back. Her shabby gray garment was akin to a piece of rag. Her body was so emaciated that her ankles�the only part of her body which was exposed�seemed like they could be broken by pinching them. It was her faintly bulging chest which gave away that she was a female. She shivered terribly in the cold wind, yet she was observably trying hard to maintain her straight posture.

�Alright then,� Cheng Yan thought to himself, �exactly what crime did this woman commit that so many people are waiting with indignation for her to be executed?�

As he pondered, memories suddenly came flooding back to him, and the answer to his question abruptly appeared in front of him. Cheng Yan�s memories appeared, almost as if they�d suddenly been turned on and he realized the cause of the situation, and the answer to his question, at almost the same time.

She was a �witch�.

Witches had degenerated after falling to the temptation of the Devil and are now the incarnation of impurity.

�Your Highness?� �Gandalf� urged cautiously.

Cheng Yan glanced at the old man. Ohhh, actually, he�s called Barov and not Gandalf. He�s the Assistant Minister of Finance, and was sent here to assist me with government affairs.

As for myself, I�m the Fourth Prince of the Kingdom of Graycastle, named Roland, and I�m in charge of this place called Border Town. It was residents who caught and arrested the witch, and immediately brought her to the police station�no, it was the court of justice. The warrant to execute the witch would typically have been issued by the local lord or bishop, which, in this case, would mean me.

His memory answered every question he had indiscriminately. It was as though this bout of memories was derived from his personal experiences, rather than knowledge he had gained from his extensive reading. This confused him. A dream can never be as detailed as this, therefore is this not a dream? Could it be that I have travelled back in time to the dark ages of medieval Europe and became Roland? Have I transformed from an ignoble draftsman to a dignified prince?

Albeit this piece of territory seems barren and backward, and I�ve never seen the name �Kingdom of Graycastle� in any history book.

Well, what should I do next?

I shall leave aside the question of how something scientifically impossible like time travel happened. Right now, I need to end this circus. Before civilization, it was common to assign the blame for disasters and misfortune to these pitiful witches, but Cheng Yan could not accept that they had to be executed as well to satisfy the dark desires of the audience.

He snatched the formal written orders from Barov�s hands, tossed them on the ground, stretched his arms and said languidly, �I�m tired. The judgement shall be postponed to another day. Court�s dismissed!�

Cheng Yan did not act recklessly or without thought. Instead, this was in accordance with his memory�s detailed recollection of the way that the prince behaved, and all he did was reenacting their willful manner. The Fourth Prince, Roland, was indeed this screwed up and abominable, and did whatever he wanted. Certainly, it was impossible for a twenty-something unruly prince to be well-cultivated.

The members of the noble who sat with him seemed unsurprised, but a tall man wearing a suit of armor stood up and argued. �Your Highness, this isn�t a joke! All witches should be put to death immediately upon being identified, or else, what can we do if other witches attempt to save her? The Church will get involved if they know of this.�

�Carter Lannis. This handsome man is my Chief Knight.� Cheng Yan frowned and replied, �Why? Are you scared?� His voice, which was full of blatant mockery, sounded natural. �How could a man, whose arms were thicker than a normal person�s body, be worried about witches breaking into our prison? Does he really think that witches are the mouthpiece of the Devil?� �Won�t it be better to catch a few more witches?�

As Carter remained silent, Cheng Yan signaled to his personal guards and left. Carter pondered for a moment before he decided to catchup with the guards and walked beside Prince Roland. The other nobles stood up and paid their respects to the prince, but Cheng Yan could see the disdain and contempt in their eyes.

Back in the keep, which was considered to be the castle in the south of Border Town, he ordered his guards to deny entry to the anxious Assistant Minister so that he himself could finally catch a brief respite.

As a person who had usually spent 90 percent of his time sitting in front of a computer, he had outdone himself by speaking in front of such an audience. Using his newly-gained memories, Cheng Yan located his bedroom, and then sat on the bed for a long rest which allowed his heartbeat to regain normalcy. At the moment, the most important matter was to clarify his situation. �Why is the prince not residing comfortably in King�s City, but instead sent to this desolate land?�

The answer popped up spontaneously and left him a bit flabbergasted.

Roland Wimbledon was sent here to contend for the throne.

It all started when the King of Graycastle, Wimbledon III, quizzically proclaimed, �The heirship of this kingdom will not be based on age, but instead, the capability to govern.� He then dispatched his grown-up sons and daughters to govern different territories, and after five years, he would decide his successor based on their level of governance.

Although the ideas of meritocracy and gender equality sounded progressive and futuristic, it was difficult to implement in reality. Who could guarantee that each of the five children faced the same initial conditions? After all, this was not a real-time strategy game. According to his new knowledge, the Second Prince was given a much better territory than Border Town. In fact, among the five of them, none had a place as bad as Border Town, and thus he had a huge disadvantage.

Furthermore, he wondered how the level of governance would be assessed. By population? Military power? Economic standing? Wimbledon III did not mentioned his criteria, nor did he put the slightest restriction on their methods of competition. In case someone secretly assassinated the other candidates, what would he do? Would the queen stand by and watch as her children kill one another? �Wait�� He carefully recalled another memory. �That�s right, another piece of bad news is that the Queen died five years ago.�

Cheng Yan sighed. This was obviously a barbaric and dark time during the feudal era. The way that people wanted to kill witches recklessly was enough to give him a few hints. Yet, even if he did not attain heirship, he would forever be a blood prince of Graycastle, and would be the Lord of a Realm for as long as he lived.

Furthermore� so what if I become the king? There isn�t Internet or other comforts of modern civilization. Like the locals, the only fun thing I�ve to do is burning witches. And living in a city where shit is excreted and dumped anywhere and everywhere, won�t I eventually die of the Black Death?

Cheng Yan suppressed his chaotic thoughts and walked up to his bedroom mirror. The man looking back at him in the mirror had light gray hair, which was the royal family�s most distinctive feature. Although his facial features were regular, his face lacked a proper shape and seemed devoid of royal disposition. His pale face gave away his lack of physical exercise. He recalled from his new memories that he did not indulge much in wine or women. He did have several sexual relationships while in King�s City, and all of them were consensual. He had never forced anyone into an affair with him.

He also discovered a probable reason for his time travel. Because of his company�s urgency to make progress on a project, his boss had arranged consecutive nights of overtime work for him that caused him to die of exhaustion. The victims of such a case were usually coders, mechanical engineers, and programmers.

�Forget it, no matter what, at least I got the equivalent of an extra life, and therefore I really shouldn�t complain too much.� He began to wise up to the fact that he would probably adjust to this life in the days to come, but that for now, the most important mission was to act well as the Prince Roland and not let anyone find out. Or else, they may believe that the Devil had possessed the real Prince Roland, and immediately burnt him at the stake. �So, most importantly, live well. � Cheng Yan took a deep breath, and whispered towards the mirror, �From now on, I�m Roland.�

For a period of time Roland locked himself in his room as he thoroughly reviewed the memories of this new world, and had dinner sent directly to him by his servants.

Because of his strong desire to live on, Roland fully suppressed his fear and discomfort of the unfamiliar environment he found himself in. He was fully aware that if he wanted to blend in and avoid being suspected by the people around him, he needed to acquire more information as soon as possible.

It had to be said that, apart from information about himself fooling around with other noble children, his new memory consisted of nothing much else. He was unable to recall any information of value, such as knowledge of the aristocracy, the political situation in his own country, or the diplomatic ties with neighboring countries� Although he had some general knowledge such as city names, and the years of significant events, they were completely different from the history of Europe that he knew previously.

It therefore appeared evident to him that he had absolutely no chance of obtaining the throne. Perhaps the King of Graycastle himself was aware of this, and because of that, he sent Roland to this hellish place. Even if he made a mess of things, it would not cause too much damage.

The next memories that Roland recalled were regarding his brothers and sisters, and what he found left him unsure whether to laugh or cry.

Roland�s eldest brother, the First Prince, was a great fighter. His second brother was sinister and scheming, his third sister was aggressive and savage, and his fifth sister was extremely smart. What should he say? After living with them for more than a decade, his impression of them could be summed up in a few words. He knew nothing about the extent of their power, their subordinate officers, or their skills and talents.

Just three months into his leadership of Border Town, the noble had already stopped concealing their disdain and contempt towards him. It was evident that the Fourth Prince wasn�t cut out to be a leader. Fortunately, when he left King�s City, he was accompanied by two assistants�one for civil issues, and one for military issues�who were provided by the king, or else it would have been a much bigger mess.

When Roland woke up the next morning, he was repeatedly reminded by his maid, Tyre, that Assistant Minister Barov wanted to see him. Realizing that he could put it off no longer, he groped the maid�s behind twice�as he recalled it was customary of the original Roland to do so, and told her to inform Barov to wait in the sitting room.

He saw Tyre�s face flush a bright red as she walked out the door. Suddenly, Roland thought, �Since Border Town is primarily involved in farming, is there a system of any sort in place?� He yawned and mentally repeated the word �system� many times in his head, but could not think of anything.

Indeed, novels were all fiction.

Barov was waiting restlessly in the drawing room. The moment Roland appeared, he immediately hurried towards him and asked, �Your Highness, why didn�t you order the execution yesterday?�

�One day earlier or one day later, what�s the difference?� Roland said as he clapped his hands to order the servants to bring breakfast in. �Have a seat and let�s talk.�

It was in line with his memory that the Chief Knight preferred to ask questions in front of other people, while the Assistant Minister usually chose to talk in private. In any case, he could trust both of them to be loyal to him, even though they probably did so as part of their duty to the king.

�Just one day may be enough for other witches to appear, Your Highness! This isn�t like any other trivial matter, you cannot act as recklessly as before!!� Barov cautioned.

�Why are you also saying this?� Roland asked while frowning. �I thought you could distinguish between rumors and facts.�

Barov looked bewildered. �What rumors?�

�That witches are evil and are the Devil�s emissaries,� Roland replied glibly. �Isn�t this part of the Church�s propaganda? If we don�t want them to interfere in our affairs, we should do the opposite of what they say. We shall deliberately not hunt down witches, and instead publicize to our citizens that these are all shameless rumors spread by the Church.�

Barov was shocked. �But� witches are really��

�Evil?� Roland asked in reply. �How so?�

The Assistant Minister remained silent for a moment, as if he was guessing whether the prince was purposely making fun of him, �Your Highness, this problem can be discussed later. I understand that you don�t like the Church, but this way of causing conflict is counterproductive.�

Roland curled his lips. It seemed that reversing this myth about witches could not be done overnight, and he decided not to dispute it further for now.

Breakfast finally arrived on the table, consisting of fried bread, fried eggs and a carafe of milk. He first poured a full cup of milk and offered it to Barov.

�You haven�t had breakfast right? Let�s eat as we talk.� According to the maid, Barov had arrived outside the keep at dawn, and therefore should not have had time to eat. While he�d decided to imitate the former prince�s way of life, and he�d also decided to begin to change the way people perceived him a bit at a time. Although he had determined to imitate Prince Roland�s way of doing things at first, he also wanted to make changes gradually. The Assistant Minister is a good first target for my plan. Roland thought to himself. �Making one�s subordinates feel valued invariably makes them more motivated to work for oneself. Taking the initiative is always the most efficient way of doing things, no?�

Barov accepted the cup of milk from Roland but didn�t drink. He anxiously said, �Your Highness, we have a problem. Three days ago, guards reported that a camp suspected to be inhabited by witches has been discovered in the western forest. They left in a hurry and didn�t clean up their traces. A guard found this in the camp.�

He took out a coin from his pocket and put it in front of Roland. This was not a common currency seen in the kingdom, at least according to Roland�s memories, and he had never seen such a coin. In fact, it did not appear to be made of metal. He pinched the coin in his hands and was surprised to feel that the coin was becoming warmer. The heat definitely did not come from the Assistant Minister�s body, as it was above 40℃ at least, and it made him think of heating pads.

�What is this?� Roland asked.

�I thought it was just some foul trinket that a witch made, but it�s actually more serious than that.� Barov had to pause to wipe his forehead. �The printed pattern is known as the Insignia of the Sacred Mountain and Magic Eye, which is the emblem of the Witch Cooperation Association.�

Roland rubbed the coin�s uneven surface, and guessed that it was probably made of fired ceramic. Indeed, he saw that in the center of the coin was carved a mountain-shaped pattern�It was formed by three juxtaposing triangles, and the image of an eye was placed in the space between the triangles. The pattern�s contour lines were very crude, and therefore he judged that it was polished by hand.

Roland attempted to recall the two terms �Insignia of the Sacred Mountain and Magic Eye� and �Witch Cooperation Association�, but did not discover any relevant information. It seemed that Prince Roland knew nothing about occultism.

Neither did Barov expect Roland to have any knowledge about this. He continued, �Your Highness, you haven�t seen a real witch before, so it�s understandable that you�re unimpressed. Like us, they can be hurt. They bleed, and aren�t any harder to kill than the rest of us, but that�s only for witches who don�t have resistance. The lifespan of witches who receive the Devil�s power would shorten greatly, but they would obtain a terrible amount of power which ordinary people are unable to rival. Once the witches are fully developed, our armies will suffer greatly. Their appetite for disaster is extremely difficult to restrain or suppress, and they�ve already degenerated into the devil�s minions. The Church therefore formed a Punishment Army, which would arrest and execute any woman who was discovered to have the slightest chance of transforming into a witch. The King has approved of this decree, and in fact, these measures have been highly effective and the incidents of witches wreaking havoc have greatly declined in comparison to a hundred years ago. Rumors about the Holy Mountain, or rather, the Gates of Hell, were derived from an ancient book of that era.�

Roland, while gnawing on his bread, sneered in his heart continuously. Although the histories of this world and the world he was from were very different, their historical trajectories were surprisingly similar. The Church was still the Church; he understood that religion was the real Devil�s minion and the real source of evil. Executing a person because a small sign was discovered, and using God�s name to set laws, and then to arrest, trial and sentence a person, were in itself a form of degeneration. The Prince Roland�s memories of the Church�s misuse of authority corroborated with his views.

Unaware of Roland�s thoughts Barov continued, �It�s recorded in ancient books that witches can only find real peace in the Holy Mountain. There, they wouldn�t be reverse bitten by their magic powers, and wouldn�t be troubled by burgeoning desires. There�s no doubt that the so-called Holy Mountain is the birthplace of evil and an entrance from the human world to Hell. I think that only Hell won�t punish this bunch of degenerates.�

�How about the Witch Cooperation Association? What�s their relationship with the Holy Mountain?� Roland enquired.

Barov explained with a grimace, �In the past, witches acted solitarily, whether it was to flee or to live in seclusion. But in recent years, the Witch Cooperation Association appeared and made a difference. They wanted to gather all witches and find the Holy Mountain together. For this purpose, the Witch Cooperation Association would even lure other people to become witches,, In the Port of Clearwater, there have been many cases of female babies disappearing in the past year, and there are rumors that they were the doings of witches.�

After Roland ate the last piece of fried egg from his breakfast, he took a napkin and wiped his mouth before saying, �So, are you saying that you�re worried that the Witch Cooperation Association will try to rescue the witch when they hear the news that she did not die?�

�It�s as Your Highness says.� Barov stamped his feet and exclaimed. �I hear that they�re in a hurry and probably on their way to somewhere. Had that prisoner died, and then it can�t be helped, but she�s still alive! If those witches are crazy enough to steal babies, I�m afraid that they won�t forsake a degenerated companion.�

Roland was somewhat confused, and he could not help but feel that there was something amiss about the situation. Why is it that my Assistant Minister and Chief Knight speak of witches as if they�re a forthcoming and formidable enemy?

The woman who�s to be executed is a witch, right? She�s so thin that even the wind seems like it can blow her off her feet. If she truly possessed frightening power, why would she be standing there and awaiting her death? No, she wouldn�t even be caught. According to the Church�s explanation, she�s a Devil incarnate, and therefore the Punishment Army and other military troops would suffer losses if they fought her. Yet, she was caught by the normal citizens of Border Town, and was tortured by every means possible up until she was led to the gallow, but there was still no sign of her frightening power.

�How did she get caught?� Roland queried.

�I heard that when the North Slope Mine Area collapsed, she revealed her identity in order to escape, and was then captured by angry villagers,� Barov answered.

�I�ve a certain impression of this matter, and it happened right on the day before I travelled through time,� Roland thought.

�How did she reveal herself?� The prince asked aloud.

�I, well� I�m not sure.� the Assistant Minister shook his head and said, �The situation was very chaotic, and it could be that someone saw her using witchcraft.�

Roland frowned as he asked, �Aren�t you able to investigate the situation properly?�

�Your Highness, our priority is to restore the production of the mining area.� the Assistant Minister retorted. �Half of our revenue is derived from the iron mine, and what�s more, the guards have confirmed that someone at the scene was killed by witchcraft.�

�What kind of witchcraft?� Roland asked, becoming more interested than before.

�The head and a large part of the body were spread out on the ground, as if they were melted. They reminded people of burnt-out black candles.� Barov�s face was filled with disgust. �Your Highness, you wouldn�t want to see such a scene.�

Roland played with his silver fork as he pondered over the issue. Historically speaking, most of the victims who were hunted by the Witch Cooperation Association were innocent people, and thus, the witches bore the brunt of the Church�s and the ignorant people�s anger. In truth, a small percentage of witches had sought their own deaths. This group of witches dressed bizarrely, and spent their days mixing all kinds of materials in large pots, claiming that they could predict the future and knew the conclusion of life and death. They based their legitimacy around a few tricks, for example, making use of a natural flame reaction to �prove� that they had obtained the power of God.

To a modern person, these were nothing but some simple chemistry tricks, but in medieval times, it was easy to mistake them as godly phenomenon.

As for melting people, the first thing that Roland thought of was a chromic acid solution. However, the preparation for this was tedious and the process itself required the entire human body to be immersed in the chromic acid. Furthermore, the melting effect was definitely not as strong as the melting of candle wax. And chromic acid was the strongest of the known acids.

Then how did she do it?

If she relied on alchemy, that meant she could have been a chemist, which was very rare in the whole territory, but if not�

Roland thought until here, and then said in a determined tone, �Take me to see her.�

The Assistant Minister stood up in a flurry and accidentally knocked over the cup of milk that he had not drank. �Your Highness, you want to see the witch?�

�Yes, this is a command.� Roland looked back and smiled at the Assistant Minister. In a way, he was thankful for Prince Roland�s unreasonable style.

As Roland walked over to the door, he suddenly paused and asked, �Right, I always wanted to ask why we use the gallows.�

�What?�

Roland reiterated his question, �Why the gallows? Shouldn�t witches be burned at the stake?�

Barov seemed puzzled. �Is that so? But she�s not afraid of fire.�

There was only one dungeon in Border Town because such a barren land could not afford to upkeep too many prisoners. Most criminals would face trial within a few days and either be released or executed.

In addition to Barov, the prince was followed into the dungeon by the Chief Knight, the prison warden, the castellan and two guards.

The dungeon had a total of four floors and its walls were made of hard granite blocks. It was Roland�s first time in this kind of place. He noted that the deeper down he went, the narrower the hallway became, and the lesser the number of cells. He imagined that the builders probably dug a pit in the shape of an inverted cone first, and then piled it up with layers and layers of stone..

This type of crude engineering project would naturally not provide for a good drainage system. The ground was always very wet and muddy flowed down the stairs, all the way to the last floor.

The witch was imprisoned in the bottommost floor of the dungeon. Every floor down they went, the stench in the air became thicker.

�Your Highness, you�re risking too much by doing this. Even though she�s sealed with God�s Locket of Retribution, it isn�t completely safe.�

It was Carter Lannis, the Chief Knight, who spoke. As soon as he learnt that the prince was planning on visiting the witch, he immediately rushed over and pleaded with the prince to turn back� He did not accept the prince�s command and refused to leave�not when the prince seemed to blatantly disregard his own safety. �How could such a tall and handsome man be such a bugbear?� Roland thought. He wished that someone would just sew Carter�s mouth up. �If you don�t even dare to look evil in the eye, how will you have the courage to defeat it? I thought you knew that,� he said.

�Before fighting evil, one must know one�s strength. Reckless behavior is not courageous.� Carter rebutted.

�You mean to say that you�ll uphold justice against an inferior enemy, but turn a blind eye to a superior enemy?� Roland challenged.

�No, Your Highness, I mean �� Carter stammered.

�Before this, you were afraid of a witch raid, and now you�re even afraid to see a little girl, my Chief Knight is indeed one of a kind.�

Although the Chief Knight was talkative, he was not proficient in debate, and thus was helpless against a smooth talker like Roland. Soon the party reached the bottom floor of the dungeon.

This floor was many times smaller than the ones above, with a total of only two cells. The castellan lit the torches on the walls, and as the darkness faded, Roland saw the witch curled up in one corner of her cell.

It was already late autumn and the temperature in the dungeon was low enough for people to see white fog when they exhaled. Roland wore a fur coat with silk lining inside, and thus he did not feel cold, but the girl only wore a thin garment that did not fully cover her body, and hence her exposed arms and legs were frozen white.

The suddenly lit up torches made her turn away and close her eyes. But soon, she was able to open her eyes and looked straight at the party.

It was a pair of pale blue eyes that resembled a calm lake before the onset of heavy rains. There was no fear on the witch�s face and neither was there any sign of anger or hatred. For a moment, Roland had an illusion that he was not looking at a weak little girl, but instead a shadow that devoured flames. He felt as though the torches became a little dimmer.

The girl tried to stand up against the wall, but her sluggish motion made her seem as if she could fall down at any time. Eventually, she was able to get on her feet and hobbled her way towards the light.

This was enough to make most of the party members gasp in horror and take two steps backwards. Only the Chief Knight held his ground and shielded the prince.

�What�s your name?� Roland patted the knight on the shoulder to indicate that he did not need to be so nervous.

�Anna,� she replied.

�In the end, what happened when the mine collapsed, can you repeat it for me step by step?� Roland asked.

Anna nodded and began to describe it.

Roland was a bit surprised, he expected her to stay silent or to angrily curse at him, but instead she just responded with, �ask whatever you want,� and obediently told her tale.

It wasn�t a complicated story, but a sad one nonetheless. Anna�s father was a miner and when the mine collapsed, he was at work. Immediately after they got the news of the collapse, Anna and the other miners� families went over to help rescue their loved ones. The North Mine was previously rumored to be an underground monster lair with many forks in the road, extending in all directions. Since the rescuers were under no unified command, the volunteers separated after arriving at the mine entry so that when Anna found her father, only her neighbours, Susan and Ansgar were by her side.

Anna had discovered that her father�s leg was crushed under a full ore cart and he couldn�t move, but at his side was another miner patting him down, searching for her father�s money. As the looter saw them arrive, he took a pick and rushed at Ansgar and knocked him to the ground, but just at the moment when he was about to strike her, Anna killed him first.

Anna�s neighbours vowed that they would never say anything about this matter, and with their help Anna rescued her father. But before dawn, the next day, Anna�s father went out on his crutches and reported to the patrolling guards that his daughter was a witch.

�Why?� Roland, when he had heard up until this point, could not help but ask.

Barov sighed and answered, �Probably so he could receive the gold reward. The discovery and reporting of a witch, can get you 25 gold royals. For a man with a crippled leg, these 25 gold royals are equivalent to what he could earn for half a lifetime of work.�

After a moment of silence, Roland asked, �Your opponent was a strong and grown-up man, how were you able to kill him?�

At this Anna laughed, and the flames of the torches shook, just like high waves on a previously calm lake�s surface.

�It was exactly like what you think, I used the power of the devil.� Anna said.

�Shut up! Vile sorceress!� Shouted the warden, but everyone could hear his voice trembling.

�Is that true? I want to see it.� the fourth prince was unmoved by their antics as he calmly said.

�Your Highness, this is no laughing matter!� The Knight Commander interjected as he furrowed his brows.

Roland stepped out from behind the protection of his knight, step by step moving closer towards the cell as he said, �Everyone who is too afraid of her can leave, I did not ask you to stay here.�

�Don�t panic, she has a �God�s Locket of Retribution� around her neck!� shouted Barov loudly to comfort everyone, but likely also to reassure himself, �no matter how powerful the devil is, he cannot break God�s blessing.�

Standing in front of the prison bars, Roland and Anna were at arm�s length and he could clearly see her dusty and bruised cheek. Her soft facial features showed that she still was a minor, but her expression did not have any traces of childishness. More than that, even anger was hard to find. It was the kind of disharmonious thing Roland had only had seen on TV.

It was the face of a wandering orphan who had suffered from poverty, hunger, cold, etc� but it was not exactly the same, normally in front of the camera the lost children always stood with a bent and beaten down body, their head down, but Anna did not.

From the beginning until now, she had still tried to stand straight with her gaze slightly raised, calmly looking into the prince�s eyes. She did not fear death, Roland realized. Instead, she was waiting for death.

�Is this the first time you have seen a witch, my lord? Your curiosity might get you killed.� Anna said.

�If it was really the power of the devil, you would absolutely not be in this current situation,� Roland responded, �If that were true, it is not I should be fear death, but your father.�

The fires in the prison suddenly became dark, and this was definitely not an illusion, what seemed to be like suppressed flames were soon left with only tight flame clusters. Behind himself, Roland could hear the sound of rapid breathing and prayer, as well as the muffled sound of panicked people accidentally falling down.

Roland�s heartbeat accelerated and he felt himself at an unusual turning point. On one side was the world with common sense, which was in accordance with the laws and constants that he knew, not one thread loose, And on the other side was an incredible new world, which was full of mystery and the unknown. And right now he was standing in front of this world.

Hung on her neck is actually the �God�s Locket of Retribution�? What a simple and crude locket, Roland thought. A red iron chain with a sparkling and translucent pendant, if the witch did not have both her hands handcuffed behind her back, couldn�t she use a quick pull to destroy this kind of thing?

Roland glanced at the crowd behind him, who were still mouthing prayers in panic. He quickly reached into the cell, grabbed the pendant, and with a little tug the necklace�s chain snapped and then crashed down broken, the move startled even Anna.

�Come on.� Roland whispered.

Are you in the end a liar, some type of alchemist, or are you a real witch? If you now take out bottles and jars and start compounding acids, I will be disappointed, Roland thought.

Roland then heard a crackling sound, which was the noise of the thermal expansion of water vapor. Thanks to a dramatic rise in temperature, the water on the ground beneath them had changed to steam.

Roland saw a blazing flame rising directly from Anna�s foot, and then the ground where she stood was burning up. The torches behind them exploded simultaneously, as if they received pure oxygen, in a burst of brilliant light. For a short time, the whole cell was as if it was in daylight, and all this was accompanied by the onlookers� terrified screams.

When the witch moved forward, the flames surrounding her moved with her. As she came to the edge of her cell, the dozens of iron bars that made up the wall became pillars of fire.

Roland was forced to retreat, the heated air was biting his skin, making him feel pain. In just a few breaths of time, he had escaped from a late autumn summer, no, this was a different kind of heat, this was solely generated by this high-temperature flame and not a full ambient summer heat. One side of his body was facing the flame�s heat, and on the opposite side Roland felt a chill. He could even feel cold sweat trickling down his back.

�She really does not fear fire. Roland thought.

Roland remembered the words of the Assistant Minister. Only now could he really understand the meaning of that sentence.

She is the flame herself, and how could someone fear oneself?

Soon, the iron bars turned from crimson to a light yellow, and they began to melt. This meant that they have been heated to more than fifteen hundred degrees celsius, and achieving this in a condition without any insulating measures, which was far beyond the imagination of Roland. Like others, he had stepped away from the cell, firmly attaching himself to the wall farthest away from the cell.

If he had not done this, the heat the molten iron produced was enough to kill him even without direct contact, but it was also enough to clothes to combust, such as Anna�s, her prisoner�s smock had burnt to ashes and her body was now surrounded by a raging fire.

Roland didn�t know how long it lasted, but in the end, the flame completely faded.

The torches were quietly burning on the section of the wall next to them, it seemed like nothing had ever happened. But Anna�s burned clothes, the hot air, and the prison bars which looked like as if it was burned by the devil�s minions, all this, told everyone that this wasn�t an illusion.

In addition to Roland, only the Knight Commander was still standing. The others had collapsed to the ground, the warden was so scared that his pants smelled of urine. Anna was now standing naked outside the cell, her arm shackles were gone. She did not block the view at her naked body, her hands were hanging naturally at her side and her eyes which were blue like the sea were restored to the tranquility from before.

�Now I have satisfied your curiosity, Sir,� she said, �Will you kill me now?�

�No,� Roland stepped forward and wrapped his coat around her and said with a tone as mild as possible, �Miss Anna, I want to hire you.�

�Second Law of Thermodynamics: Heat can never pass from a colder to a warmer body without some other changes, or it is impossible to convert heat from a single source into useful work without causing other effects, in an irreversible or spontaneous change from one equilibrium state to another the entropy always increases.�

Roland carefully copied this law onto paper, writing in the language of this world. At first glance, the text resembled a moving earthworm. He really did not understand how the locals could learn so many varied and complicated characters.

If you asked him which of the numerous physical laws would be the one to cause most people to feel depressed, Roland would choose the second law of thermodynamics. It tells everyone that this world�s heat will always pass from high to low, replacing the disorder into order, increasing the entropy. Eventually, everything will end in nothingness and the universe will become deathly silent.

And this world had broken away from the ever increasing entropy problem. It could make magic out of nothing, which was much more impressive than the theorized invention of a perpetual motion machine! The forces of evil? Roland scoffed and thought to himself that the people of this world did not understand the true nature of this power, and it was so enormous that it could even change the entire universe.

Of course, for a beginning, he could only start to change this small border town.

Roland hummed a tune, tore up the paper he had written and threw it into the fireplace where it was reduced to ashes, feeling the pleasure of breaking out of a cage.

The assistant minister looked askance at the fourth prince�s unexplainable actions, but fortunately for Roland the old 4th Prince had always acted in this manner. In the end, Barov decided that the prince�s strange whimsy would pass with no need for him to bother about it, and he could see that the prince was enjoying himself.

�The killing has been completed, the �witch� was hanged at noon,� reported Barov to Roland.

�Good, did anyone see it?� Roland spoke while writing, �No matter, all of the condemned wear hoods.�

In order to prevent the Holy Church and the Witch Cooperation Association from knocking at his door, Roland had ordered the dungeon warden to find a woman with a similar build and let her replace Anna on the gallows. In addition to the Knight Commander and Assistant Minister, everyone who was with him in the dungeon hush money consisting of 20 gold royals. This was an enormous windfall for them.

Barov even proposed killing all of the witnesses, or they would never keep their silence forever, but Roland rejected this. He knew he could not prevent this secret from spreading, but this didn�t matter because he actually wanted someone to spread the word, just not now. He would fall out with the church sooner or later anyway, those idiots who promoted the intolerance that caused such a waste of resources! On the other hand, other witches would hear there was a border town in the kingdom where they could live a free life, and could even get preferential treatment, what would these witches think?

No matter what age in time it was, the talent one possessed was the most important thing.

�Then everything is alright,� Roland said, �Next point, for the tariffs, taxes and expenditures of the year, you previously gave me a short summary, let me have a proper look at them. Furthermore, those workshops in the city, the places that make ironware, textiles, pottery and such, you also have to include the numbers and sizes.�

�I�ll need three days to prepare these records, but��Barov said as he first nodded, then paused and looked like he wasn�t sure how to continue.

�What is the matter?� Roland asked. He was aware that finally, the moment had come where his ability was about to be tested. Yesterday everything he had done was questioned by the assistant minister because of his doubt in Roland, a scoundrel would always be a scoundrel, but having a bad character didn�t mean that they were also brainless. To aid and harbor a witch, in the eyes of the assistant minister, was akin to declaring war on the world.

�Your Highness, I do not understand �� Barov paused as he wrestled with his words, �In the past, although you made trouble, it was always more harmless, but now � taking such a significant risk only to save a witch? The law to hunt them down was proclaimed by the Church, and even your father, his Majesty Wimbledon III supports it.�

Roland thought for a moment and then asked, �Do you believe that this border town is a good place to live?�

�Uh, this �� Barov did not understand what this question had to do with the problem, after some time he gave his true opinion, �no.�

�It is awful, compared to Valencia, the City of Golden Harvests or the Port of Clearwater, what do you feel my chances are of winning the rights to the throne against my siblings?�

��� The assistant minister opened his mouth but didn�t answer.

�Almost zero. So I can only choose to walk another path,� Roland continued as he watched expressionlessly as Barov took one step after another into the trap he laid down. �The kind of road that would even impress my father.�

He did not state the point that the witches were not inherently evil because to do so would have little success. Barov had been the Assistant Minister of Finance for twenty years and was regarded as a competent politician. For politicians, their personal gains were usually more important than the moral law of good and evil. Also taking the emotional route was not suitable for him, as Roland recalled the previous prince�s actions, he found out that he really couldn�t be considered as an upright and righteous person. So he chose to play on the eternal conflict between religious and secular authority, as the expanding power of the Holy Church was a constant thorn in the side of Wimbledon III.

The Church claimed that the world worked in accordance with the will of God, and the pope was the voice of God. If the people found what he said weren�t the truth, even full of lies, the dominance of the Holy Church would be greatly shaken.

With the phrase, �the witch is not evil, so I want to save her,� it would be hard to convince the assistant minister, but replaced with �she is not an evil witch, and I can use this to attack the church,� Barov could easily be persuaded to accept this conclusion.

� Regardless how the territories of my brothers and sisters flourished, it was a foregone conclusion that everything would end in the possession of the church. They had already stepped on the divine right of kings, if only the pope can be considered as rightful ruler, then are they the actual rulers of this land or are we?� Roland paused for just the right amount of time before going on, �even my father will have to place his hope in me: A leader who isn�t suppressed by the Holy Church, one who holds all the exclusive rights of a royal king, his choice would be very clear. �

Changing the �enemy of the entire world� into �only the enemy of the Church� was easier to accept for many people, not to mention Barov, who was himself standing on the side of the royal family.

�In the same way, if he is aware of the extraordinary abilities they have, that they can pry open grip of the Holy Church, the execution orders will be nothing more than a paper joke. While there is no possibility to guarantee success, it�s not impossible either. Do you think I�m worth the risk? � Roland stared at the assistant minister while saying these sentences in a row,�Do not falter now, Barov. You�ve been an assistant minister for twenty years, right? If I can become Wimbledon IV, the word assistant will be removed, or even further, something like� becoming the Hand of the King is possible, hmm? �

��

Looking at Barov�s back who was leaving, Roland felt relieved. It was easy to see that he didn�t think much of his promise, this was normal, even Roland himself did not believe that this just recently scraped together plan, which was made up out of hubris could be realized. But that was not important, the key was to let Barov believe that he really thought that way. A sheltered noble�s son could only think of a simple plan, not to mention that the 4th Prince really hated the mentality of the church. At this time, the way to attract more witches was also paved.

As for his real thoughts? Even if Barov knew them, he wouldn�t be able to understand them.

Roland summoned the maid, �Call Miss Anna and tell her she should come to see me.�

Roland happily thought that the following business would be the best.

TN: if you�re interested into the Second Law of Thermodynamics

In the castle backyard stood a single cottage, which was covered with wooden planks and had two windows. There was a pond in front of the cottage with a circumference of roughly nine and a half yards, and it was filled with river water, making it not only fire-resistant but also modifiable. Piled atop the ground were several iron ingots, which came from a blacksmith and were placed there by Carter.

Roland had chosen this location for the cottage because of its proximity to a well, but it was still too crude to be a laboratory. He shook his head, realizing that building a perfect lab overnight was not possible. He would need Barov to collect the resources before he could build an official workshop.

�How are you? Did you sleep well?�

Roland turned around and asked Anna, who seemed confused.

The witch in front of him and the witch he saw yesterday were two completely different people. After a thorough bath, her long flaxen hair draped over her shoulders like a shawl and had a soft luster. Her skin glowed with vitality and a light dusting of freckles on the bridge of her nose added a youthful vitality to her face. Her body was still so thin that a strong breeze could topple her, but her cheeks were rosy and the bruises and marks on her neck had faded. Roland suspected that magic power not only gave witches extraordinary power, but also improved their health. Anna�s recovery rate was much faster than the average person�s.

�Since you experienced so much difficulty, you should be allowed to rest for a few days, but our time is limited, so I�ll make it up to you later.� Roland walked around the girl. �Does your dress fit well?�

Anna wore clothes that he had carefully selected to satisfy his lewd tastes. The protective clothing that iron workers wore was too thick and unsuitable for her, while the elegant and classy robes many mages wore in games actually restricted mobility and would quickly be turned to ashes. As for maids� dresses, was there any better clothing than this?

Even though this world had no modern maid outfits, it was not an issue since the current maid clothes were similar to those of later generations. Thus, Roland took a set of clothes from Tyre and cut it to Anna�s size, shortened the skirt, shortened the sleeves, folded the collar, and added a bow, thereby creating the new witch uniforms.

This was accompanied by a witch hat (customized), black boots (ready), as well as a knee-length cape (tailored), and Roland found himself looking at a character he had only seen in movies..

�Your Highness� What can I do for you?� Anna asked.

Anna really could not keep up with the ideas of this man, and she felt that she was losing her judgement. As she was dragged out of the dungeon with a bag over her head, she thought she would soon be free from her cursed life. However, after taking off the bag, Anna found herself not in the gallows or the guillotine, but a magnificent room. Then, a bunch of people flooded in and began undressing and bathing her from her armpits to her toes, leaving nothing unpolished.

Next was her clothing, and Anna didn�t expect that someone would help her get dressed. She also never knew that clothes could be so comfortable that they laid gently on her body and created no friction at all.

Finally, a bearded old man entered the room, and after he ordered everyone else to step out, he placed a contract in front of her. At this moment Anna realized that the man who said he wanted to hire her in the dungeon was actually Prince Roland of this kingdom, and that he wasn�t joking. The contract clearly stated that if she worked for the prince, she would be paid a gold royal every month.

Anna knew how much a gold royal was worth. Her father�s pay as a miner was determined by the amount of ore he mined, but even his best haul was only worth one silver royal. One hundred silver royals were equal to a gold royal, and this still depended on the purity of the silver royals. So, was her job to sleep with the prince? Anna had heard the maids whispering this while she was bathing, but she didn�t think she was worth this price. Her blood was tainted by the devil, so anyone who knew of her identity avoided her at all costs. Even if the prince�s curiosity was so compelling that he didn�t fear the devil, he didn�t need to pay her.

However, no one came into her bedroom that night, and she fell asleep peacefully. It was the softest bed Anna had ever slept in, so she lay down and immediately fell asleep. When she woke up the next day, it was already noon, and lunch was being served in her room, consisting of bread, cheese and steak. She had been ready to die, but after tasting the luxurious meal, Anna could not but start to cry.

The sauces and seasonings exploded in her mouth with a strong spicy flavor mingled with a sweet taste, attacking her taste buds� Suddenly, she felt that the world was a little bit brighter.

Anna felt that if she ate this food every day, she would even have more courage to fight the demons that attacked her body.

Standing in this garden that looked nothing like her prison cell, Anna secretly made up her mind. Since the prince needed her, whether it wearing strange clothes, or even using the devil�s power, she was willing to try. So, she repeated her question, but without hesitation this time.

�Your Highness, what can I do for you?�

�Right now, I want you to learn to control your own strength. Practice it over and over until you can send out and retract your flames freely.�

�You mean the devil�s��

�No, no, Miss Anna.� Roland interrupted her. �This is your power.� The witch blinked her beautiful blue eyes.

�Most people in the world have the misconception that witches� power belongs to the devil and is incredibly evil, but they are wrong.� Roland bent down and met her at eye level. �But you already figured that out, right?�

Roland remembered Anna�s chuckle in the dungeon. Would a person who felt she was evil laugh with such self-mockery?

�I didn�t use my power to hurt anyone else,� she murmured, �except that looter.�

�Self-defense is not a sin, and you did the right thing. People fear you because they do not understand you, and they only know that training will lead to power, but they do not know how to become a witch. Unknown power is always scary.�

�You�re not afraid,� Anna said.

�Because I know your power belongs to you.� Roland laughed. �But if that looter had such incredible strength, I wouldn�t be able to stand so calmly in front of him.�

�Well, let�s get started,� he said.

The fire rose up from her feet but quickly dispersed.

That had been her twenty-third attempt.

And she had failed again.

On Anna�s forehead, beads of sweat constantly appeared, but she used the back of her hand to wipe them away, and the crackling sound of rising flames went out.

Without stopping to rest, the end of one exercise was immediately followed by the start of the next. The witch�s uniform lay at her side, neatly folded. If Anna had not insisted on doing so, her new uniform would have already been burned to ashes.

Fortunately, given Roland�s identity as the Fourth Prince, getting a few spare robes for her to practice in was not difficult. He had his maid Tyre deliver a whole bucket of robes, gathered by the maids for Anna to use.

The twenty-fourth attempt had finally been successful. The flame no longer came from her feet. Instead, it appeared in her hands. She gingerly moved her arm to try and have the flame go to her fingertips, but the flame suddenly shook twice and engulfed her arm, setting her sleeve on fire, spreading from the sleeve to engulf the whole robe.

Anna dispelled the flames, but her robe was already completely burnt and unusable, so she turned to the bucket and got a new one.

This wasn�t the first time this had happened, but whenever it did Roland would look away. He would stare off into the distance, even if Anna herself didn�t care.

In fact, if it weren�t for Roland�s strong objections, she would probably have taken off all of her clothes and practiced in the nude, in broad daylight! But even if Roland would look at her, he wouldn�t be able to work well with a naked girl, especially when that girl burst into flames and her body gave off an entirely different kind of energy.

Roland shook his head, removing such impure thoughts from his mind. For the moment, it seemed very difficult to master the use of magic. Roland had instructed Anna to try to control the fire to such a degree that she could release flames from her palm or her fingers without destroying her own clothes. However, he also wanted the flames to be hot enough that they could melt the pig iron ingots that were in the yard.

After Anna�s thirtieth attempt had failed but before she could begin the next one, Roland stopped her and told her to take a break.

Anna looked startled, but she gave no other response.

Roland had to walk over and even pull Anna by her hand, leading her to a chair and forcing her to sit down.

�You are tired; when you are tired you need to rest. Do not be too impatient, we still have some time.� He helped her wipe the sweat from her forehead and said, �Let us have some early afternoon tea.�

Roland knew that the noble of the Kingdom of Graycastle were not in the habit of drinking afternoon tea. Since this world�s economy was underdeveloped, the vast majority of people would not have the opportunity to taste such delicious food. The people in this world were not familiar with the idea of eating three meals a day, not to mention a fourth one. As for the sons of nobles, they generally gathered together in the afternoon at bars or casinos.

If Roland wanted to introduce the custom, he had to prepare the food and drink himself, for the maid and the cook were not familiar with it. Since prepared some light refreshments and they didn�t have any tea, he was forced to use ale as a substitute, but it would be important to get some tea in the future.

So, in a wooden cottage in the castle backyard, the first afternoon tea party of Graycastle was held.

Anna looked at the dishes of exquisite snacks, not believing her eyes. How could food look so beautiful?

Although she did not know the name of the cake she ate, it was a pure white, and the bright red collection of fruit could make a person�s mouth water.. The edges of the pastries were decorated with exquisite patterns. This experience exposed her to things she had never seen before, forcing her to change her view of the world once again.

Roland proudly observed Anna�s expressions; she looked stunned, but also slightly frightened. Although the strawberries on the cream cake were marinated in sugar and didn�t even taste fresh, Anna ate the whole thing.

Roland found that watching the witch�s face while she ate was more satisfying than eating himself. Roland observed Anna, who was carefully placing the cake into her mouth, her blue eyes twinkling and her hair gently swaying in the wind. Seeing all this, his heart suddenly beat faster and he thought to himself, why would anyone eat food which is not only delicious, but also beautiful!

Well, these strong feelings were also very important.

Watching Anna while she practiced and having afternoon tea with her became Roland�s daily routine. He had not shown any interest in government affairs. Barov helped him to take care of any issues so that everything was in order.

Three days later, Barov delivered the information on the Border Town�s industries that Roland had asked for to his office. This was an unbelievable moment; the former Fourth Prince had never actually had the patience to see such a large pile of complicated reports.

In fact, even now he still didn�t have it. Roland needed only to read two lines of text before he began to feel dizzy, and he told Barov, �You�ll read it to me.�

He spent an hour listening to Barov read the reports before he found a mistake. �Why did the Border Town have no trade revenue or annual taxes in the winter?�

Since the winters were so cold, the lack of agriculture revenue was reasonable, but how could it be absolute zero? Did the local people hibernate?

Barov coughed, �Your Highness, have you forgotten? During the winter months, the �Months of the Demons� takes place. Since the town cannot guard its borders, all of the residents must evacuate to Longsong Stronghold. But rest assured, your safety is certainly our main priority.�

�Months of the Demons?� Roland seemed to recall having heard that phrase before. He personally didn�t believe the tales of ghosts and the legends of wicked witches, and he privately considered it to be part of this uncivilized world�s nonsense and superstition. But now it seemed that the monsters were not myths, since witches did actually exist. Then, what about other famous legends, like ghosts?

When he was receiving his education, his history tutor had told him the story of the �Month of the Demons.� Every winter, after the first snow fell and the sun had disappeared behind the mountains, an intense darkness would descend upon the world. At that time, the gates of hell would open and release demons into the world.

The evil spirits would corrupt living creatures and turn them into the slaves of the devil. Some of these animals would change into powerful demonic beasts that would attack humans. Most witches were born during this season and would be much stronger because of it.

�Have you seen the Gates of Hell?� Roland asked.

�Your Highness, how could we ordinary people see them?� Barov shook his head repeatedly. �Don�t say such things. The mountains they come from cannot be conquered. Even being close to the mountains means you�ll be affected by the foul miasma. First you get a mild headache, and then you can lose your mind in the most severe cases. Unless��

�Unless what?�

�Unless the person who goes to the Gates of Hell is a witch. Only a witch would be able to travel to the Gates of Hell because they have fallen from grace and become the devil�s minions. Naturally, they don�t need to fear the evil forces,� Barov said, glancing in the direction of the backyard.

�Have you ever seen one of these demonic monsters?� Roland said, knocking on the table to recapture the attention of the Assistant Minister.

�Well, I personally haven�t see them. Like you, this is my first time I have ever been to the kingdom�s borders. In the capital, only a few people there have encountered real demons.�

If he needed to evacuate once a year, how would Roland be able to develop the Border Town? He initially thought that the Border Town was a barren land, but that it could be developed; that now seemed to be a pipe dream.

�Since we can hold of the demonic beasts at Longsong Stronghold, and since they aren�t invincible and they can be killed, then why can�t we defend this Border Town as well?�

�Longsong Stronghold has a very high wall. Also, Duke Ryan�s elite troops are stationed there. It is nothing like this Border Town. This small town cannot be compared to it,� Barov explained. �First, the Border Town was established to provide an early warning to the stronghold. Therefore, the town was set between the North Slop Mountain and the Redwater River.�

It seemed that the Border Town only existed to slow down the demons. It was the only path they could take to reach Longsong Stronghold. Roland laughed at his bad luck.

If Roland wanted to develop the Border Town, he would have to put down roots. Even though the area was a wasteland, it could easily be reclaimed and improved. If the size of the territory was too small, people could expand outwards. However, all of talk was useless if no one was willing to stay.

If they could be forced to abandon their land at any time, then who would be willing to purchase it? Who would want to improve it?

After the Assistant Minister left, Roland called in Chief Knight Carter and ordered, �Assemble your men and go and find some of the local guards, hunters and farmers who have lived here for more than five years. Ask them if they have experienced the Months of the Demons. If you find someone who has fought a demon, that would be even better.�

After the knight saluted and left, Roland rubbed his forehead and continued to look at the data compiled by the Assistant Minister.

The Border Town primarily exported products from hunting and mining, and mainly imported food. Everything was transported directly along the Redwater River to Longsong Stronghold or Willow town.

The mining exports included all kinds of minerals, such as iron, copper, sulfur, crystal, ruby, and sapphire, etc. This was completely against the concept of associated minerals. He thought about what Anna had said to him: the North Slope Mine area was rumored to be an unknown underground lair, and until now there had been no proven bottom to the mine. It was also unknown how far the mine extended.

The minerals the town exported weren�t paid for with the kingdom�s gold royals, but instead they were traded for the foodstuffs that arrived. It seems reasonable that, since the gems were a high-priced luxury, in these last five years the Border Town should have saved a surplus of food, but there was nothing left.

In other words, the annual mining production of the Border Town was only enough to feed two thousand people. Before the prince had arrived, the Border Town had been governed by the duke who also controlled Longsong Stronghold; it was him who had set up this arrangement. In his opinion, it would save food and also created a warning system for the monsters.

The fur trade was how the local people made their living. They ventured into the Misty Forest to the west and hunted birds and other animals. They then sold the animals to the acquirers of Longsong Stronghold or to the residents of Willow Town. No transactions took place in the Border Town and so no taxes were collected.

Roland thought that, since he had come this practice could not continue; minerals would no longer be paid for with food. The Redwater River ran through the whole kingdom, and anyone could use it. It was essentially a highway; even if they no longer bought food from Longsong Stronghold, there were other places they could trade with.

However, this was all built upon the premise that he could stay in the Border Town and hold off those damn monsters.

Carter worked quickly and by the next day he had found two local guards and a hunter. He reported, �These two men are part of the town patrol, every year they are responsible for lighting the beacon. The hunter said he has crossed paths with the demons. He returned with the head of a demonic beast, which he said he cut off with his own two hands.�

The three of them bowed simultaneously.

Roland nodded, gesturing for them to stand up; the first person stepped forward to speak.

�Honor� respected prince� Your Highness.� The first guard who spoke was so nervous he was unable to speak clearly, �Brian and I are� are the people, uh� when it begins to snow, we� we�ll go to the North Slope Mine area� to the Beacon Tower. There it is the first possible� it is the first place where you can see the demons, and if they are crossing over in great numbers� we�ll conceal ourselves in the Misty forest� and light the beacon in the tower� We retreat up the road and board the boat, which we prepared beforehand� then we leave.�

�Since you both were together, let your partner answer.� Roland covered his face to hide his disapproval. �What are the demonic beasts like? Can they be killed?�

The other guard was also very nervous, but at least he did not stammer. �Your Highness, I believe so. They used to just be ordinary animals in the forest, but because of the evil miasma they become manic and ferocious; however, they can still be killed. During every past Months of the Demons, Longsong Stronghold would send cavalry to cleanse the remnants of the demon monsters along the land from Longsong Stronghold to Border Town.�

�How long does the Months of the Demons?� Roland asked.

�Generally two to three months� it depends on the sun,� said Brian.

�The sun?� Roland asked doubtfully.

�Yes,� the guard explained. �Your Highness came to this town not too long ago, so you do not know. In this Border town, once the snow begins to fall it does not stop until the sun shines again and then the snow goes away.�

�So the snow indicates the end of the Months of the Demons?� Roland recalled that at least in Graycastle, it was not like this. The next day it would stop snowing, and the sun would seem to be no different.

�It is exactly like this. The longest Months of the Demons I have experienced was two years ago, which lasted for nearly four months and many people starved.�

�Why, shouldn�t be the grain reserves in Longsong stronghold large enough to support the town for more than one month?� Roland asked.

Brian�s face got a little angry. �They had enough. But Reynolds, the Municipal Administrative Governor who was responsible for managing such things, declared that the amount of ore and minerals mined was only enough to buy food for three months, and for the fourth month we had to deliver a new shipment of ore. But the Months of the Demons had not ended, and we couldn�t leave the fortress.�

�So that is what happened� I understand.�

They were fools to be alienating people. If Longsong Stronghold treated the people who lived on the frontier with this kind of cold harshness, like a spring wind, the frontiersmen would most likely want to stay and not leave. At the moment it seemed that the group of people controlling Longsong Stronghold were not the good-natured sort. Roland beckoned the last person forward to answer, while putting the name of the Municipal Administrative Governor in the back of his mind.

The third man looked courageous and strong, standing over 6 feet tall, making Roland feel tense. Fortunately, he came forward on his knees.

�You said you killed the beast?�

�Yes, Your Highness.� His voice was low and hoarse. �A demonic boar and a demonic wolf.�

�Species?� Roland repeated, �what do you mean?�

�This is the name of the demonic beast, Your Highness. The fiercer the animal was before, the more difficult it is to deal with variation after. The transformation emphasizes the advantages of the animal. The demonic boar�s back fur becomes extremely tough, even within 50 meters it is difficult to hurt it with a crossbow. The demonic wolf becomes more cunning and it runs faster. To kill it, you need to set up traps in advance.�

�Stronger animals become even stronger and faster animals become even faster.� Roland nodded as he heard this. �But they are still animals.�

�Yes, they are, but they aren�t the most terrible kind of enemy,� the hunter said. He swallowed his saliva before he could speak further, �The worst ones are the demonic hybrids.�

�They are the devil incarnate; only hell is able to create such a horrible monster. I have seen a demonic hybrid. It had not only strong limbs of beast, but on its back there was a pair of huge wings, allowing it to fly short distances. And it always knew where I was. No matter how much I tried to hide, it could always detect me. It was not hunting its prey, Your Highness, but it was just teasing it.� The hunter lifted his clothing, revealing a large scar extending from his abdomen to his chest. He said, �Before I lost consciousness I fell into the Redwater River. I was lucky to survive.�

�Such a monster actually exists.� Roland felt that the world was becoming more and more fantastic. A strong wall could stop all ordinary kinds of demonic beasts, but if they could fly, what should he do? �Demonic hybrids are very rare, right?�

�There are not many, Your Highness,� the hunter replied. �During every Months of the Demons, there�ll only be two to three demonic hybrids, otherwise Longsong Stronghold would be unable to defend itself.�

�Well, you are very observant.� Roland noted. He ordered the man to stand up and asked, �What�s your name? You don�t look like you are from my Kingdom of Graycastle.�

�Half of my lineage hails from the Mojin Clan, and the townspeople call me Iron Axe.�

Mojin, the Ironsand people were said to be the descendants of Ironsand Giant, who once lived in the southwest of the barren lands. Roland searched for any memories he had related to the Mojin Clan and realized that Iron Axe did not use the name his clan called him by, but instead used the name given to him by the people of Border Town. Apparently, he did not want to have a relationship with the Ironsand people. As for why, since it was obvious that he was from the southwestern border of the desolate lands, Roland estimated that there was a series of sad stories involved.

For the moment, those stories weren�t important; everyone was welcome in Border Town regardless of their background.

Roland clapped his hands. �That�s not why I asked you all to come here. Carter, give each of these men ten silver royals, and then they may go.�

�Thank you very much for the reward, Your Highness,� the three said in unison.

Afterwards, the men were taken away by Carter. Carter returned once again and asked, �Your Highness, why did you ask them these questions? Do you want to stay here?�

Roland didn�t express any opinion, but instead asked, �What do you think?�

�This matter is out of the question, Your Highness!� the knight said loudly. �According to the hunter, even the demonic boars would be difficult to defeat. Outside of 50 meters a shot from a crossbow would have no effect; we would have to wait until it came within 40 meters, or even until 30 meters before taking our shot. Only our elite soldiers could accomplish this. Plus, there�re too many demonic beasts, and we have no strong walls. We could only stand with the local guards to stop them. I�m afraid that the casualties would outstrip the accomplishment, and our defeat would be assured.�

�You already saw what a witch is able to do, so why can�t you think positively?� Roland sighed.

�These� witches are evil, but Anna� Miss Anna does not look so. As your Chief Knight, I use facts to look for the truth.�

�If I could give you a city wall, do you think it would be possible to defend Border Town?�

�What?� For a moment Carter suspected that he had heard Roland incorrectly.

�If I give you a wall between the North Slope Mountain and the Redwater River, could you defend Border Town?� Roland stressed every word he said. �Although they would not be like the enormous walls from Graycastle and built only to stop beasts, but they should be enough.

�Your Highness, do you understand what you are saying?� The knight honestly didn�t know whether to be angry or to laugh. �Even your nonsense should have a limit. If you don�t stop, you�ll have to excuse my lack of manners.�

�We still have three months, don�t we? I looked at Border Town�s records, and the first snow usually falls then.�

�Even if we had three years it would not be enough! Building a wall would require many workers. To set the foundation they must compress the earth and every one or two feet has to be reinforced; otherwise, there is a high risk of collapse. This would only be the most simple of earthen walls.� Carter shook his head repeatedly. �Brick and stone walls are even more difficult to build and it would need hundreds of stonemasons who would first have to cut the stones or bake the clay into bricks. Afterwards they would need to build it block by block. Your highness, all walls are built this way, without exception. A city being built in a day and a night is only the stuff of legends.�

Roland indicated he had heard enough. �I see. You don�t need to be so upset. If there is no reliable wall in place when the time comes, I�ll evacuate with you to Longsong Stronghold. I�m not prepared to die in this place.�

The knight knelt, swearing, �I�ll protect you!� Afterwards, in the beautiful castle gardens, Roland nipped at his bitter ale. Looking at Anna, who was intently eating cream cakes, his mood recovered substantially.

He had decided to stop the demonic beasts at Border town by joining the elite soldiers with the town guards. He would also increase the amount of available farmland by expanding the area the guards patrolled. If he wanted to build a wall connecting the North Slope Mountain and the Redwater River within three months, he would have to use technology from modern times.

It was not that Roland had just suddenly thought of this. Previously he had checked the edges of Border Town (although he didn�t go personally). In his mind he had a clear picture�the Northern Slope Mountain and the Redwater River were only separated by 600 meters at their closest point; it was a natural bottleneck. And due to the year-round, the area was surrounded by rock gravel mined from the cave.

These gravel cast offs were ash gray, containing plenty of calcium carbonate, which could be used as limestone after it was ground. With the limestone, he had his solution. It would be the same as cement. Being able to build with a water hardening material, with raw materials which were easy to obtain and simple to prepare: it would change the history of mankind. It would stand as one of humanity�s greatest achievements, among the most efficient tools for tilling fields.

Roland estimated the time he would need. Even if he could implement new technology, even with cement, he wasn�t sure if it was possible. The amount of cement they needed was too much and he wasn�t sure if they could calcine so much cement powder in three months. The strength of the concrete would be subpar and they would need to reinforce it with steel. Thus, the odds for successfully building a concrete city were not great.

They had to maximize the usage of existing materials in order to save cement, so building a fieldstone wall seemed to be the most appropriate choice.

The so-called fieldstone was a stone which had not undergone any grinding; it was just a natural byproduct of mining. This stone, because of the irregular edges and corners, had no direct uses in building, but instead it first needed to be processed by the stonemason into usable bricks. However, building a fieldstone wall and using cement as binder was possible. Regardless of how oddly shaped the stone was, it could still be used, and the gaps between the stones was filled in by the cement. This process saved cement and used leftover materials.

With this, the course was set, but as for the actual implementation, Roland was afraid he would have to do that by himself. Regardless of whether it was the calcined cement or fieldstone wall, both of these were new ideas. Except him, no one had ever seen these things, and no one knew how to make them. He was afraid he would be very busy for the next three months.

�You, look here.� The sound of Anna�s clear voice came from behind him.

As Roland turned, he saw a small cluster of flames in her palm burning quietly. There was no wind, but the tip of the flames was rising up and down, as if it was nodding to her. She shook her finger and the fire slowly moved towards the tip of her finger. Finally, it stood at the very tip of her index finger.

�You did it.� It was an incredible scene. Roland felt sincere admiration for what he had just witnessed. This was not a magical illusion, nor a chemical trick, but a real supernatural power. However, this was not the thing Roland was attracted to�many times more dazzling than the flame was Anna�s expression.

While she was intently staring at her fingertips, her lake water limpid eyes were reflecting the vibrant flame, as if an elf was sealed within a sapphire in her eyes. The traces left from being tortured in prison had already faded, and though she rarely smiled, her face was no longer lifeless. On the tip of her nose was a speck of sweat and the rosy color on her white checks emitted vitality. Anyone who looked at her would be put into a cheerful mood.

�What happened to you?�

�Ah� Nothing.� Roland noticed he had looked at her for too long, and he removed his gaze and coughed. �Well then, try using it to melt the iron.�

In the past few days, except for eating and sleeping, Anna had continuously practiced. In front of the hardworking enthusiast, Roland could only endlessly blush in shame�even when he studied for the college entrance examination he did not work so hard.

�Apparently, she�ll not need long until she completely grasps this power,� Roland thought. �Once she does, my ideas for new projects can be put on the agenda.�

This week, the weather wasn�t good, the sky was always gray, Karl van Bate�s mood was like the weather, gloomy to the extreme.

Walking on the wet stone street, from time to time there were people greeting him. In in this town, Karl run a school. At Graycastle those noble children with the talent to go to school, attended a different kind of college, here he was also teaching for the children of ordinary people. Therefore, in this border town, he had a very high reputation.

�Hey, Mr. van Bate, good morning.�

�Sir, is my son doing all right?�

�When are you free, Karl, let�s go fishing together.�

At ordinary times Karl would always smile and would respond to them, but today he just nodded, never saying a word.

Since he witnessed the hanging of Anna, in his eyes the world appeared to be flawed � or to say since his departing from Graycastle a crack seems to be rising into existence, but he deliberately turned a blind eye. He used his busy work to numb himself, and to a certain extent, he even used the innocent smile of the students, to cover this crack.

Until Anna died, he thought, that the world had not changed. But after the hanging, the crack not only did not disappear, but it expanded.

Regarding Anna, he recalled the memories of the previous half a year. Withinthe more than thirty children in her class she stood not out, with a normal appearance, she was never a person of many words, but there was something that let Karl felt a little impressed.

That was her passion for knowledge. No matter what they would teach, characters or history, she could always remember it on her first try. Even if it was the boring history and evolution of the religion, she was always seen holding a book. He had seen the young lady help to take care of her neighbor�s sheep, sitting down in the sun, Anna would carefully brush the sheep�s hair, gently, like someone would do it with a baby. The picture he could still remember very clearly was the sweet smile of a happy girl, no matter what or how he could not think of her as a sinister and evil person.

Later there was a fire at her place, and Anna�s mother unfortunately passed away, afterwards Anna never came back to college. He never saw her again, until a week ago, when she was proved to be a witch and hanged in the town square.

Be tempted by the devil? An unclean person? Evil? All fart! In his heart, he had for the first time doubts about the Holy Church, for the first time he doubted the knowledge they imparted.

Whether or not Anna was a witch, he didn�t knew, but she would never turn evil! If a yet to mature girl, a girl ignorant of the world and full of curiosity could be called evil, then the administrative officials of Graycastle were from hell and possessed by the devil too! In order to save several hundreds of gold royals, they deliberately stole stone material in exchange, leading to the collapse of the half-finished theater building; more than thirty masons of their guild had died.

But were they hanged? Not even one! The judge finally ruled that the leader of the stonemasons was unsuitable for his job, he was punished into exile, the stonemasons were forced to disband.

And Carl, who knew the insight story, fled out of the limelight and left Graycastle, he followed the road into the west, eventually ending in the border town.

He managed to establish a college, with a lot of students, he already got to know the new neighbors, he found new friends, but the crime from the officers of Graycastle was always engraved in his mind. Now, once again he felt the world was mocking him-what was evil, the gods of heaven could they really see it clearly?

The last overwhelming straw for Karl was Nana.

Nana and Anna were nothing alike; one could even say they were the complete opposite. She was a very lively girl, quite well known in the college. Only seldom attending class, and when she was there, she could never pay attention, only lying in the grass. If you asked what she did, she would giggle for a while, and then she would answer that she was looking at a fight between a grasshopper and ants.

Nana�s face was always full of laughter; it seemed to be her nature. The evil world had nothing to do with her, at least in the college, she could always be happy and was able to laugh. Karl was even a little curious � if she had ever cried since she was born.

Until two days ago, when suddenly, with a long face, Nana came to find him, �teacher, will I be hanged too, like Anna?�

This let him knew, his student, Nana had became a witch.

�Ah, isn�t that Teacher? Come over here and help us to look at what it says.�

Karl felt as if someone had pulled his sleeve. He looked up and found that he had arrived at the town square. Many people stood around the board andshouted, that someone should let them know what the announcement said,hearing van Bate�s name, everyone consciously get out of his way.

�Teacher, you coincidentally came, help us to look at it.�

�You are right, originally it was Meg who would read this to us, but the end result was, that before he could tell it to us, he got stomachache and had togo to the toilet, until now he did not come back.�

Like always, he nodded with a smile, then he explained in detail the content of the bulletin board to everybody who listened. But at the present Karl discovered it was impossible � the smiles and enthusiasm of these people was not fake, but for him it was, but seeing this, it became more and more intolerable to wear the fake mask himself.

The post of the hanging of Anna was placed above the notice, everyone was cheerily discussing about it. In a sense, you were her murderer; he could say it only in his own heart, your ignorance and fear had killed her.

Karl had to swallow down his emotion, took a deep breath and walked to the front of the announcement list.

�The prince called for hands to help with the construction of new buildings for the border town, a variety of different kinds of jobs is available,� he said.

But I am also one of her killers, and what qualifications do I have to blame them? The one who told them that witches were evil, was it not me? Karl had a bitter taste in his mouth, look, everything they knew I have taught them, word by word the Holy Church doctrine, I always thought I taught well, to hell with it!

�Stone grinder, they have to be male, from 20 years to 40 years old and healthy. Payment, 25 bronze royals per day.�

Mud craftsmen, not limited to gender, over 18 years old, they should have experience in masonry, the daily payment would be 45 bronze royals.�

�Handyman, requiring to be men, 18 years of age or older, 12 bronze royals per day.�

����

No, he had to do something, if Anna�s death has been irreparable, then at least he couldn�t let Nana die. Karl heard his inner voice shouting, �the Mason guild collapsed when you did not stand up, Anna was hanged when he did not stand up, do you like what happened when you staid silence, helplessly looking at these lovely child, when she would be sent to the gallows?�

But what could he do? Could he flee with Nana out of Border Town? He had his own family, a family who traveled with him from Graycastle, just whenthere live got better would they need to leave again? Even Nana herself, who was born into a rich family, would she leave her fixed place of life?

Stonemason, not limited to gender, age is not limited, preferred are people who participated in building for the municipal administration, like the stronghold, or other fortifications, the city hall recruit for long term , with monthly remuneration of 1 gold royal.�

�Additional Term: People with rich experience and excellent performance, could get granted an official position.�

After reading the notice, the people become even more noisy, �paid monthly 1 gold royal, this is even better than the payment for the stronghold cavalry!�

�Will you go? Can you build a fortress?�

�You, just don�t only stare at this, go get a job, every day you would get payed for the work, count together you would not get much less than with hunting.�

�Indeed, when going to hunt it is possible to lose one�s own life and when you have to dodge it is also possible to get lost.�

Karl van Bate did not pay attention to this; he concentrated on the seal and signature on the final notice. It was the autograph from Roland Wimbledon, the fourth prince.

Did the prince not know, that the Month of the Demons was already coming? Whatever he wants to build, at the moment it�s not a good time to start. It seems his Highness knew nothing about constructions, provided that oneself could become the stonemasons, would he then brought to his attention �� Karl had suddenly an idea, perhaps through this recruitment, he could see the prince himself, the highest ruling in Border town.

This thought let Karl swallow a mouth of saliva, could he convince the prince that the witches were not evil? There were rumors of his Royal Highness unique ideas, he should have a character different from ordinary people, but also that he hated the church very much. Maybe he could do it! He thought, although in the end the hanging of Anna was ordered by Prince Roland, but everyone could see he was not willing to do it.

The prince himself was still in his early twenties, this should make it easier to understand, those girls were still in the marriageable age, how will they suddenly become evil and do unforgivable acts?

Of course, there was a possibility that Karl would end as a Witch Helper, he would have to go to the gallows, together with the witch. The Church�s law stipulates that anyone who shield a witch or who would plea for leniency, should be regarded as someone who abandoned himself and become a demon disciple.

Only the prince, the prince who hated the church, could be his last hope, since only he could declare the church�s law as a waste of paper.

Karl prayed in his heart.

Even though he did not know to which God he should pray, he closed his eyes and prayed for a blessing.

In memorial of the dead Anna, for the sake of Nana who was still alive, andfor himself, so that his own heart crack would no longer expand.

He decided to take the risk.

�The air is getting colder.� Garcia Wimbledon lamented, combing her hair with her fingers that blew in the wind, as she gazed at the ocean beyond the shoreline.

�It�s because winter comes soon,� the handsome man behind her replied, �and although we live in the south, we are not in Southernmost Land. Only the people of Sand Nation are ignorant of the meaning of winter.�

�The ocean current will stop all movements of our fleets in winter. This is our last chance to sail out.� The young woman retorted. �Ryan, how long has the Blacksail Fleet been away?�

�Two months and four days,� the man replied without hesitation, �If there are no hiccups, they�ll arrive at the Port of Clearwater in three days.�

Garcia laughed. �I do hope they bring enough surprises.�

Ryan Koban looked at the famous woman in front of him, and feelings welled up in his heart. Her long gray hair reflected a faint silver glow in the autumn sun, and her eyes were narrow and light green. When she stared at someone, her eyes would give off a kind of unspeakable sense of oppression. Her long stays at the beach had turned her skin rougher and less fair than that of the other women, but Ryan did not mind. In his eyes, Garcia�s temperament made up for any lack of beauty.

Unlike her close relatives at Graycastle, Garcia Wimbledon is the true genius. She had the wisdom and pride of the noble, but she was not dulled by the constant routine. In fact, she showed aspects that were closer to that of the common people, she was full of expectations and adventurous.

Of course, no common people could have such power and vision as hers. Even the duke and the princes seemed shortsighted in front of her. With all the income from the Port of Clearwater trade being poured into the construction of the fleet, there was not even a copper left in the vault. This characteristic was far beyond those misers.

�There is no meaning to put gold royals in the coffer. It�s like a stone when it�s not in use, and only when you spend it, can it reflect its value. To spend the money doesn�t mean you lose it, but rather, you create a return value that�s even greater.� Ryan�s memory of what she had said to him echoed deep in his psyche, and this was a sobering concept that formed in contrast to the usual perceived stereotype.

Compared to that of the noble families who spent their time accumulating and growing wealth, Ryan believed that hers was the demeanor of a ruler.

So he went under the command of Garcia without hesitation, and followed her to the Port of Clearwater.

But after arriving here, Ryan learned that the princess was so much more outstanding than that. She not only had ideas but also was full of actions. She created the plan of Blacksail Fleet and executed it in a well-ordered way. As early as five years ago, Garcia�s forces had penetrated the Port of Clearwater, preparing for the formation of the Blacksail Fleet, with no Royal Decree on the Selection of Crown Prince announced by Wimbledon III. In other words, she had long been ahead in the race of all other heirs.

�Let�s go inside; the wind grows stronger,� said Garcia. Her palace was located on the Salmon Harbor at the southernmost tip of the Port of Clearwater. The tower-like building looked like a watchtower on the coast. It possessed a circular terrace at the top, allowing a bird�s eye view of the harbor and all ships that entered and exited it.

Five years had passed since the beginning of the operation, and the Port of Clearwater trade had begun to take shape. A three-masted ship would appear at the harbor every six months, and a foundation of trust had been laid down. Taking advantage of Princess Garcia�s good mood, Ryan asked the question that had been plaguing his mind for months.

�Your Highness, there�s something I don�t understand.� Ryan closed the door, cutting them off from the whistling wind.

�Go ahead.� She smiled and nodded.

�How is it that you were able to predict all of this, even before the King had announced the Royal Decree on the Selection of Crown Prince?� He had guessed that the King had alerted her in advance, but it was impossible to know for certain. It was known that the king favored the second prince, and that this competition was set up in his favor. After all, he was given a clear win when he was assigned Valencia for his fiefdom.

Was she able to guess this all on her own, so that she could set out the framework as early as five years ago? Heavens, she was only 20 years old!

�I could predict it?� She shot him a strange look. �Do you take me for a witch? I have no such powers.�

�But��

�I had no idea that my father would take the Royal Decree on the Selection of Crown Prince as a way to give everything to his precious second son. In all truth, is there any relationship between what I�m doing and that Royal Decree?�

�No relationship?� A thought occurred to Ryan, and he could not help but gawk.

Seeing Ryan Koban�s strange expression, Garcia laughed. �Is it that I must wait for my father�s permission, and only then I can compete for what is thrown? Will it not always be the case that he who governs best will become the ruler of the Kingdom of Graycastle?� �I thought you understood the plan behind the Blacksail Fleet.�

�So she has not created the fleet purely to increase her property,� Ryan murmured. After the trade was completed, the fleet would put up black sails somewhere far away from the port and rob the merchant ships of other cities or countries. Similarly, the princess would encourage her subjects to sail into the sea and participate in the Blacksail Fleet plot. She gave her word that the Port of Clearwater would never tax any profit gained in this manner, and that it would remain the property of the captain of the ship.

This move had brought the princess great wealth, so this time she had simply ordered the Blacksail Fleet to move towards the south. They would plunder any ship throughout the Endless Cape, as well as those people of Sand Nation.

Yet these movements were not solely for the sake of money. Garcia did not use the profits from the fleet to build a city or expand trade by roadway, rather, she poured the money back into her ships, expanding the size of the fleet.

Over the past few years, she had won over a large number of people�experienced sailors, aggressive warriors, and popular figures. If she lost governance of the area, those who committed the crimes of theft and plundering would be sent to the gallows.

�The person who governs the best city will win the throne of Graycastle?!� No, Ryan now knew it was Garcia Wimbledon that would ascend the throne, because she possessed a large number of ships and soldiers and could move along the Sanwan River to pose a threat to Valencia.

�Did you know that you�d be assigned to the Port of Clearwater?�

�Believe it or not, I didn�t expect that. It was a move to increase the trade of this city.� Garcia shrugged. �It was also payback to the church who�d tried to fool me.�

�This had something to do with the church?� When Garcia did not continue, Ryan dared not ask. If there was one thing that he was sure of, it was that even if she did not come to the Port of Clearwater, she would take over the place and continue with her plan.

�Let�s move on.� She took a sip of her black tea. �My little plan seems to have failed.�

�Ah, yes,� Ryan quickly recovered and replied, �and the only news we have received from Border Town was that the plan had failed. We have received no more information since then.�

�Our spies must have been killed by my brothers. It�s unsurprising. These people were just pawns that we placed in order to win some time, and had no weight on the actual situation. Nonetheless�� She changed the topic of the conversation. �It�s normal that other plans have failed, but I didn�t expect the fourth Prince to remain safe. To tell you the truth, I�m a bit disappointed.�

�Kingfisher reported in her letter that the pills were consumed, but��

�A failure is a failure, and I don�t need an explanation.� Garcia interrupted. �The Months of Demons are around the corner, our fourth Prince will go to Longsong Stronghold for refuge. When demonic beasts invade Border Town, Stronghold will be in chaos for a while. Write to her and tell her to take this chance. Will the goddess of luck continue to stay on my brother�s side?�

�Yes, Your Highness.�

�You may take your leave.� Garcia waved, but as Ryan was about to leave, the princess stopped him. �Oh, yes, if I remember correctly, the pills were bought from the alchemist Enbis?�

Ryan nodded his head.

�What did he say? It was colorless and tasteless, just like water? It caused death, and had no cure? It was his latest invention?� Garcia yawned. �Hang him.�

Roland stood by the kiln, waiting for the first batch of cement.

The brick structure was designed for cement production, about 15 meters long and four meters wide. It had a front and a back door. The front door was designed wide enough to allow the transport of materials and people coming in and out of the room. The back door, on the other hand, was only large enough for one person and functioned as Anna�s secret entrance.

To this end, he also built a wall surrounding half of the kiln and stationed guards at the entrance and exit. They were all Carter�s men and he had no doubt about their loyalty.

The cement production process was easy to explain. First, limestone was crushed into powder, and then mixed with clay or iron powder. It would result in a paste whether they use the wet or dry method. After combining it with gypsum, the cement would be ready for use. Raw materials were readily available and no iron powder was included for it was difficult to produce. The key was in the calcination temperature.

Roland could not remember the specific temperature required to melt the cement. Thanks to the fact that he did not have the necessary tools like an infrared thermometer or a thermo coupling temperature gun needed to measure the said temperature, the process was made incredibly difficult. He only knew that the melting point of cement was similar to that of iron, and that the calcination process was also a tricky factor when it came to making cement.

For such an era of undeveloped technology, it was a huge problem to simply maintain the temperature of the blast furnace. The common open furnace would result in great heat loss and it was difficult to keep it burning above 1,200 ℃. As for the reverberation furnace, it required an inner capable of sustaining higher temperatures, but he did not know how to create the refractory bricks. The traditional blast furnace used for iron was even worse. The temperature may suffice, with only a narrow furnace cavity available to calcite the cement, but they could not produce enough cement before the end of Months of Demons.

With this in mind, Roland designed a kiln that needed no heating and relied on Anna instead.

Broken particles of limestone and clay were mixed with water to form a paste, which was spread evenly throughout the firing room. Then the knights locked the door and cleared out the laborers. Anna then entered through the back door and heated the ground beneath the paste until the iron bar placed inside the room also melted.

Roland was becoming restless. This was his first step in guarding Border Town. If he could not produce any cement, his plan of building a city wall in three months would just be empty words. Without a wall to protect the town, he worried that no one would be willing to stay in this godforsaken place. Whether in history or fictional literature, a stable base was necessary for agriculture.

�Your Highness, you�re saying that this material can hold stones together?� asked Carter Lannis, who stood near Prince Roland. Even though the prince had said this was the result of the latest research by the alchemical workshop in Kingdom of Graycastle, he was nonetheless skeptical. After all, that group of people was never famous for being useful.

�Who knows? That�s what they said,� Roland replied.

In this world, alchemy and astrology were known as the sage arts, and were very popular in the mainland. The royal family would generally keep their own alchemists and astrologers to predict and improve their fate. For ordinary folks however, such knowledge was beyond their comprehension and thus had little enthusiasm for them. Keeping this in mind, it was only natural for Roland to claim that the cement was a product of the alchemical workshop. He did not care about whether the chief knight believed it or not.

The flame in the window eventually died down. The firing of the cement seemed to be complete.

Roland stood up at once. Sending Carter away to the yard, he waited alone in front of the brick house.

The iron door creaked as it opened and Anna stepped out, naked. Roland draped a robe over her at once and handed her a glass of water. �How was it?�

The witch�s face was painted a dusty gray. Even though wet cement would not produce much dust, it would still appear when the cement was burning. Since she could not wear a mask, it was uncomfortable for her to stay inside for tens of minutes. She coughed twice and nodded. �The mud has turned gray.�

Roland was too impatient to wait for the temperature to be lowered. Wetting a towel, he wrapped it around his head and grabbed a shovel. He then went in through the back door.

Hot air instantly engulfed him and he found it difficult to breathe. The skin on his hands was burnt raw. Fortunately, shoveling the ashes took only a short moment. Otherwise, he might really experience thermal shock had he stayed any longer.

�Is this what you want?� Anna asked, staring at the material. She had already put on her witch�s robes.

�Looks like it.� Roland flattened the powder and tested the temperature with his fingers. �I wouldn�t know for sure until we use it.�

�What�s the use of this thing?�

�To build houses and bridges and to repair roads. There are too many uses for this thing. If it succeeds, people won�t have to worry about the cold or the rain and snow damaging their houses.� Using his other hand, he patted the girl on the head. �It�s all thanks to you.�

Anna lowered her head. He wasn�t sure if it was just an illusion, but the girl�s breathing seemed to have sped up a notch.

In theory, the fired material should be grinded with gypsum as to adjust its hardening time. But there was no need to think about so much right now. After a short break ,Roland picked up two shovels and called for Carter, who was standing outside the courtyard. Roland told him to mix the gray ash proportionally with the river sand in a ratio of 3 to 1 to prepare cement mortar.

The chief knight did not mind doing menial work. In his opinion, it was much better than fighting or chasing after the noble ladies for His Highness in the Kingdom of Graycastle.

As there was no iron powder in the raw mixture, the resulting paste looked offwhite. Roland piled the paste on a brick and placed another brick on top of it. It would usually take around four hours for the cement to become solid. As this was merely a trial run, he decided that it would be best to wait until tomorrow to test the mixture.

The next morning, Roland hurried to the kiln room, bringing Carter and Anna with him. When he opened the door, he noticed that the cement appeared solid and the bricks seemed to have stuck together. The surface of the material seemed rugged and part of it was covered in white frost.

Roland squatted down. It was natural for the alkalization process to result in some white frost. He pressed onto the hardened cement and his heart leaped. The cement was rock solid, completely different from the texture of the solid clay. Even when he pushed into the cement firmly, there was no mark on its surface.

After getting the signal from Prince Roland, Carter first tried to lift the bricks. He then attempted to kick the bricks until they gave way. The cement dislodged from the ground, yet the bricks remained stuck firmly together. He ended up using the hilt of his sword to knock them apart, but he succeeded in only knocking off a small corner of the bricks.

�So this is the effect of the so-called cement.� The purpose of the material dawned on Carter. �It�s simply incredible. It flowed like wax from a melting candle yesterday, but in just one night it had become as strong as a rock. With this, we can build the wall as fast as we want. As long as we have enough bricks, we could even build a wall around Border Town in less than five years!�

�What�s the use of that?� Roland asked. �A tall wall would not be able to stop enemies from within. I�d rather turn the old wooden huts in Border Town into solid cement houses, so my subjects would no longer have to worry about losing their homes in natural disasters.�

��� The chief knight was stunned. He did not expect Prince Roland, who was known for his many aristocratic vices, would suggest such a thing.

�You�ll understand it in the future.� Roland reaffirmed the path he was taking. For many people who travelled through time, technology was the gate leading to productivity. But here, the witches were their path to the future.

The production of cement went into a rapid development. In order for Anna to have ample amount of rest, the kiln room only operated once every two to three days. Hoping to obtain more raw materials, Roland once again issued a recruitment notice, thus doubling the population of the workers.

However, Roland himself knew that he could not always depend on Anna to do these. Working in a dusty environment for an extensive amount of time would cause people to suffer from Silicosis. Plus, once the production scale was expanded, Anna alone would be much too insufficient for the demand.

Witches should not be utilized as consumables, but instead as the engine to stimulate the development of civilization. Although Roland recognized the fact very well, as of this moment, he could only spend all his efforts in constructing the city wall. After all, nothing could be done if the demonic beasts could not be stopped.

A project was launched to dig the foundation for laying the city wall that connected the North Slope Mountain and Redwater River. As chief manager of this project and in accordance with the routine of the world Roland previously lived in, he dug out the first shovel of dirt amidst a mass of flabbergasted faces in audience.

Roland thought that after solving the cement problem, building a city wall would be effortless. However, when he actually began to do the work, he discovered that he was utterly ignorant in engineering. How deep and wide should the foundation be dug? How to solve the unevenness of the ground? How to ensure a 600-meter-long wall was kept in a straight line after construction? Back then, when the city government was constructing the road, Roland saw a group of young fellas measuring the road with tools and rulers, something called theodolites and leveling instrument, but there was hardly anything like those to be found over here!

As a mechanical blueprinter, although Roland and the next-door civil engineer were known as the ultimate geeks, however, their expertise was much too different. Not only that, none of the recruited bricklayers had ever participated in the construction of a big engineering project. Their capabilities were not even comparable to Roland�s. Therefore, progress was extremely slow after the city wall project started. It took a whole week to even dig an incomplete, shallow trench.

Once the engineering project lost control, the final product would be unimaginable. For instance, this shallow trench that they dug with much difficulty looked more like a drainage ditch instead of the foundation for the city wall. Although Roland gestured an estimated width before they started, the width became increasingly narrow as they continued to dig. It even appeared to be a twisted snake if someone looked at it from a distance.

Nevertheless, Roland was reluctant to terminate the project. Based on the mindset that, a gradual progress was better than no progress at all, as long as the kiln room was not in its operating hours, Roland would spend all day at the foot of North Slope Mountain. He would adjust the direction of the pit with his naked eye and slowly push the project forward. At the same time, he also doubled the rewards of the stone craftsmen.

Fortunately, such an awkward period did not last too long. While Roland was in the firing room to direct the firing of the sixth batch of cement, Assistant Minister Barov reported that a stonemason had responded to the recruitment notice. The stonemason claimed that he joined the Mason Guild in the Kingdom of Graycastle for a while and was now waiting outside the hall.

Roland thought about it for a moment and was exhilarated. In his memory, the Mason Guild in the Kingdom of Graycastle was a prominent and pioneering team that even Prince Roland had heard of. Even though the team was ordered to be dismissed due to a construction accident, but how could there be no accidents when you work in the construction industry?

�Bring him in.� Roland made a pretense of being composed and nodded. He wanted to tell Anna to leave but changed his mind after a while. Border Town had a population of 2,000 residents and hardly any residents had ever seen the faces of witches. Besides, Anna looked totally different from the girl who previously wanted to commit suicide. Plus, with the peculiar clothing that Anna was wearing, it was unlikely that anyone would recognize her.

Karl Van Bate was upset when the knight brought him into the courtyard. He wanted to first inform his Highness that it was unsuitable to undertake such a big project in this season, and then gradually obtain the trust from His Highness and ultimately change his perspective towards witches. However, according to the rumor, His Highness had always been quite capricious. What if his advice received adverse effect from His Highness?

His heart was shaking when he bowed and saluted to His Highness. While lifting up his head, he stood aghast at the sight�the girl stood next to His Highness looked so familiar, he even had this delusion that he might be dreaming. Karl rubbed his eyes, stared again, and cried out uncontrollably, ��Anna!�

Jesus Christ! What a coincidence? He just randomly hired a craftsman and he hired a neighbor of the witch? Apparently, the craftsman seemed very familiar with Anna. Otherwise, he would not be able to recognize her in an instant. Roland turned his head and looked at Carter Lannis, who immediately understood Roland�s thoughts. Carter quickly locked the door, blocking the only exit.

�Professor� Karl?�

Anna�s reaction puzzled Roland for a bit. �What? Professor?�

�It�s you indeed, Anna, I, I�.� Karl felt the warmth in his eye socket, and something started to spill down. He fell on the ground hopelessly, and repeated endlessly, �Sorry, I�m so sorry� I�m so glad� What a blessing��

After a while, Karl Van Bate finally was able to appease his emotions. He slowly stood up, and again bowed to Roland. �I�m sincerely apologetic Your Highness, I have forgotten my manners.�

�What�s the matter? Aren�t you a stonemason?�

�I used to be,� Karl swiftly replied after he released his concerns. His Highness did not execute Anna! It was a surrogate that was hanged on the execution ground�realizing this fact, he already knew what his next move would be. Although he was fuzzy about why His Highness would rescue a witch, nevertheless, even if His Highness intended to take Anna as his lover, that would still be much better than sending her to the gallows. At least it proved that the prince did not fear the rumor that witches were the incarnation of the demon.

He confided his experience of being exiled from Kingdom of Graycastle to Border Town, including incidents such as establishing a local school and finding out that Nana Pine also turned into a witch. At the end, he beseeched His Highness to also hide Nana in the castle, in order to protect Nana from any persecution in case the residents found out her true identity.

Anna, who was standing aside did not speak a word, although she seemed to desperately want to plead for Nana.

�A new witch. What great news! Although the name Pine sounds familiar,� Roland thought and called the assistant minister for further inquiry, and he found out that Pine was the last name of a middle-class noble in Border Town.

�You could bring her to see me. If she is truly a witch, I vouch that she�ll be safe from any sort of harm.� Roland promised. �But I can�t take her away from the Pines, especially when she isn�t threatened by her family. Besides, the reason that I saved Anna is far different from what you thought�� He pondered for a bit, and decided to tell the truth. �I need her help. Compared to such incredulous tales of demons and evil power, I�m more inclined to believe that the power of witches has nothing to do with good or evil, it can instead be controlled. So, regardless of Anna, Nana, or any other witches, as long as they did not commit any real crime, I�d not consider them as sinful.�

�Next, let us talk about some serious issues. Have you ever participated in the construction of the city wall of Kingdom of Graycastle?� The prince brought the subject back to the construction project.

�Yes!� Karl nodded. Even though Prince Roland did not keep Nana as how Karl predicted, saying that His Highness needed the help of witches was also perplexing, however, it was good enough that His Highness promised to protect Nana.

�Very well, I�m planning to build a city wall over the Redwater River and at the foot of North Slope Mountain to block the invasion of demonic beasts. From now on, you�re responsible for this project.�

�Your Highness, how tall and how wide do you plan to build this city wall?� Karl asked.

�At least five meters high, two meters wide, and allowing four people to march forward side by side.� Roland subtlely acknowledged that Karl was indeed a professional, first asking about the technical data and then confirming the construction plan.

�Then a trench needs to be dug that�s about one man�s height in order to stabilize the upper portion of the city wall. Also, if the top of the wall is about two meters wide and the wall is about five meters tall, the width of the lower portion of the wall at least needs to be doubled,� Karl promptly replied, �The process of trenching will need huge manpower. Your Highness, if you could provide me with 150 people, I could probably finish the trench before the Months of Demons.�

�A gutterway could not possibly block the demonic beasts,� Roland said noncommittally.

�That�s why, it�ll take three years if the upper portion of the city wall is masoned with stones. If it�s solely for the purpose of blocking the demonic beasts, then there�s no need to build the wall to such a great height. About four meters high would be enough. We can also shrink the width by one-third and the bottom to about two meters. Digging trenches and masonry will proceed simultaneously. Increase the number of workers by 200� that way, I can complete it before next year�s Months of Demons.

Karl paused, and then continued, �Pardon me in my frankness, Your Highness, now it�s not a good time to undertake the construction. If we don�t mason the wall in a timely manner, even if the trench is dug, but after soaking by the rain and snow through the entire winter, it�ll lose its original functions. That way, it�ll cost more time and manpower to clean and soften the trench, causing the trench to be dug even deeper.�

�Assuming we adopt your plan, and build the city wall four meters high and two meters wide. How long will it take to complete the trench?�

�It�ll most likely take one and a half months,� Karl answered.

�Then let�s take this plan. Digging the trench and masonry will proceed simultaneously so that the construction is completed before the Months of Demons.� Roland waved his hand and interrupted Karl. �I know your concerns. Look at this first, a new product from the alchemical workshop of Graycastle.�

He, of course, did not have time to once again stick the bricks together to show the stonemason. He simply presented the two bricks that he stuck together beforehand. Fortunately, no one dared to question the prince. When Karl heard that an alchemic adhesive, called cement, was able to solidify within one night and produce massive adhesive force, he looked astonished.

Karl, as someone who devoted half of his life to the Mason Guild, naturally recognized how groundbreaking this invention was. Besides adhering stones, most importantly, it would be able to transform into any shape.

Roland judged Karl�s expression with satisfaction, and pursued again. �What do you think? Would three months be enough?�

Karl Van Bate replied with a trembling voice, �If what you said is true, no, no, I mean� if the alchemical workshop described this thing truthfully, I, I�m willing to give it a try.�

�Very well, I�ll have someone write a detailed document for you regarding the usage of cement. You can speak to my assistant minister for any other needs.� Roland smiled. �Mr. Karl, now you�re a member of the Administrative Office.�

Roland saw Nana in the next afternoon. The young girl stared at Anna with some degree of bewilderment. She clutched her clothes and was finally able to compose a sentence. �Have, Have I already died?�

When Roland first met Nana, he had to admit that the power of witches not only bestowed them incredible abilities but also in some degrees, changed their countenance and aura. Nana was a totally different type compared to Anna, but they all had their unique charm. Such feelings had nothing to do with age or lifestyles. Even when Anna was waiting for the coming death in prison, the brilliance that was illuminating from her was not affected at all. Searching through all his memory, Roland did not even encounter this sort of feelings, whether it was the hooker on the streetside of Kingdom of Graycastle or the well-mannered noble mistress. If Roland had to describe it, when he placed witches with those ordinary girls on the same page, it was as if colorful figures appeared on black and white photos.

Karl, who escorted Nana, gracefully excused himself. Now there were only Roland, Anna and Nana left in the palace garden.

�You�re alive, and Anna is here, safe and sound.� Roland tried to suppress his smiles. �I�m Prince Roland Wimbledon, and you�re��

�I�m Nana Pine.� The young girl was back to her usual lively self after she heard that she did not die. Nana rushed straight to Anna, rambling on and on with her, and completely neglected the presence of Roland, the prince of Graycastle. Certainly, Roland would not care to haggle over the impudence of a 14-year-old young girl. He poured himself a glass of ale and started to appreciate the �daily life� of the two witches.

Anna was apparently not accustomed to the overwhelming friendliness from Nana. She occasionally responded while Nana continued her speech. After all, Anna was merely 17-years-old, but she already appeared to be an elder sister. Roland could not help but think how outstanding Anna would become after she became fully grown-up.

When Nana finally slowed her speech, Roland coughed and inquired. �Miss Pine, according to your professor, you have awakened as a witch?�

Compared to the public, who most often referred to the word �fallen� when describing someone that had turned into a witch, Roland believed that �awaken� was a better word choice. He would not naively consider all witches as innocent and pure. Those malicious individuals who obtained power would only beget a catastrophe. This was the same as using a weapon as it can create violence, but also resist violence. The essential aspect was that it all depended on the person who was using the weapon. Perhaps the church�s propaganda of the massacres done by witches was based on evidence. However, it was unfair to use that as the proof to treat all witches as guilty.

Nana�s expression stiffened and she mumbled in a soft voice, �Are you going to hang me?�

�No, of course not, those individuals who were sent to the gallows were all heinous and despicable villains. You�re not one of those, nor is Miss Anna. So don�t concern yourself with that.�

Nana took a deep breath and nodded. �I�m not sure� Professor said that witches obtain the demonic power after being lured by the demon. But, but I have never seen any demon!�

�When did you find out that you�ve become different?�

�About a week ago,� Nana muttered, �I saw a bird with a broken leg, I really wanted to help it. Then� I felt something come out of my hands.�

�What came out of your hands?� Roland questioned, �What happened next?�

�Umm� all of a sudden, it surrounded the little bird like a mass of sticky liquid.� Nana tilted her head and recalled. �Then the bird�s leg was healed.�

�Is her power the healing type?� Roland�s heart missed a beat. He was very clear what this kind of power meant. In the days where there was an absence of antibiotics and a lack of advanced medical technology, people died easily from injuries and infections. Although this power might not work to promote the development of civilization, it was meaningful to every individual human.

Roland immediately walked to the door, and demanded the knight to bring a living hen. If he could prove the credibility of her words, perhaps he could change the situation of witches being mercilessly oppressed in Border Town.

After seeing the knight leave with his orders, Roland returned to the table. �If you can heal small animals, why would you still think that witches are evil?�

�The teacher said that witches can do things ordinary people can�t. Sometimes it does not look bad, but this is the devil�s ruse in order to lure more people�� The girl�s voice lowered, �I� I�ve never seen the devil, I swear.�

�Of course you haven�t. That is just one of the church�s lies, and your teacher was deceived as well,� Roland comforted.

�The church lies?� Nana exclaimed, �Why?�

Roland shook his head and did not explain. Even if he tried to explain, they would still not understand. When civilization had not yet developed to a certain extent, these sort of strange things would always happen. Even without personal gain, people would automatically attribute manmade, natural disasters or any unexplainable phenomenon to the invented culprit behind the scenes�historically speaking, the blame always fell on the women.

And in this world, if witches possessed powers of unknown origin, it was even easier to become the target of the church. The church could allow for the witches to be ordained as saints by saying they were the gifts of God or the witches could be hunted, proclaiming they were the demon�s advocates. However, once the former was chosen, monotheism would greatly lose its power�because the appearance of the witches had nothing to do with the church. If churches that believe in other deities also recognised the witches as saints, and everyone was the chosen one, which church�s God was the true God?

The prerequisite for the coexistence of polytheism was that the gods were real and could restrict each other. Since Gods did not exist and were only hearsay icons, why should the other party share the world? So any faith would claim that they believed in the true God, and the infidels would have to be eliminated. So they could only choose the latter, to spare no effort in destroying the witches.

This was irrelevant to preference, it was all about gain.

There was a living chicken in the castle�s kitchen. It was still kicking and fluttering when the knight carried it by its wings.

The next thing left Nana stunned. Roland pulled out the silver knife, and stabbed the chicken once, the knight held it in place firmly, and he let Nana treat it before he tried a different method and continued� He did this repeatedly.

When the chicken finally died, Roland had a better understanding of Nana�s ability.

She could restore the damaged parts, including splits, fractures and bruises. But If the body part was completely missing, for example, after the chicken feet were cut off, she could not regenerate claws. But the broken claws could be connected if she used her ability to make the fracture intact. Finally, she could not reverse life and death. Once the chicken died, her treatment became useless.

Throughout the whole treatment, Roland did not see the �sticky water� that she described. She simply put her hand on the chicken�s wound, and then it was healed at a speed visible to the naked eye. After several experiments, Nana did not deplete much energy, at least she did not sweat profusely like Anna.

Only Nana was dissatisfied, as she felt it was too much to treat the chicken like this, so she kept staring at Roland even after the experiments.

�Come on, stop staring and eat something,� Roland had to resort to �summon afternoon tea� so as to divert her attention. This move had worked several times on Anna, so he assumed that many girls her age could not resist the temptation of delicious dessert. And truth be told, Nana did not fare any better than the one before her.

After eating the pastries, Roland sent Nana away. Anna asked in confusion, �Why didn�t you make her stay? She�s like me, we�re both witches, right?�

�She still has family members, and they have not realised she is a witch.�

�Anna whispered,� It�s just a matter of time.�

�Yes, sooner or later,� Roland sighed. �So anyway, the later the better. Do you� miss your father?�

She shook her head, and her eyes were like a calm lake with no ripples. It seemed that the betrayal by her father had left her completely disappointed. But even without any relatives, she still had friends.

�Nana will come often, in fact, I intend to let her come every two days to train her ability.�

Hearing this, she blinked her eyes and nodded quickly.

�Do you want to go back to Karl�s college with her, and learn from the other kids?�

Anna did not answer, but he felt he heard her thoughts.

�This situation won�t last too long� As long as I�m here, you�ll eventually live like ordinary people, and not be hunted wherever you are or sent to the gallows. This day will come, �I promise,� said Roland firmly.

*******************

Since Karl Van Bate took over the project, Prince Roland immediately became idle.

He stayed in the castle garden every afternoon, practising with Anna or Nana. Now Anna�s training no longer required additional clothing, even if each finger was in flames, she could skillfully operate them without lighting up her witch hat by accident.

Nana also put on a set of witch uniform. Although she was reluctant to practice, for the sake of afternoon tea, she still poutingly did so. Watching the two witches dangling in the yard, Roland�s wicked humour was greatly satisfied.

Occasionally he would go to the foot of North Slope mountain to check on the progress of the project. After more than two weeks of construction, about 100 meters of the city wall had been built. In the absence of the theodolite distance measurement, Karl asked the craftsmen to use a piece of wood at the same time every day, according to the shadow of the sun, to determine the distance and flatness. At a distance of every ten wood markers, a viewing tower was set up to play a role in stabilizing the city wall.

Such large-scale employment naturally caught the attention of the town�s nobility. However, other than getting some information from Barov, they made no further movement, as if the situation had nothing to do with them. Roland did not mind this. These people�s family businesses were in Longsong Stronghold and would certainly not stay here to help him guard Border Town. He could even imagine the gang of people ridiculing his attempts in private.

Not just the nobility, but businessmen were the same. In previous years in Border Town, once animal fur traders realised nothing could be purchased, they also returned to Stronghold. They naturally vented their discontent about returning empty-handed, on the ruler Roland. The news about Kingdom of Graycastle�s Prince Roland Wimbledon�s construction before the arrival of Months of Demons, was deemed as simply stupid and ignorant. News of this spread along the Redwater River.

At this point, no one thought he could protect the town, and in fact, most people simply did not consider this a remote possibility. After all, Prince Roland did not give the impression of being a courageous fighter. Whatever he was contemplating, he would eventually have to obediently retreat to Stronghold.

And just like this, amidst discussion by the masses, Roland ushered in the first winter.

The fire in the fireplace was burning brightly, chasing away the chill coming in from the door and window gaps. Atop of the fireplace hung a huge horned deer head, and under the shadows, the horns looked like huge claws.

Opposite was a dark red long wooden table, filled with parchment rolls and books, mostly executive orders waiting to be signed. Roland usually came here to deal with official matters�after converting the third level of the castle into an office, he gradually started to like it here.

Through the French window behind him, he could see the town extending into endless mountains. The mountain passed through the continents of the Impassable Mountain Range, dividing Kingdom of Graycastle and Wild Places into east and west. And North Slope Mountain was just a branch of the Impassable Mountain Range.

At the foot, you could see the garden surrounded by the wooden fence. The wooden shed built for Anna�s training had been removed, and the brick pool was made into a long table for afternoon tea. When the weather was good, he would also go downstairs for a suntan, or lie on a specially tailored rocking chair to take a nap.

Although the castle was not big, at least it was still considered a villa with an independent garden. In his previous life, it would have been almost impossible to own a real stone castle. He would have had to pay for tickets just to have a visit. But now, he not only owned the castle, but also the town.

�Your Highness, recently you�ve had a lot of expenses from recruiting the craftsmen and the manual laborers. If we continue such expense, we won�t be able to last until next spring.� Barov held a pile of parchment while reporting the recent financial situation to Roland.

The original income and expenditure of Border Town was very simple. One line was ore in the precious stones trade. This line was monopolized by Longsong Stronghold, turning North Slope Mine�s output into wheat or bread, with no tax in the middle, and Stronghold sent people to host the exchange of resources. As the saying goes, those nobles stationed in Border Town can be seen as regulators of the shareholders, and their fiefs are mostly in the east of Stronghold, where they are only temporary and different people are dispatched each year.

In fact, the history of Border Town was less than three decades long. Compared to nearly 200 years of Longsong Stronghold, it was a mere newborn baby. Originally Duke of Ryan was just going to build an outpost here as an early warning for the invasion of demonic beasts, but he did not expect to discover a wealth of mineral resources at North Slope Mountain after land reclamation. So he decided to set up the town here, and named it Border Town. In a sense, it was North Slope Mine that created the town.

In order to prevent theft and cover-ups, the duke did not employ the noblemen, but instead employed local residents, refugees and even criminals to serve as miners. The output of ore was evenly distributed according to the resources allocated by the investors. Longsong Stronghold only needed to provide the employers with a full year of grain and a small commission, which was a fixed amount regardless of the output of the mine. Border Town had more than two thousand residents and half of them worked for the mining area.

The rest, was the other industries in the town, such as blacksmith shops, pubs, textiles and so on. The meager tax of Border town came mainly from here, and not much was left at year�s end. The previous lord did not take this barren land seriously. After Roland was sent by Kingdom of Graycastle, he simply stayed in Longsong Stronghold and did not come back.

Therefore, Roland could only pay people to repair the wall with his own money. If it was the previous Prince Roland, this would have been out of the question. But for Roland, as long as he could stabilize Border Town, he would not mind investing his whole property. Anyway, in the future, ore trade would no longer be bartered with food. If it used currency, then his investment would be just a small price to pay.

The only problem was Longsong Stronghold was not willing to give up the monopoly, and continued normal trade with Border Town�this was quite like snatching food from the tiger�s jaws, but Barov�s data showed inefficient manpower and transport hurdles. The annual value output of the ore was no more than a thousand pieces of gold royals. Compared to the entire revenue of Longsong Stronghold, it was but a drop in the ocean. The only loss was that of the nobles.

For the long-term development of Border Town, this line had to be recovered. Roland knew very well, that even if their investment was fully recovered ten years ago, the nobles would not easily let go. Even if this was a small piece of meat, yet this was a passive income without doing anything. He was willing to give the previous investors a certain amount of concessions and compensation, such as half-price purchase and the like. But dragging a ship of ore back in exchange for just half a boat of food was not allowed to happen again.

As Roland stared at the list, Barov was also watching him intently.

Over these three months, well to be exact in the last month, Prince Roland underwent some unspeakable changes. Outsiders might not notice, but he was with the prince every day, and the change could not escape his eyes.

At the Kingdom of Graycastle, he had already heard of Prince Roland Wimbledon�s notoriety. He did what he liked, wantonly and without caring about noble manners. In short, he did not make grave mistakes, but he made numerous errors and was far worse than his two brothers.

When Barov was sent by His Majesty to come here, he was very disappointed. If not for the fact His Majesty promised to appoint him as the official Treasurer after the struggles of the throne ended, he would have given up ages ago.

In the first two months at Border Town, Prince Roland showed his usual extreme childish behavior, and offended almost all the local nobles. Fortunately, the town was very small, even if all the administrative staff vacated, he could easily fill their posts with the dozen civilian staff he brought.

And then, things started to change.

When did the change begin? He thought, probably� after he saved the witch.

Barov had considered that Roland was possessed by the demon, or maybe he was controlled by another witch. But this was a slim possibility. If demons and witches had such ability, would they look for Prince Roland? Wouldn�t it make more sense to control His Majesty or the pope? What further dispelled his suspicions was the fact that he saw the prince hold God�s Locket of Retribution.

This was the church�s weapon to deal with witches. Any demon would collapse in front of the God�s Locket of Retribution. Yet Roland held it directly. In other words, if he was not Prince Roland but a devil that did not even fear the divine power, then would it be necessary to expose him? Saving one�s life was the most important thing.

The prince continued with his notorious behavior, but he left a different impression on Barov. No, Barov thought, the two had clearly opposing behaviors.

The biggest difference was in motive. He could feel Roland was planning something. In order to achieve his purpose, he had to use some inexplicable means. Just like how Roland tried to persuade himself to save a witch, the plan may not be mature and have loopholes, but the prince was indeed moving forward with his plan, and was confident about the results.

This was the most puzzling thing. The throne could be taken by any one of Roland�s siblings, but definitely not the prince himself. He would have been clear about this fact. Talking about development in this small place, Border Town? Even the gods could not do it! What crazy plan was Roland making, trying to develop a border town to be more successful than Valencia? Even convincing himself that it would work?

If it was just a crazy fantasy, that would be fine, but Roland�s construction of the walls proved otherwise. He really intended to be stationed here, relying on a type of alchemy product��cement�, to build a wall that was impossible to complete.

Barov�s family had an alchemist, but he had never heard of alchemists creating such a thing. To build a wall based on what had never been seen, was this self-confidence or imagination? What else was Prince Roland concealing? He found himself starting to have a faint interest in the future.

�This place is just as lousy as it used to be,� said Petrov, the ambassador from the Stronghold, as he stepped out of the cabin and was immediately hit by the stench of rotten wood. Sinking in the moist and dull atmosphere that discomforted him from head to feet, he sniffed and looked up to the sky where the clouds were gathering. They were a sign of heavy rain that drew near.

�It�s been a year since your last visit,� said the assistant as he wrapped his boss in a wool coat. �There is nothing here except stones.�

�It�s been one and a half years,� stated Petrov. �Every season the Lord Duke sends a different person here and the last time I came here was in summer. Apart from stones, there were other kinds of things here like fine furs and� �

�What?� the assistant said with a dazed look.

Petrov shook his head and said no more. When he crossed the board and set foot on the moss-covered wooden dock, the planks he stepped on were creaking so loudly that it made him believe it would only be a few years before the whole dock shattered into pieces. Yes, in addition to stone and fur, it was the land of Border Town that could not be underestimated. But a common assistant who only dealt with papers and numbers was not open-minded enough to understand.

The land between Border Town and Longsong Stronghold was untouched and squeezed into a narrow channel, caged on each side by the Impassable Mountain Range and the Redwater River. If it was Border Town that worked as an outpost and took the duty as a defensive line, the Stronghold would easily possess the untouched land, and farm it constantly. And with the natural barrier guarding it on both sides, managing it would be simple. The food harvested from the land would feed the rising population in the Stronghold, and Border Town would become part of the Stronghold rather than staying independent.

The only disadvantage was that the operation would be expensive and would take three to five years.

What a shame, when it came to investment, most nobles were no better than a poor businessman.

�Why is there no ore in the storage yard?� Pointing toward the clearing, the assistant said, �Shouldn�t they stack the ore before we arrive?�

Petrov sighed softly. �We should pay our respects to His Highness.�

�Wait� Mr. Ambassador, why not wait for their welcome party?� the assistant suggested.

Petrov was unsure if there would even be one, so instead he stated, �Let�s go, the stables are just in front of us.�

This illustrated the difficulties with having the two lands independent. When the king sent out Prince Roland in the name of the Royal Decree on the Selection of the Crown Prince, how would a loyal young man behave? Surely he would sweep everything under his wings, and as such, it was hardly possible that he would trade ores and gemstones for food and bread. He feared that gold royals would be all that the prince held dear.

He would do the same under such circumstance because no one would tolerate when all that they�ve reaped from the land was exchanged at such a low price. It seems that many people have forgotten that Longsong Stronghold is not merely a station run through Redwater River. Beyond it also exist many other places, like Willow Town, Fallen Dragon Ridge, and Redwater City, where he could sell minerals at market price, and he could take the refugees. They were only a little further than Longsong Stronghold.

And then what would Longsong Stronghold do? Bar the river and block the prince�s procession? No, to do so would be treason. Even if it was a well-known fact that Prince Roland did not earn much favor from his father, the loyal name and blood could not be ignored.

There were no better horses in the stable other than the old ones. They were weak and skinny with scruffy fur that left them trembling all over as they trotted slowly. The ambassador had no choice but to pay two gold royals as a pledge for two shabby horses, which carried them slowly on the flagstones along the river.

�Look! Sir, is that a cargo boat from Willow Town?�

The assistant called out, causing him to turn his eyes to where his assistant was pointing. Slowly, there came a sailing boat with one mast and a banner bearing a green leaf and scimitar hanging over it. It�s high waterline meant that the boat was full of cargo.

Nodding his head and keeping a poker face, Petrov hid the very real concern that was triggered by what he had seen. He had not expected Prince Roland to act so early. �If Prince Roland has begun to trade with the towns downstream of the Redwater River, then the advantage he has is shifting. He had intended to persuade his father to agree on acquiring ore at 30% less than the market price. And at any rate, there are gemstones that will be crafted into many valuable luxuries. However, this issue is under a monopoly, and is not for him to decide. Even the Honeysuckle Family as a whole cannot make a decision unless all six noble families agree.�

But they seemed unaware of what had been changed as time had gone by, and barely had any response� Or maybe the production in the mine was too low to draw their attention. It ended up that the other five families remained indifferent and his own father, looking so sure of himself, rejected his advice. But all of them had made a huge mistake since the low production of the mine, caused by the trade-off based on materials and food, could easily be transformed into a much greater amount when the exchange became normal and the ore was bought at a fair price. With this, the more Border Town sold, the more money they would earn, resulting in an increase in ore the following year.

But with this, Petrov thought the monopoly on ore that he had hoped for would be unlikely to realize. From the view of the empty storage yard on the dock, it seemed that the prince had no plan of trading his stones for inferior wheat, as he had already summoned other buyers.

Thirty percent off would be his last bargaining chip if he still wanted to maintain business with Border Town. Willow Town would offer as much as half off the market price since the long waterway between the two towns would add transportation costs and they also had more than one source of minerals. The prices offered by Fallen Dragon Ridge and Redwater City would be even lower. As a result, Prince Roland may continue his business with the Stronghold, especially for gemstones.

But the problem was whether his father would agree on the contract that he decided to sign. What if the other families thought that the contract was a sign of surrender and handing over family interests?

After all, they always treated Border Town as a sub-area of the Stronghold and a supplier for whatever they needed.

They rode slowly to the gate of the castle that was standing in the southeast corner of the town, whose lord had changed since his last visit.

The guards saw the ambassador�s voucher and immediately went to inform the lord.

Prince Roland then quickly sent for Petrov. When both of them arrived at the hall, the Prince was seated and waiting.

�Mr. Ambassador, please take a seat.�

Roland clapped his hands, and the maids brought forward a scrumptious looking meal. It included an entire roast chicken, boar trotter stewed with mushrooms, buttered bread, and a huge portion of vegetable soup. It looked like, whether in the border or not, whatever a prince wanted, he got it.

Petrov naturally could not hold back. It took two days from the Stronghold to Border Town with good winds. If he traveled on a freighter with multiple masts, then it would move even slower and take three to five days. There was no kitchen on the boat and they would usually eat their own dried meat or wheat cake. Seeing the hot churning dishes, his mouth and throat filled with saliva.

But the courtesy that he had been trained since his youth helped him keep his decent manners at the table. In comparison, the prince paid little attention to his own manners, especially with using a knife and fork. Petrov noticed that he used a pair of little sticks to pick up the food, and only used the knife and fork to cut the meat. The little sticks looked� handier than a fork.

�What do you think?� Roland suddenly asked when the dinner was about to end.

�Of� what?� The ambassador was lost.

�These.� The Prince shook the sticks in his hand and went on without waiting for Petrov�s reply. �A knife and fork seem beyond most commoner�s means, not to mention they are made from silver. However, a man who grabs food with his bare hands could easily take in much filth and become ill. Do you follow?�

The ambassador did not know what to say as he barely understood the question. Maybe, he guessed, that the filth attached to the food that we eat could make us vulnerable to sickness. But how could that be true? People have eaten with their hands for a long time, and no one has died from such a thing.

�There are numerous pairs of oak sticks in Misty Forest, and they are both clean and accessible. This means that the common people should use them to grab the food, instead of using their hands.� Prince Roland sipped some of his drink and said, �Of course, for now, meat seems a little far from their real life, but things will change.�

Petrov was relieved, as this was not a hard topic for him. He routinely expressed his approval and blessing, but in his heart he disapproved. Let the common subjects eat meat? It was simply whimsical. Even in Graycastle they are far from this point, not to mention in Border Town of this desolate land.

Petrov tossed aside his complaints and enjoyed the feast.

Under the harmonious atmosphere during the dinner, Prince Roland did not talk about the ore, so Petrov thought it was inconvenient to speak anymore.

When the prince told the maid to serve the dessert, Petrov tentatively said, �Your Highness, according to the previous practice, today should be the day when the ores are delivered. However, I didn�t see any on the dockyard.�

Roland put down the sticks in his hand and nodded. �Unfortunately, the Northern Slope mine collapsed a few days ago. My people have been trying to resume production this month. However, the gravel from the collapse has not yet been cleared up. If we go by the schedule, we can�t start mining until the start of next year.�

�A collapse?� Petrov was stunned for a moment. �Was it an excuse?� But he soon realized that it was unnecessary for Roland to deceive him. Otherwise, it would be clear if he went to Northern Slope, and it would show on his face if the prince told such an obvious lie.

�Then� what about the ore from the past two months?�

�Not many are left. According to the normal practice, there aren�t enough to support the livelihood of my subjects.� Roland emphasized the words �according to the normal practice�. He continued, �Mr. Ambassador, you remember the Months of Demons two years ago, don�t you?�

Of course Petrov remembered that. The cold lasted four months and nearly one fifth of the people in Border Town starved to death due to the greed of Municipal Administrative Governor Reynolds. There was also opposition brewing among the nobles. Some even demanded Reynolds to be penalized. But this incident finally resulted in zero consequences for him, simply for the fact that he was the husband of the duke�s second daughter.

Now that the prince brought up this issue, Petrov had a bad feeling.

�It�s worse,� said Roland with a sigh. �I�m afraid we only have enough for two months if we trade wheat the way we used to. My people can�t survive winter with so little food. The ways of the past must be abolished.�

Petrov opened his mouth, but did not know how to refute the prince�s words. He wasn�t a professional diplomat, and hearing such good reason, he had no choice but to pause. �Your Highness, I�m sorry about this. The tragedy will never happen. I�ll persuade the six big families to lend you food for a month. Your people can return them next year when the production is resumed.�

�If I sold the ore to Willow Town, I won�t need to repay the food so slowly.�

�But��

�There�s no �but�.� Roland interrupted. �They�re willing to buy ore with gold royals and sell their wheat, cheese, bread, and honey at market prices� They can sell anything that can be bought with gold royals. Not to mention, Mr. Ambassador, even if you�re willing to lend us one month�s worth of food, would the other five families agree with your decision? As far as I know, it�s not easy to reach an agreement with Duke Ryan.�

Petrov fell into silence. Prince Roland was right. He was not confident in persuading his father, least of all the other five big families. To maintain their monopoly, they must change the trading scheme. But he simply had no right to give the final word. He held the title of an ambassador, but he was nothing more than a mouthpiece in reality. Perhaps the duke did not want anyone to make private agreements with Border Town. The current agreement withstood, whether it was with the former lord or with Prince Roland. That was why the duke assigned different candidates every season and they were never the ones in charge of their families.

Regardless of the outcome, he had to give it a try. With such resolution, Petrov showed the last of his cards. �30%.� He stretched out three fingers. �The Stronghold will buy the ore and gemstones at a price 30% lower than the market price. I think our offer should be higher than that of Willow Town, Your Highness.�

Roland threw up his hands and said, �The old question remains. Can you make that decision for the six families?�

�I�ll go back to Longsong Stronghold tomorrow. I�ll come up with a new contract after reaching an agreement.�

�But my people can�t wait that long. You should know that it often takes forever for nobles to reach an agreement.�

�Your Highness, working with Longsong Stronghold is the better choice for you and your people. Willow Town is too far away, and even though you could go there during the Months of Demons,� Petrov said and felt his throat became dry, �the journey� is dangerous.�

�Good God! What am I doing?� His heart was pounding. �Am I threatening a prince?�

�Hahaha.� Roland unexpectedly did not fly into a rage, but laughed instead. �Mr. Ambassador, you seem to have made some mistakes. I haven�t thought of going to Willow Town.�

�You mean��

�Of course, I don�t intend to go to Longsong Stronghold either.� Roland looked at the ambassador with interest. �I�m not going anywhere.�

For a moment, Petrov suspected that he misheard the prince.

Fortunately, the prince broke the silence and explained himself. �I�m staying in Border Town this winter. Border Town will become the new border of the Kingdom of Graycastle. Don�t be surprised, my friend, this is not me saying nonsense. I�ll take you to the new wall at the foot of North Slope Mountain for a visit.�

�City� wall?�

�Yes, the city wall is a stone wall of about four meters high and two meters wide, connecting Northern Slope and the Redwater River. With the wall, we can fight off the demonic beasts in Border Town.�

Petrov felt his brain was not working. The former ambassador had not mentioned any city wall. Back then, the Lord of Border Town was from Longsong Stronghold. How could he send the limited manpower he had to build the wall? In other words, did Prince Roland began building the walls as soon as he arrived? Even so, it had been only three months. How could they have built something like that in such a short time?

�Wait a minute� What did his Highness say? Is it about four meters high and two meters wide, connecting Northern Slope and the Redwater River?� Petrov calculated in his mind. �It would take years to build such a wall! Firstly, he did not have enough masons to cut and grind the stones! Border Town was not like Graycastle, and most people who lived here were poor laborers.�

He had yet to digest the news when Roland�s next words shocked him again.

�As for the sales of the ore, I can slash the price by half from next year, my good sir. But I won�t sell all of them to Longsong Stronghold, for you won�t need so much ore. I think, compared to the low profits the ores make, you�ll prefer metal products like spades, shovels, and things like those.� He paused for a moment, seeming to wait for Petrov to absorb his words. �As for the raw gemstones, they�ll be sold to the highest bidder through an auction. I�d like to sell them at a good price after the gem is cut, but unfortunately no one in Border Town has that ability.�

�Do you even have the ability to build a city wall in a few months?!� Petrov screamed from the bottom of his heart. �And what did he meant by saying the Stronghold not needing so many ores? Besides, it already took a whole year for them to produce 1,000 gold royals . Even if there will be an increase in the production, it�ll be doubled at best! Was he saying that the Stronghold can�t even take in ores worth of 2,000 gold royals? That was too presumptuous of him!�

He tried hard to suppress his frustration and maintained the last of his etiquette. �Your Highness, I�ve memorized everything you said. I�ll return immediately and negotiate with the six families. But there�s one last thing. The city wall you speak of� I want to go and have a look.�

�Of course.� Roland smiled. �You don�t need to be in such a rush. Enjoy the pastries of King�s City first. It�s not too late to go then, right? Mr. Ambassador?�

The winter�s first rainfall finally arrived, lasting for two days.

Roland leaned against his working desk and looked out at the hazy town in rain through the window. The wind brought a shower of rain against the window, causing bursts of ripples. The town�s silhouetted outline became distorted through the ripples. The houses and the extensions of the streets seemed bent and deformed, in contrast with their tidy look in the past. Due to the lack of effective drainage measures, the crisscrossed flagstone pavement became overflowing with accumulated water. From afar, the water on the road looked like many little crystalline brooks.

The distant mountains and forests were covered with mist, looming and changing like a lost world on earth.

If in modern times, such a landscape would certainly be a tourist attraction, but what Roland wished to see was a jungle made of concrete and steel. Because of the rain, the city wall construction also had to stop. This fact affected his mood and made his previous delight in successfully �discouraging� the stronghold messenger the day before yesterday fade away.

�You just said the air around us is made up of lots of different gases, is that true?�

Anna�s clear voice interrupted Roland�s thoughts, while she looked at him curiously, blinking her beautiful blue eyes.

�Ahem, Miss Anna, you should address His Highness with honorifics,� warned the chief knight next to her.

�Don�t make a fuss about it.� Roland turned around, �She�s now my student.� Since it was raining and they had not much business, he called Carter and the two witches to attend his class�yes, he had decided to give a small lecture on natural science. He was inspired by Stonemason Karl�s college. If a mason could open a school, then a mechanical engineer like himself could open one too. Why did discrimination exist? Was not it because of ignorance? During any period of history, universal education was the most effective way to promote the development of civilization.

He originally wanted the assistant minister to attend the class too, but the latter was too busy with other administrative tasks and politely declined his offer. Roland did not know why, but since the beginning of the winter, Barov seemed to be overzealous and took charge of all the daily management of Border Town all alone.

At the prospect of gaining new knowledge, Anna�s eyes immediately sparkled with curiosity. Nana also became happy for she did not need to treat any wounded animals. As for Carter, since he had nothing special to do, he attended the class to see what new nonsense the prince had thought of.

But not long after the class had begun, the knight�s eyes became drowsy. Nana also had a bewildered look, her eyes staring at the words �Natural Science�. It seemed that Anna had only grasped the general idea trying hard to remember everything she had heard. Roland could not help but stop the lecture for a moment, letting the three of them contemplate on his lecture.

As for Anna�s question, he smiled and nodded. �Of course, even though they look alike.�

�Your Highness, I don�t understand, since they all look the same, how can you tell that they�re different gases?� Carter expressed his doubts.

�I can prove it to you�

Roland knew that using only words, most of the people would be confounded by listening to these theories. He decided to make them interested by showing them the example of a simple experiment.

A candle, a glass, a wooden basin, a bowl of clear limewater�he had prepared these things in advance. Although at this time they only had pale brown glass, which was far less transparent than normal glass, it could still serve the purpose of the experiment. After all, there was no need to observe the modification process during this simple experiment.

Roland had done the experiment beforehand, and the results showed that although magic existed in this world, the rules of nature were still the same as on earth. He let Anna light the candle and put it in the basin.

�The process of burning requires a specific gas. This gas is also related to all life. If we stop breathing it, we�ll be like this candle. Take a look.� Roland put the glass on the candle, and after the flame shook a few times, it soon went out.

�It exhausted the air, Your Highness, this is not surprising,� the chief knight said disapprovingly, �Of course we�ll die without air, for example, if we fall into the water.�

Nana nodded repeatedly.

�So, do you think that there�s nothing in the glass anymore?� Roland asked and then poured the limewater into the basin. The waterline rose quickly and stopped rising when half of the glass was filled.

This was a classic experiment, often used by most elementary school teachers to arouse children�s interest in natural science. Until today, Roland still remembered the shock he felt when his teacher had demonstrated it. It was at that moment that he embarked on the road of science and engineering without looking back.

He gently lifted a corner of the glass, and instantly bubbles of air could be seen rising out of the limewater.

Then, the clear limewater appeared to be a little bit cloudy, and some white particles slowly spread within the glass.

�If there was nothing in the glass, we wouldn�t see any bubbles or changes on the water surface. This proves that the air contains at least two different kinds of gases. In reality, burning a candle consumes only a part of the air, while the other part doesn�t take part in the burning process. �Though they are both colorless and odorless, their nature is the complete opposite.�

�Well� That seems to be the case.� Carter thought for a long time before figuring out the relationship between the two. �But what�s the use for knowing this?�

�If we can obtain the former gas, then we can let the flame burn longer, and if we obtain the other gas, we can quickly extinguish the flame!� Anna suddenly said.

�What a genius!� Roland praised her silently. Even though she made a small error, she had shown herself to be a genius by suggesting separation and purification of gases before use. She had not received any systematic modern education, but yet she could quickly think of this point. This showed that her logical skills were far beyond those of normal people�at least far better than those of his chief knight.

�Correct, since the time humans learned to use fire, they were separated from the animals. Perhaps it all started as a coincidence, a lightning that hit a tree and lit it up, or a spark generated between two rocks. But if no one had noticed it and tried using it, we would still be the same as animals,� Roland replied patiently, �The goal of this experiment is to show you that curiosity and thinking are the driving forces for human progress. There are many similar forces hidden in nature, waiting for us to discover and use them.�

After he finished, Carter still had a doubtful look while Nana was staring at Roland with open eyes, amazed but unable to comprehend what he meant. Only Anna gazed down as if she was thinking about something.

Well, Roland sighed that, indeed, teaching advanced theories would not bring enlightenment, and it would only make people confused. Their intellectual level determined that they would not be able to understand the significance of these forces unless they saw it with their own eyes. Only then they would understand how amazing the hidden forces in nature were.

At this moment, the kettle hanging from the mantel gave off a clanging sound�the sound of the steam hitting against the lid.

�Ah, the water is boiled.� The knight walked over to remove the kettle with a fork, and soon the sound stopped. He wrapped a piece of cloth around the handle, and then filled everyone�s cups with water.

[Take this for example.] Roland reached out for the cup and felt the temperature of the handle. [From the discovery of fire, the principle of boiling water became a reality. Numerous people had witnessed �Boiling water� and used it, but no one thought that the gently curling and rising water vapor could also contain such a tremendous amount of energy.]

[In a few hundred years, it would become the driving force behind humankind�s development, and it would quickly change the history of mankind. Although the principle was simple, due to limited technology, it would not be the first choice when it came to farming. But this world was different,] he thought, [there are witches here. Using magic to fight wars was the way of barbarians� Instead, applying magic to create and to replace some of the key technologies to make civilization develop faster was the correct way to use magic.

They chatted until the sunset, and after having dinner together, Roland went to his bedroom.

There was no nightlife in that era, and most people went to bed early if they did not make love. He had previously considered taking advantage of his position as a prince and calling a maid to do some physical activities. But in the end, he was too embarrassed to do it.

Right after he lit the candle in his room, he heard the sound of applause behind him, and then someone spoke, �It was a spectacular lecture. I didn�t expect Your Highness was actually a learned man.�

It was the voice of an unknown woman. Roland instantly felt cold sweat on his forehead. If she could and would suddenly appear like this in his room without giving him notice, what else could she be if not an assassin?! He immediately ran towards the door, but before he could reach the doorknob, he felt a cold wind blowing next to his ear. When he was back to his senses, he found a silver dagger firmly logged into the door, with only a finger�s width to his cheek.

�Please don�t be impulsive, Your Highness, I don�t mean to hurt you, I just came here to talk with you.�

Heck, was this a way to tell people you want to talk with them? Roland swallowed his fear and slowly turned around. Under the threat of a dagger, he could only give way to the pressure and do what the other side wanted.

In the light of the dim candlelight, Roland could see the other � she was sitting on his bed, her body hidden under a robe and her head covered with a hood, so he could not see her real appearance. Her shadow which was thrown by the candlelight occupied more than half of the wall behind her.

�Who are you?�

�I do not have a name, but my sisters call me Nightingale.� She stood up and straightened out her robe, then she squatted down on one knee, and unexpectedly gave a standard noble bow, �First of all, I�m here to express my gratitude to you Roland Wimbledon, Your Highness.�

Show your gratitude? Roland noticed that some lines of her gown, due to the firelight, gave off a unique flash; they formed a pattern of three parallel triangles with an eye in the middle triangle� it seemed he had already seen it.

� The pattern on top of the coin� It is the Eye of the Holy Mountain, which is the insignia of the Witch Cooperation Association.�

In his mind, Barov�s words appeared once again, �You�re� a witch!?�

�Ha ha ha!� she issued a series of light laughter, �Your Highness is really knowledgeable.�

Hearing the other side reveal their identity, Roland breathed a sigh of relief, she was not an assassin sent by his brothers and sisters, �Why has a witch like you come to this remote town in the Northern Mountain area? I do not know where you heard the news from, but your ability to arrive is too slow. If I really wanted to hang her, she would have been dead long ago. �

�I know. And if you had really done it, I would never talk with you�� Nightingale sat back on his bed, �The Witch Cooperation Association does not like to intervene in world affairs, especially with things related to the kingship. Honestly, for a witch to kill a prince, it would not be such hard work, but I want to honor the Witch Cooperation Association. However, if you leave a bad second impression I can still kill you.�

This was a hanging threat. Roland tried to ease the mood, �The witch, she is alive and well.�

�I know that, and in addition to her, there is another little girl.� she nodded, �I came to this place a week ago, but I did not show myself to you. But I have seen everything you have done. Although I do not quite understand why you are not showing the usual malice against witches, no matter what, on behalf of the Witch Cooperation Association I have to thank you. �

�Since a week ago�� Roland rubbed his forehead, but also �everything he had done was seen by her?� This implied that she was always following him, but he and his guards were completely unaware of her? �Well stop, saying that you wanted to talk to with me wasn�t only for saying �thank you�, right?�

�Are you already tired of talking with me?� asked Nightingale while taking off her hood, �See, I do not look that awful, I will not scare you away, Your Highness.�

She was far more than �not that awful�, you could simply only call her beautiful. As her hood fell, her golden hair instantly cascaded down like a waterfall; the candlelight reflected by her hair made him feel dizzy; with her aquiline nose and her sparkling eyes, instead of Anna�s and Nana�s slightly childlike look, her features revealed a more mature charm. In this dim light, he could not take a close look, but her well-proportioned facial features were sufficient proof of her beauty.

Step by step Roland slowly went over to her, and in the end they were sitting on the bed side by side. Not because he was attracted to her, that would be even dangerous, no, he just simply felt that the other side had no malicious intent.

�Now you can talk.�

�Sure enough, you�re not afraid of me.� Nightingale�s voice sounded a little happy, �You and I have already seen those people who react differently� They hate us because they are afraid of us. I can see the fear in their eyes but in you� �She couldn�t help herself, she had to reach out and gently stroke his cheek, �Roland, I only see curiosity. �

Roland embarrassedly coughed twice, and then moved his head away from her hand. Hey, don�t change the atmosphere so much, just a moment ago you were still an assassin, how can you so suddenly completely change your style?

Fortunately, the other quickly restrained her emotions, �I came here to tell you that I want to take Anna and Nana with me.�

�No!� Roland became frightened, and impulsively responded. Then he was worried that if he refused her altogether, she would be annoyed, so he added, �They have a very good life here, no one can hurt them. Besides, where do you want to take them? There is no other place safer than here. �

�I will take them to the Witch Cooperation Association. After all, their home is there,� despite Roland�s denial Nightingale didn�t got angry, instead she still continued to talk with him in a calm tone, �The other members of the Witch Cooperation Association are their companions, and there will be no discrimination or persecution, and they� no longer need to disguise themselves.�

�You and the Witch Cooperation Association don�t have a fixed home? A month ago, my guards discovered your hiding camp in the forest. They found footprints leading to the north� But in the north, there are only the endless mountains! �

�You�re right, the Witch Cooperation Association is hiding somewhere in the mountains, for us witches it is absolutely safe there.�

�Like a wild man living in the mountains during the winter, in the end where would you be safe? Do you have clean water? Do you have enough food? Is there a warm shelter? And the Months of the Demons is coming, the entire northwest will become a dangerous place, in the end what � �here Roland suddenly paused, what was is it again, what had Barov said? �only at the Holy Mountain can a witch obtain real peace. The purpose of the Witch Cooperation Association is to find the Holy Mountain together.� To hell with it, don�t do that� �Are you going into the impassable mountain range in search of the Holy Mountain?�

�I am afraid that I can�t give you an answer,� Nightingale smiled, but her look clearly told Roland that he had guessed correctly.

�If so, I will never agree.� Roland flatly overruled their plan, �It is only two months until the entire outside world is full of demonic beasts, even when you can avoid the humans in the mountains, you cannot hide yourself from the demonic beasts. How about this idea, instead of looking for the Holy Mountain during the winter, you all come to Border Town to get through the winter, and when winter has ended you all can try to find Holy Mountain again. �

This time it was Nightingale�s turn to be stunned, �The Witch Cooperation Association should be moved here? You� really are an interesting person,� for a moment she thought over it, but in the end, she still shook her head, �Your Highness, even if you are not afraid of us witches, you can�t guarantee it for your people. I�m afraid once we are exposed to the eyes of everyone, the Church�s minions will soon come to knock on your door. �

As long as the witches can help us smoothly get through the Months of the Demons, they will realize that the witches are not the evil ones. Just before Roland could open his mouth to speak, he was stopped by Nightingale, �In addition, there is another reason why I want to take the girls away, Anna will soon turn into an adult.�

�Adulthood?�

�Yes,� it seemed that she could see the doubt in Roland�s mind, so Nightingale calmly explained, �Adulthood is the first hurdle all witches need to cross, the later they cross this hurdle, the harder it becomes to bear. Generally, people usually turn into witches at a younger age than Anna. Your Highness, do you know why we can be regarded as the devil incarnate?�

When Nightingale finished, the room returned to silence, only with the occasional crackle of candle flame.

Roland had a serious look on his face, for he finally understood what the witches were.

Most of the witches� awakenings occurred during the Months of Demons, and it was on that day that the Gates of Hell were opened. Generally, the time when witches reached adulthood was a dividing line. If a girl had not yet awakened by her 18th birthday, then it was unlikely she would become a witch. However, the one who awoke before her 18th birthday would suffer the Demonic Torture on her awakening day every year thenceforth.

It seemed that the pain was hard to understand by normal people. As Nightingale spoke about this part, her voice trembled. According to her personal experience, it was like something was trying to escape from you. Each blood vessel and tendon was in distending pain. In the end, blood would seep through your skin and eyeballs would protrude out�

If you could survive, the body would slowly recover after four or five days of rest, or you would die in this torture miserably.

Nightingale had witnessed the deaths of many companions. Their body lost the energy to support the power and turned into a mass of bulging meatball. Blood mixed with viscera burst out of the body�s holes, and then the air turned into black mist. Spray after spray would continue until nothing was left but sections of scarred flesh.

It was why witches were regarded as the embodiment of demons.

Ordinary people were terrified when seeing it, and who would care what caused the death? Plus the church added fuel to the fire, claiming that this was what would happen to demons. Over time, the witches became the spokespeople of evil.

No matter how outsiders saw it, this torture was real, and it was for this reason that the lives of witches were generally short. As time went on, it got more and more difficult, and as such, many of the witches chose to end their own life.

The demonic torture when a witch hit adulthood at the age of 18 was the most difficult hurdle to pass. In fact, prior to this point, the magic within them was incomplete, it was only after reaching adulthood that their power was stabilized. After the magic had stabilized, it would also see an increase, and new branches of the abilities could even be created.

Unfortunately, the process of stabilization was extremely painful. The torture of the magical power was so strong that the ordinary adult could not take it, and many witches would die on that day.

Hearing that, Roland was silent for a long time before he whispered, �According to the ancient books, the witches have to find Holy Mountain where they will receive eternal peace and save them from demonic torture. Is that true?�

�No one knows. Holy Mountain only appeared in the legend. However, if we bring them to the Witches Cooperation Association camp, they�ll have a better chance to survive. Over there, they would not have to hide themselves and could live freely. The physical suffering will be much less than that of the past.�

Roland was vexed because Anna and Nana played an important role in his plan, but he could not bear that they would take tremendous risk for the sake of his plan. �Anna is downstairs. I�ll call her over, and if she is willing to go, you can take her with you. As for Nana, I won�t see her until tomorrow,� he said in a weak voice.

�Thank you for your understanding, it seems I didn�t misjudge you,� Nightingale said as she stood up to give her regards.

At this time, Anna had not yet slept, and when Roland called her, she was copying something at a desk. Seeing Roland she looked surprised. When she was asked to go to his chamber, she followed him without saying a word.

When she found there was another person in his room, the girl was shocked. Roland took her hand and introduced them briefly, and then the three sat down around a roundtable. Nightingale repeated what she had said before. �In the camp, there are many people like you, and they�ll be your sisters.�

�This seems to be the case, Miss Anna. Although I signed a contract of employment with you, in the event of life-threatening circumstances, I must respect your opinion. If you agree��

�I�m not going.�

Roland was stunned. �What did you say?�

�I said I�m not going.� Anna quickly interrupted. �I want to stay here.�

�Anna, I�m not lying to you.� Nightingale frowned. �I can feel the soaring magic power in your body is close to maturity. Your day of adulthood will come two months into the Months of Demons. The earlier you come to the camp, the safer you�ll be. �

She paid no attention to Nightingale, but turned her head and looked at Roland.

�Your Highness, do you remember when you asked me if I�d like to go back to Karl�s College with Nana and learn with the other children?�

Roland nodded.

�At that time I did not respond. But what you said after� I don�t care whether to live like a normal person.� Anna�s voice was smooth and natural. �I just want to stay with His Royal Highness, nothing more.�

Roland had thought he had understood Anna�s mind, but now he realized that he did not understand it at all.

He could not see any emotions in her eyes. It was neither dependency nor love. There was nothing to see� only deep, bottomless tranquility.

He remembered the first time they met. Back then her eyes also looked as calm as they were now.

The difference was that at this moment her face was full of life, like a blooming flower. Still, she did not fear death, nor did she await it.

�The demonic torture won�t kill me,� said Anna, �and I�ll beat it.�

Nightingale closed her eyes and took a deep breath. �Alright, I understand.�

�So then, will you leave us alone?� asked Roland.

�No, I�ll stay here,� she said, pulling on her hood and standing up. �Regardless, the camp won�t move until the end of the Months of Demons.�

�Why?� Roland was shocked. Did she actually plan to watch them throughout the whole winter?

�I don�t think that the chicks who haven�t yet seen adulthood will understand its danger. I�ve hung over the edge of death and witnessed the loss of my companions. When that day comes, I�ll help her. If�� Nightingale shrugged. �If she should not survive, I have experience in dealing with the funeral.�

She went to the door, unsheathed her dagger, and kneeled once again in front of Roland. �Then I shall take my leave,� she said, and her body gradually disappeared into the dark. The mist did not even leave the slightest trace.

�Is this Nightingale�s ability?� Roland pondered. �Her silent voice simply makes her a natural assassin. And from how she threw that dagger, she had obviously had the relevant training. Apart from being a group of the same type of people, did the Witch Cooperation Association also assist her with the training? Or was it that she had possessed the skills from her life prior to joining them?�

The information available about the group was simply too little, and Roland could find nothing useful in his memories. However, Roland had a feeling that he would meet yet again with the group, as long as he continued searching for witches.

�It�s late. Go back to bed,� Roland said as he patted the girl�s head.

To his surprise, Anna pushed away his hand, and left without saying a word.

As she shut the door, the lights were cut off behind her and she was left wrapped in shadow. She gently leaned against the door, and the calmness left her as her eyes filled with tears.

She raised her head with her arms in front of her face, and whispered with a voice that no one could hear.

�Fool.�

The day after the rain stopped, Border Town became boisterous again. Many villagers gathered in the square, waiting for the speech of Prince Roland amidst heavy discussion.

Roland put up the official notice a day before the speech, saying that anyone who came to the square for this speech could get a dish of oatmeal and half a piece of bread. This amounted to a free lunch for the townspeople. Thus, the audience that showed up was much more than those who watched hanging.

When it approached noon, Roland mounted the elevation stand.

He would be deceiving himself if he said he was not nervous while confronting the sea of people. He mainly dealt with computer monitors before. Even at meetings, he just applauded the speaker from below. Therefore, this was the first time he needed to deal with such a big crowd.

But in order to make the townspeople stay in Border Town, he had to do it. There had to be a general mobilization.

Roland waved his hands and the people became quiet immediately.

This scene had been repeated a lot of times in secret. However, when this formal performance came, his lips still turned dry, �My subjects, good afternoon. This is Roland Wimbledon, the fourth prince of Kingdom of Graycastle. I have gathered you here at this moment to declare an important message.�

�The envoy of Longsong Stronghold reached here four days ago for ore delivery. One clear fact is that the collapse of the mine of northern slope was a terrible accident we came across. Till today, the production there has not recovered completely and this accident meant there was only two months� output last quarter. �

�I explained to the envoy this condition and hoped he would distribute enough food to Border Town and we would make up the ores at the end of winter. However, he refused and accepted no negotiation. He refused to distribute more food just like two years ago.�

The crowds exclaimed, showing that the food shortage two years ago left a deep impression on them.

�It gets even worse this time. Astrologer of Kingdom of Graycastle informed me that this year�s winter would be much longer than before and Months of Demons would probably last for over four months. That is to say, everyone might face two months of food shortage. You lost your companions, brothers or children two years ago. What else are you prepared to lose this time?�

�No! Your Highness, save us, please!� Someone shouted loudly and more screams came next, �Your Highness, we beg you to help us!�

Roland was relieved that he hired a few extras for this occasion. He put up his hands trying to suppress the screams of the crowd. �Of course, I won�t leave my subjects behind, not even one. You may not know that the value of wheat and bread Stronghold brings every year is not equivalent to the value of ores they take away. Normally, we just need two months� ores to get half a year�s food. I have sold ores to merchants from Willow Town and the freighter they sent would soon get to Border Town. Besides bread, there is also cheese, mulled wine, dried meat. This is enough for everyone during the entire winter!�

There was a burst of cheer in the square.

�However, that means we end our relationship with Longsong Stronghold and they won�t take in anymore of our townspeople. We need to pass this winter in Border Town. As most of us can see, there is a substantial city wall being built in the west of Border Town. I want to tell you that you don�t need to worry about the threats from demonic beasts. They are not stronger than the beasts from forests. Although huge and strong, they cannot pose threats to the city wall and merely serve as a target.�

�Make your choice, my subjects. You have two choices here. One choice is to hide behind the shack of Stronghold and die of hunger. The other one is follow my order and guard Border Town till the end to protect your relatives and children. I promise you that if you hold up until the end of Months of Demons, all those who take part in the building of city wall, will be rewarded 25 silver royals. And anyone who sacrifices his life, his family will get a compensation of five gold royals!�

�Fight for Your Highness!� Following the example of the extras, the audience shouted they would fight to their death. Sensing their high spirits, Roland took the opportunity to distribute lunch. He did not expect all of them to stay in Border Town. He was confident that if just half of them stayed, he could stop the demonic beasts from invading them.

*******************

Petrov didn�t know how his Highness Prince Roland maligned him. When he delivered the message to the six nobilities of Stronghold, they all laughed uproariously.

�Do you mean to say that the naive prince intends to throw us off? Even daring to repair the city wall before the coming of winter? Should I praise his courage or ridicule his overconfidence?�

�The bravery of Your Highness is without equal and known to all. However, Prince Roland isn�t equipped with this boldness. He is just ignorant!�

�Sure, he doesn�t even have any stonecutters. He just piles up those unpolished stones, and add wet mud in between. Be careful they don�t all fall down after a certain height.�

�Anyhow, it is a good thing. If he escapes to Longsong Stronghold, he has no choice but to submit to us. If he dies in Border Town�we can end this farce early.�

�What do you think, Petrov?� The Duke suddenly broke his silence.

Petrov stared blankly for a while and he didn�t expect the Duke of Longsong would ask for his opinions. �Uh, I originally planned to carry on the monopoly management. And if the price is 30% cheaper than the market price, it is worthwhile for us. But�� He swiftly organized his thoughts, �His Highness doesn�t want Stronghold to specialize in ores management. He would like to sell ores at the price 50% cheaper than market price, which means he plans to increase the output of ores. And once it doubles the output, we could earn more than before. He also intends to produce ironware. It�s popular everywhere and easy to resell. However�these are not the key points.�

�What is the key point?�

�If he is able to guard Border Town, that would be nice for Stronghold. We don�t need to spend too much effort on fighting against demonic beasts, which could save us a lot of money. Besides, the wide land between Longsong Stronghold and Border Town would belong to us. It would be a good choice to cultivate or migrate, which can relieve the condition of population congestion.� Stronghold demonstrated his thoughts one by one. �Besides, Prince Roland won�t stay in Border Town forever. Royal Decree on the Selection of Crown Prince just lasts for five years. We are going to obtain a more prosperous Border Town. Longsong Stronghold will be the third largest domain of kingdom with the joining of Border Town. Thus, my advice is�� He peeked at Duke, cautiously saying, �Stronghold needs to send hands to repair the city wall and coordinate to guard Border Town.�

�Well done,� Duke smiled, �But that�s just from a business aspect, analyzing the benefits.�

He then straightened up, glancing at all the other participants and his tone became gloomy, �I have come so far today and it is not all about benefits. Why should I deal with a person who is out of my control? You need to obey the rules or you will get punished. It is not that important whether Border Town is prosperous or not. The point is, that is my territory, and no one can interfere, including the prince.

�Come and try to put the two pieces together,� said Roland.

Anna stretched out her fingers and pressed on the seams of the iron plate. The flame sprayed from her fingers, and the interface melted at a visible speed.

�Reduce the firepower, and start from the back again.�

She nodded and did as she was told. The two iron plates were joined at 90 degrees and firmly welded together.

Roland scrutinized the interface and the effect was as he imagined�a perfect weld without any flaws. If the traces of grinding could be polished away when the iron was molten, the two iron plates would look no different from a single body.

�Very good, Miss Anna, that was fantastic.� Roland could not help but praise. �Next, we�ll also attach the other two pieces of iron.�

�What�s this? An iron� bucket?�

�No, it�s a cylinder.� He corrected.

�Cylinder?� Anna repeated confusedly.

�Yes, it can be used to fill the air.� Roland pointed to another square iron plate. �See the hole above? Air flows from this hole into the cylinder, activating the piston. Hum, the piston is an iron plate smaller than a cylinder�s diameter, and it can move freely in the cylinder.�

Even Anna, began to feel dizzy in the face of so many foreign words. �Then these� cylinder and piston, what do they do?�

�They are used to create a machine that can move automatically.�

The steam engine, the driving force of mankind�s first industrial revolution, completely liberated human and animal power.

Its schematic diagram was familiar to every mechanical engineer. In short, it was a magnified version of the kettle. The boiled steam was introduced into the cylinder, pushing the piston and connecting rods, converting heat into mechanical energy.

The principle was very simple, but that did not mean it was easy to manufacture. Its difficulty lay in the airtightness between the cylinder and the piston, as well as the manufacture of the gas pipe. If the metal processing was not advanced enough, relying on manual forging to create a qualified cylinder would be simply impossible.

However, Anna�s ability made up for the deficiency in technology.

Roland just needed to design four same-sized pieces of iron plate in advance, let the blacksmith polish the cast, and then use the right-angled plate to fix the shape. Followed by Anna�s welding, Roland could get a very stiff square cylinder. With the help of the witch, he did not need to follow the traditional production process, which firstly to make a gun barrel machine, and then to process a circular cylinder. It was the same with the other large parts. You could make small pieces and then join them. In this way, even the blacksmith shops could work together to create a steam engine with all the necessary components.

In fact, before welding was invented, people could only rely on bolts or rivets to connect small pieces. The internal of the cylinder had to be smooth, and the conventional connection obviously could not do this.

The only trouble was the gas pipe. Its production method was not really anything special. A long iron plate was welded untill it became red hot, and was placed into the groove-type mold, and then was knocked into shape with a hammer. This was also the method of producing flintlock barrels. But the barrel also needed to be straightened afterwards, including drilling and rifling, hence it was a little more complex.

The trouble was that Roland could not call the blacksmith to his castle backyard, as the witch could not be exposed yet. Besides, he was not good at forging iron. In desperation, he had to let Chief Knight do it instead.

So after three tedious days, Roland finally created the first steam engine in the backyard.

�So this is your great invention?� Carter frowned at the strange machine. He also ascertained it had nothing to do with the cult. The machine seemed more like a sealed stove, each of whose iron lumps was manually installed by him. It would be strange if the demon had any interest in it.

But how could a pile of iron lumps move? It looked very clumsy, and had no feet. How could it fly?

But in Roland�s eyes, this seemingly simple machine exuded the beauty of industrial charm. With the scientific knowledge he acquired in the previous life, he naturally would not make the Newcomen steam engine, the Watt steam engine, or the steam engine. His first trial product was a high-pressure steam engine with double connecting rods and sliding valves. Its manufacturing process was not more difficult than that of the most primitive steam engine, but the key lay in some innovative ideas.

�You�ll find out soon!�

Roland poured a bucket of water into the steam compartment, and let Anna light some firewood.

Ten minutes later, the water boiled, and kept boiling furiously. Soon, a crackling sound came from the cylinder, and Roland knew that was the sound of thermal expansion in the cylinder. The piston�s iron plate was thin, the expansion was larger than the cylinder block, and would ultimately be edged firmly in the cylinder wall.

�Isn�t this boiling water? Didn�t expect it to be a stove,� Carter muttered.

When the cylinder was full of steam, what happened next made Roland very excited. The piston began to push the connecting rod outwards. When the rod moved to the vertex, the other connecting rod pulled the sliding valve, causing the steam in turn to push the piston inward. The two connecting rods worked alternately to make the wheel rotate, and with the increased firepower, it quickly reached its peak.

The machine let out a harsh roar, and the exhaust spat out white gas, with a kind of unstoppable momentum.

�This is what you mean by� the hidden power of nature?� Anna asked blankly.

The chief knight looked incredulous. He installed the big iron wheel with a huge effort. Yet now it was like a feather spinning, and he could even feel the air blowing caused by the spinning wheels�this could only mean this machine of iron lumps had a surprising strength.

His heart gradually became a little uneasy.

His Highness said that it could replace manpower and animal power. If this was not a lie, when it replaced the horse and the chariots, even ten knights would not be able to resist this brute force.

It took fifteen years to train a qualified knight, but to make such an iron furnace, it only took three days. If the time of building certain parts by blacksmith was counted, it would only take a week in total.

It did not need food, was not afraid of cold and hunger, and also not afraid of arrows, swords and guns. As long as the embolon was mounted, it would be able to rampage on the battlefield.

In this way� what�s the point for traditional knights to exist?

*******************

At night, when Roland returned to his bedroom, he saw Nightingale again.

She did not wear a hood this time, sitting at the table with a smile, holding a few pieces of parchment in her hands. �It seems the rumors are really untrue. It�s said that Prince Roland is ignorant and unskilled, of vile character, but you�re actually much better compared to the court master. Is it the design of the iron furnace on this piece of paper? You call it� steam engine, right?�

�Oh damn, can�t I get any privacy? You come and go as you wish, do you think this is your home!� Suppressing his displeasure, he said blankly, �It�s a design, but without Anna�s help, it�s just a sheet of paper.�

�What is it for?�

�A lot. Transportation, drainage, smelting, forging. It�s useful wherever massive power is needed.�

�In that case, I�ll keep it.� Nightingale rolled the parchment and put it in her robes. �There�s also someone in the Witch Cooperation Association who can control the flames.�

�Hang on��

She waved her hand to stop Roland�s protest. �Of course, I�m not going to blatantly take your things. Take a look at this first.� She placed a small lump of white thing on the table.

Roland went over, picked it up with his fingers and found that it was a roll of paper.

He gently spread it and had a quick look. �This is��

�The letter sent by the pigeon,� said Nightingale in a joking tone. �The recipient is your head maid Tyre, and it seems that your harem is not safe.�

�I have never laid a hand on her,� Roland said, frowning.

Tyre, seemed to have followed him for a long time in his memory. Originally, the prince was quite interested in her, but he failed in several harassments. After they came to Border Town, he directly promoted her to head maid, so that she could attend upon him. Her room was also arranged just next to his. He did not realize she was a spy sent by his siblings.

Although the letter was not signed, judging by the content, it was very likely the handwriting of his siblings. The letter said the lord was very unhappy about the failure in the last attempt. She was ordered to strike during the riot at Longsong Stronghold next time and not allowed to fail again. �Well, actually she had succeeded,� he thought, �or I would not have become Roland Wimbledon.�

This letter was unlikely to be forged by Nightingale, because only those who participated in this conspiracy, would know about the first assassination. Plus Nightingale did not need to take so much trouble to kill himself.

�Did you steal this from her?�

�Your head maid was not so stupid. She was about to burn it, but luckily I happened to appear behind her back.� Nightingale made a switching action. �So what�re you going to do? Do you need my help to �handle� this?�

Roland definitely knew what she meant by �handle�. He hesitated for a moment, and then finally nodded. �In that case, thank you for your kind help.� He has no confidence in doing something like this. �If you can, please help me to find out who her mastermind was.�

�As you wish, Your Highness,� said Nightingale with a smile. �The design will be the pay.�

Waking up in the morning, Roland was not attended to by Tyre, but an old maid.

Walking out of the bedroom, Chief Knight Carter was waiting outside for him.

�Your Highness, I have to tell you a piece of unfortunate news,� he said, �Your head maid was found dead last night.�

�What?� Roland�s eyelids jumped, although he already expected this result, his heart still felt uneasy. After all, she died because of him.

�She fell from the balcony of the room, and there were no traces of fighting. The guard did not see outsiders come in. So� she must have accidentally fallen. It was an accident.�

The knight reported the results of the investigation, while looking at Roland a little weirdly. Roland knew what he was thinking of course. In the Kingdom of Graycastle, everyone knew that Prince Roland wanted to possess Tyre. In that era, the prince and the maids having relationships was very normal. There was hardly any entertainment, much less nightlife, so there was literally nothing else to do except fornication. Besides, the prince and the noble would also exchange women among themselves, and even organized orgies. So to say that the circle of noble was chaotic was more than a harmless joke.

Prince Roland was already considered tame in this aspect, and after Cheng Yan woke up as Roland, he did not touch a single woman. Other than Tyre, the rest of the maids were considered quite shabby. Plus after the time travel, he had to face the Months of Demons, so his brain was full of the farming project. He did not have the time to enjoy the decadence of noble life yet.

�It�s a pity,� said Roland, with a feigned look of remorse. �About Tyre�s funeral, ask the old maid who served me this morning to handle it. And she�ll now be the new head maid.�

Carter nodded, bowed and left.

As soon as Roland entered the office, he saw Nightingale sitting on the mahogany table.

�Did you manage to find out anything?�

�Nothing, she committed suicide when she saw me,� Nightingale said, with some frustration. �It was too fast, she didn�t hesitate at all.�

�You didn�t try to stop her?� Roland went round the other side of the desk, and sat back on the chair.

�I had tied her up,� said Nightingale, leaning over, �but I didn�t know she had poison in her teeth. So I had to set it up like an accidental fall.�

�I thought you were very experienced, and you expect to be rewarded for this?�

�Hey, hey, don�t put it like that. Although I didn�t get any information from her, that does not mean I have nothing to report.� Nightingale chuckled and put a folded paper in front of Roland. �Found in her room.�

Roland spread out the paper. It was a letter, from someone who called Tyre elder sister, and the content was just ordinary chitchat. But he noticed that the writer mentioned the sea several times, such as how beautiful the seaside scenery was, and how she liked to stay on the beach to watch the sunset and the like. Finally the writer asked Tyre when she would come back, as she deeply missed her. Recalling the domains of his siblings, Roland asked uncertainly, �Garcia of the Port of Clearwater?�

�That�s probably the case as the sea can�t be seen in the domains of your two brothers. I guess Princess Garcia Wimbledon must have taken Tyre�s sister as a hostage, and used Tyre as a hidden pawn. From Tyre�s decisive style of suicide, it�s unlikely to be a coincidence. That means before she was arranged to be by your side, she had received at least two to three years of professional training.�

Roland sighed softly, and reiterated that the Royal Decree on the Selection of Crown Prince would not end so easily. Even if he did not fight for the throne, it did not mean he could stay out of it. To get the throne, his brothers and sisters had no scruples, therefore it was likely something similar would happen again later.

�Ah, somebody is here. I�d better make my move, Your Highness.�

Nightingale blew a flirtatious kiss through the air towards Roland, and disappeared with the blink of an eye.

Even if this was not the first time he saw this, it was still shocking to see this in bright daylight. He hesitated, and stretched out his fingers towards the empty space now beside the table, but was stopped halfway by a soft hand. �Your Highness, you�d make Anna sad in this way.�

[Well it seems her ability was invisibility and not disappearance,] Roland thought. [That would have been too scary.]

There was a knock at the door. �Your Highness, I�m Barov.�

Roland took back his fingers and became expressionless. �Come in.�

With a large bundle of files in his arms, the Assistant Minister began to report nearly a week of government affairs right after he came in. Roland also cleared his thoughts, and concentrated on his report. After more than a month of contact, he found himself familiar with Barov�s working style, rather than being completely confused and puzzled like in the beginning.

In general, the finance of Border Town had a certain degree of improvement. This was mainly due to the ore and gemstones being sold to Willow Town in exchange for nearly 200 gold royals. After being used to purchase food and pay wages, there were still 90 royals remaining.

Barov was also in a good mood, now that there was some extra money, surviving this winter would not be too difficult.

But Roland was determined to not let him be idle. �I want to pick a group of people from the subjects to fight demonic beasts. And from now on they must be gathered to receive training. The instructor will be my chief knight, and I�ll give him the specifics later on. You need to make a purchase plan, as these people must have solid leather armor and a gun, but also two sets of winter clothes.�

�Your Highness, this� according to the convention, isn�t this a temporary recruitment of subjects for war?�

�Fighting on the battlefield without proper training makes them but a group of mobs. Can we scare off demonic beasts by relying on sheer masses? It�s more troublesome if they break up.�

�Don�t tell me you really want to stand by Border Town?� Barov hesitantly asked.

�If we really can�t protect it, of course, I�ll retreat. But I don�t think we can�t defeat even a few mutated beasts.

�If we go according to your plan, you�ll need more money.�

Barov�s miserly face made Roland laugh. �These�re necessary expenses, go take care of it.�

There were still more than 300 pieces of gold royals in his own vault, mainly used to pay for the cost of building the city wall. He also paid the blacksmith shop for the steam engine materials and components. The first machine cost him almost 20 gold royals, and he needed at least three more.

The steam engine triggered the first Industrial Revolution, but it did not mean that the steam engine was equal to the Industrial Revolution. At that time, the United Kingdom urgently needed a new power to replace people and livestock in order to satisfy mine production. After Watt improved the steam engine, massive orders were immediately received from overseas, and the new power quickly spread to various industries.

At this time, Border Town did not have the foundation for the Industrial Revolution, and industrialization did not even exist. So Roland did not expect to sell steam engines to make the first pot of gold. He just wanted to invest the machine in the Northern Slope Mine Area for mining and gravel. When the mine production increased, then he would expand the steam engine�s scale of usage. This was the equivalent of promoting industrial development from top to bottom.

�These are the men you recruited?� Roland asked. Looking at the crowd of folks in rags, he had to hold back the urge to turn about and get away immediately.

�Your Highness, these men were chosen according to your requirements,� Carter replied, counting his fingers. �Male, no criminal record, above 18, under 40 years old and not disabled� I have checked over everyone carefully.�

Alright, Roland knew that he could not expect too much. After all, the productive forces of this world were so low that it would be difficult even to fill the people�s stomach, not to mention to dress decently. His identity as a prince prevented him from seeing that refugees who had no clothes on their backs and begged for a living were a common sight out of the castle. As a matter of fact, even in the capital of Graycastle, there existed the profession of corpse collecting. These people dragged away the corpses of the starving who dropped dead in the streets and burned them.

[So what�s warfare like in this world?] Roland closed his eyes and contemplated. It seems� it was only a little more elegant than gang fights. Generally speaking, when a lord decided to wage a war, or rather, had a fight, since Roland did not think what they were doing had anything in common with warfare, he would convene all the noble families in his domain, whom in turn convene the lower noble families in their respective domains. For example, a duke would convene his earls, while an earl would convene his viscounts, and a viscount his barons, and so on and so forth.

These noble families usually had a bunch of knights and mercenaries as their own forces. These men were the main forces in a fight, and they were well armed and equipped. At the same time, they recruited common men and peasants in their domains to join the fight. To be honest, their purpose was to carry provisions for the troops and to fight in the frontline. The ones who suffered most in battle were those groups of �cannon fodder�. As for the warriors from the noble families, as long as they did not die on a battlefield, they would be captured and then treated well so that they could be traded for ransom.

Roland would not count on those few noble families in Border Town to fight for him. In fact, they had nothing to do with Border Town. Instead, their titles of baron were mostly granted by the Lord of Longsong Stronghold, and their territories also belonged to the domain of Longsong Stronghold.

In this age, a platoon completely composed of common men required some imagination to understand. They were too ignorant to read documents or understand orders. Not to mention that they never had any professional training. How could they be compared with knights who started practicing sword fighting since the age of ten?

Carter approached Roland and said softly, �Your Highness, this method has never been acceptable. Look at them. Which one of them can hold a sword? I�m afraid that they�d soon disperse at the sight of demonic beasts. This would instead disturb the line of defense and have a negative effect. I suggest that we should recruit professional mercenaries from Willow Town or other places to defend the city wall. These men could be kept for sundry duties.�

�No, I�ll use them,� Roland said, refusing Carter�s suggestion. He did not like those mercenaries who fought for money. Besides, he was not only building this army to defend against demonic beasts. He knew from history that a powerful and dynamic army must be built from the people, and there were countless feudal, modern, and contemporary armies that had attested to this rule.

�Okay, we�ll do as you say,� said the knight with a shrug. �Then should I train in swordplay? Though it may not be of much use��

�Swordplay? No. You should instruct them to stand in formation and run.� Roland held back his words after this, as it suddenly occurred to him that the chief knight himself might have never had such an experience. He said instead, �Call the hunter whom you approached last time. You both should pay attention to what I�ll do.�

*******************

The unimaginable things Van�er experienced today were more than those of the past 20 years combined.

He saw Prince Roland with his own eyes! The prince walked past him and even smiled to him. God, was the prince drunk?

Three days ago, when Prince Roland gave the lecture at the square, he knew that this winter would be different from before. They would not head for Longsong Stronghold, but would instead stay and pass the long winter in Border Town. Most of what the prince said was incomprehensible to him, but yet he agreed wholeheartedly with this decision. Van�er�s brother died two years ago in Longsong Stronghold slum. For a whole month there had been no food supply of any kind. He shared the dark bread he bought with the few coppers he had earned unloading cargo at the pier with his brother. But that winter was too cold. Wind came in through every crack of the shack in which they lived, and what they ate could hardly keep them warm. His brother lost consciousness with an ailment and never woke up again.

In Border Town, he at least had a house built by the earth, in which he did not have to fear a heavy snow that lasted long. He also saw wheat transported from elsewhere that piled up on the pier and then was transported to the castle in heaps. So Van�er came as soon as he heard that Prince Roland was recruiting for the militia.

Of course, what had enticed him to give up his quarrying work for enlistment was the pay, which was as high as 10 silver royals per month. It was comparable to the pay of an experienced mason! He was no longer young and planned to marry Sheryl, the tavern waitress the next spring, so it would be wise to start earning money.

As for what the notice said about the militia�s duties, he took no notice of it. It was either to carry things for their lordships, or to facilitate the patrol. After all, they couldn�t possibly be ordered to fight the frenetic demonic beasts on the city wall.

The selection was strict. The eyes of the knight in shiny armor made Van�er a little nervous. Fortunately, he passed the selection with his rather stout figure, though the knight eliminated many bony fellows through selection. At the end, there were only about 100 people left.

But it had never occurred to Van�er that it was His Highness himself that trained them.

Those who passed the selection were brought to a meadow west of Border Town. Behind them the city wall was being built, while in front of them stretched the endless Misty Forest.

The prince commanded all to stand in formation and then rested aside. It had rained a few days ago and the ground was still mushy. Moisture penetrated his shoes from the water-logged ground, making his whole body uneasy. Not to mention that the posture the prince demanded from them was quite unusual. They had to stand with hands down close to the sides of their thighs and keep their backs straight.

It only took a quarter of an hour to make Van�er exhausted. It was more taxing than hammering stones during the quarrying. But he grinded his teeth and persisted, because His Highness had said the one who moved during the training would not have any egg at lunch. God knew how long it had been since he had last tasted an egg. It was obviously what others thought as well, for they all persisted with all their effort.

It was not until the prince declared that everyone could rest on the spot that Van�er found himself soaked in sweat, despite the fact that he had only stood for half an hour. On the other hand, those who had not made it until the end regretted losing their egg.

Yet Van�er could not think of the use of this training. Could they carry a few more packs of solid food, if they stood like this?

If it was not for the fact that His Highness trained them himself, he would have cried out in doubt much earlier.

But after the rest, the second order His Highness made was even stranger. He commanded that everyone should continue standing in formation. If no one moved this time, each one would have one more egg at lunch. However, this time if even one person gave up, everyone would lose their chance of adding one more egg to their meal.

Van�er heard the sound of someone swallowing.

Hell, was this the new joke of the nobles? With a carrot and a stick, the prince had led everyone on! But Van�er would never consider himself a dumb donkey.

But what if everyone could do it? Then later on he could have two eggs for lunch.

The appeal was too great. Drooling over the eggs, Van�er decided to try his best.

�Your Highness, what�s the meaning of this?� Carter thought Prince Roland was arbitrary before, but now he thought the prince had become divorced from reality.

With regard to how to train a soldier, the chief knight thought that no one would be more professional than himself. His family had a complete set of training method, where a boy of 10 years old could be trained as a soldier, and would master all kinds of weapons in five years. If the soldier was further trained for five years, he would then be a top soldier, a knight who knew all rituals of upper class�of course, the trainees could not come from a civilian family.

[Look at these idiots! They only think of eating eggs!] Carter thought, [Besides� the eggs are so expensive!]

Roland responded casually, �Just watch them, and remember they must be trained in this way for the next few days. Of course, I�ll make some changes, and I�ll list down the details on paper.�

During the cold war era, it was impossible to train a group of qualified soldiers in two or three months. And Roland had never thought of that, as he did not need that kind of Spartan warriors who were strong enough to tear a beast apart with bare arms. The individual soldiers did not have to be strong, but they had to be disciplined and execute every order without fail.

The power of a unit was usually much stronger than individual strength. This was decided by social norm and acceptance. So he needed to form them into a unit quickly. The modern military training, with some modifications to suit the current situation, was a good choice. In his personal experience of military training, it took only half a month to integrate students from all over the country into a cohesive unit. The effect was very obvious regardless of the process.

Only when this group of people completely understood the importance of discipline, could Roland implement the next step of his plan.

Van�er still failed to get the second egg at the end.

They had to stand twice as long as the previous round, and it did not end until someone�s legs went weak and trembled.

Just then, Prince Roland announced to have a rest and ordered the attendants to serve lunch. People�s anger at the weakling was successfully transmuted into the eagerness toward food. Of course, Van�er began to suspect that His Highness probably had never intended to let them get a second reward.

Lunch was packed in four large pots, which was transported by carriages to the outside of the town. In addition to food, they also brought a lot of wooden bowls and spoons.

Van�er licked his lips, ready to rush to the carriages with the others, but was held back by the chief knight.

His Royal Highness ordered all the people to line up in four rows and come forward one by one for bowls and spoons. Whoever dared to disturb the order would be forced to be the last one to get his food.

The crowd hustled and squeezed, and lined up into four rows. Van�er was lucky enough to stand in the forefront of the outermost row. Of course, some people were not satisfied with their positions. The sound of quarrels and fighting was heard in the rows. Soon the knights and several guards rushed into the crowd and kicked the troublemakers out.

[Fool,] thought Van�er when he glanced at the man who started the riot. That was Insane Fist, the most aggressive street fighter in the town. He used to stir up trouble everywhere with his brute force, but now he had to squat in the corner with swords pointed at him. Look how pitiful he was now.

He felt that he had already figured out what His Royal Highness liked.

He liked order.

They had to stand upright in a straight line, line up to get food, and always follow orders� Van�er had heard from some knowledgeable businessmen that some of the noble had a strange habit: they could not tolerate disorder and once something was out of place, they could not help rearranging things.

In Van�er�s mind, this kind of person was purely bored and had nothing better to do. So they would deliberately create some trouble to occupy their mind.

He did not expect that His Royal Highness was such a person.

When the lids of the pots were opened, Van�er smelled the strong flavor of food.

When the flavor spread in the wind, he almost lost himself in it. The crowd also became restless, but soon the knight roared to keep them quiet. [We probably have to line up again,] Van�er thought.

Sure enough, Prince Roland required them to line up for their portions of food just like before.

Their mouths were watering and their stomachs were growling. But thinking of what happened to Insane Fist, they had to line up and wait patiently.

The pots were filled with hot oatmeal. To Van�er�s surprise, there was even dried meat in the porridge! Even if he only got one thin slice, but that was meat! In addition, he even got an extra egg like he wished for.

Van�er gobbled down the porridge, even licking the bottom of the bowl once. He swallowed the entire egg without biting. Since he ate so fast and carelessly, his tongue blistered quickly.

After putting down the pot, Van�er patted his belly and made a satisfied hiccup. He had not enjoyed such delicious food for a long time. And what was even more incredible was that he even felt a sense of satiety. Compared with brown bread, the sweet meat porridge tasted like heaven. He even thought, if he could eat such food every day, what would it matter if he had to fight against the demonic beasts in the front?

After lunch, they had a long period of rest. They were brought back within the city wall, walking all the way to the camp of the battalion. A burly man of foreign nation came out and began to teach everyone how to set up tents.

Van�er knew him�nearly everyone in the town knew Iron Axe. With regards to his superb archery skill, he even far surpassed the most experienced old hunters in the town. [Wait a moment, so now Iron Axe is serving Prince Roland? It seemed that I saw him by the side of the knights before.] Van�er frowned and thought, [What�s His Highness planning? Iron Axe is a man of Sand Nation.]

�Do you really intend to appoint a man of Sand Nation as captain?� Carter had the same question. �He doesn�t belong to Kingdom of Graycastle. And he isn�t even from our continent.�

�The witches don�t belong to the Kingdom of Graycastle either,� Roland said, �but they all belong to Border Town. Besides, aren�t you watching them for me?�

�But, Your Highness��

�Don�t worry.� Roland patted the knight�s shoulder. �The origin of a person doesn�t matter in Border Town. As long as they don�t violate the law of the kingdom, they�re still my subjects. If you�re really worried, you can choose two more excellent captains. Anyway, the team will continue to expand in the future, and you can cultivate some promising ones now. I have written down the training regulations. Compared to the people of Sand Nation, I think you�d better be more concerned about this.�

Carter took the parchment roll from Roland�s hands. Skimming through the contents from beginning to end, he got a nasty shock. The training contents were almost unheard of. For example, they needed to run laps around Border Town in the afternoon from 2 p.m. till sunset. The regulations emphasized that everyone had to complete this, and they were allowed to help each other on the way. If they persevered and no one gave up, they would get an extra egg for dinner. Another example, when the whistles were blown at night, everyone had to get dressed and fall in as soon as possible. With these kinds of training exercises, Carter was afraid that most people would quit in a few days.

The first few rules were already hard to understand, and the last one completely confused him.

�Every day after dinner, they�re required to go to Mr. Karl�s college for cultural training.�

�Your Highness� What do you mean by cultural training? Do you want to teach them to read and write?�

�I hope so, but the time is too limited. Karl could only teach them some simple words and numbers so that they can read and write orders. I�ll personally explain this part to Karl. You just need to send them over.�

�But, why do you want to do this? It�s of no use in fighting against the demonic beasts.�

�Who said so?� Roland yawned. �A unit good at fighting must also be well educated. That�s the experience learned from history.�

The weather was getting colder day by day, and Roland was waking up later and later.

As the ruling class, he certainly had the right to sleep late. Especially with his large bed and three layers of velvet blankets, his whole body would fall into the soft encirclement when lying down. This made it much harder for him to get up early.

After washing up, Roland stepped into his office and found Nightingale had been waiting there for a long time.

�Well, here is your breakfast. I ate half when it was hot, but now it�s cold,� she said, with her lips protruding. She nodded her head in the direction of the remaining bread on the table, as if she was the lord of the domain

�Hasn�t anyone taught you to be humble before the prince?� asked Roland, as he pushed away the plates and sat at the desk. �I remember you were very polite at first.�

He sighed inwardly. He had not realized that she made friends instantly, and she would always be accompanying Anna or him. She had kept hidden at first, but now as long as there was no outsider present, she would stroll around his office and not even wearing a hood.

�Like this?� She jumped off the table and bowed in the style and etiquette of a flawless noble. �You�ve been getting up later and later recently. Since the breakfast remained unconsumed, I wanted to do you a favor by helping myself to some of it, Your Highness.� She walked toward Roland and said, �You don�t care, do you? I can see that you don�t like the tedious etiquette.�

�Did she have a third eye?� Roland wondered silently. �She could see even this.�

He sighed. �As you like, but you�d better finish the breakfast once you start it in the future. I�ll order another portion if I want to eat it.�

�Yes, Your Highness!� She smiled and picked up the plate, moving quickly to one side.

Roland rolled out a blank parchment. He was ready to complete the design drawing, left unfinished from yesterday.

If he wanted to defend Border Town, he should not pursue a win with an almost equal loss in the first battle of winter. Since a corp that had not experienced war was not a qualified one, Roland feared that if there was any major loss, his soldiers who had only been trained for a short time, would not have the courage to stand on the city wall.

He needed epochal weapons in order to have an absolute advantage over the demonic beasts.

There was no doubt that he needed the flintlock.

The era was equipped with all the conditions for the emergence of the flintlock. The alchemists often produced something they called snow powder for palace celebrations. It was essentially gunpowder but with the wrong formula and could burn slowly. When put into the copper tube, it mostly just made a small sound.

In about one century, the prototype of the flintlock, the harquebus, would appear. The firearm had a complicated operation, which relied on the cooperation of two people doing the loading and shooting. In general, it could only be used as a single-shot weapon. As for its speed and power, it was no match for a trained archer.

Roland, of course, was not interested in repeating history. It was better to make use of the witch�s ability and create a flintlock with practical value, just like he had created the steam engine.

�I had looked at the order on the table before you came,� Nightingale swallowed the last piece of bread and asked casually, �What are you going to do with so many ices? It�s winter now, and if you want to drink cold ale, why not directly put it outside for one night?�

The noble liked to use ice during summer, namely, the ice made of saltpeter. Then they could cool their milk, wine or juice for enjoyment. Thanks to winter�s blessing, the current purchasing price for saltpeter was very low.

�To make iced cheese, the temperature is not low enough yet. It doesn�t work well without freezing,� Roland replied precariously.

Although the woman in front of him was not his enemy, he did not know her as well as he knew Anna. Unlike the steam engine, there were not so many technical barriers to the flintlock. Once it became popular, it would obviously be unfavorable to his farming project. Until he learned more about her, it was better to keep some things from her. Thinking of this, he tentatively asked, �Does the Witch Cooperation Association help to train killers in addition to searching for Holy Mountain?�

�No, they�re only a group of poor people coming together for a dream,� Nightingale waved and said, �and I joined the Witch Cooperation Association only two years ago.�

�In other words, you were working for someone else?� She could not have gained such perfect dagger-throwing skills without someone�s guidance or years of hard work. Roland was pretty sure about it. �Other than me, is there anyone else willing to take in a witch?�

�Take in?� Nightingale looked a bit strange. �How could it be. If he had known that I would become a witch, he wouldn�t have even let me through his door. As for later on, if I had not proved my usefulness to him, I�d have been secretly killed.�

�Oh? Can you elaborate?�

Nightingale shook her head with a smile, which contained slightly inexpressible moods this time. �Your Highness, I�ll let you know when the time is right. I know what you�re worried about. Please rest assured that I have been free for the last five years, and no longer work for others.�

Negotiations failed, it seemed that he was not charming enough� However, her answer indirectly confirmed his speculations. At least five years ago, she had secretly done something for someone. Fortunately, the person had only used Nightingale by chance, instead of recruiting large numbers of witches like he intended to.

Roland did not ask more. He bowed his head and went on with the drawings.

To his surprise, Nightingale, who had always liked being around him, became quiet, only leaving the sound of furnace fire burning in the room. When Roland lifted his head to stretch his limp, numb neck, she had left the office.

�She didn�t say goodbye,� he muttered, folding the parchment and putting it into the inner pocket of his underclothes.

He worked for a few days. He finished all the work, including the drawings, and the designs of the weapons, or the copies.

He was planning to make the famous flintlock, which was time-tested and similar to the harquebus in terms of the technique level, with the ignition charge loaded into the rear, and the lead ball loaded into the front. Its rate could be nearly three shots per minute. So more than sufficiently, it could be used to cope with the unintelligent mutant beasts.

Most animals would not be able to climb the wall, so the shooting distance was approximately equal to the distance from the top of the city wall to the ground, approximately four meters. Within this distance, it was hard to miss the target and the initial speed of the bullet would hardly decrease. As long as the demonic beasts had not evolved with a skin harder than steel, they could basically be killed in one shot.

The disadvantage of the flintlock was its long production time. At first, like the harquebus, it was made by craftsmen�s repeated beats with a hammer. From the barrel to the trigger, it took about three months to make the whole gun. Among all the parts, the barrel was the most time-consuming. The craftsman had to beat the iron sheet into a thin and cylindrical shape, seal it with iron powder, and then engrave the rifling. Although there was no need for precise instruments, the craftsman must be skilled in order to make qualified barrels.

This was why Roland had produced the steam engine first.

With the steam engine available, he could directly drill a barrel into a solid iron bar with the steel drill. So, the production speed would be greatly improved, without any more reliance on the operation by the skilled craftsmen. The only thing he needed would be a table on which he could fix the iron bar.

When Roland tried to change the theory into practice, he discovered that it wasn�t as easy as he imagined.

In the backyard after four or five days, the production of a harder drill was successful. It was easily quiet since he could use the high-temperature flame from Anna, which could easily get above 1500 degrees, and was enough to melt iron. Without needing to think about temperature control, and using the conventional method of producing steel, it was easy and quickly possible to make a small quantity of steel bars � namely the high-speed stirring of iron clubs with molten iron. The excess carbon and other impurities in the pig iron would oxidize when coming into contact with the air. By repeating this several times before letting the molten iron cool down, it was possible to get high-quality steel.

The problem laid within the steam engine.

The worked up noise and vibration by his prototype of the steam engine was very impressive, even when stabilizing the drill it was impossible to complete a pipe. When doing heavy work or menial jobs, this degree of tremor didn�t matter, but processing a gun barrel was clearly not possible.

If he wanted to improve the steam engine, he would have to create a centrifugal mechanics governor to control the output power of the steam engine, and then he could reduce the tremor by using gears to adjust the rotation speed of the drill. And he need a simple lathe machining gear. With all this in mind, Roland simply found no way to achieve this goal while preparing for the coming Months of the Demons.

In the end, he could only use the old fashioned way, and let a blacksmith hammer the drill into the barrel. But the plan to mass-produce firearms was impossible. According to the number of smithies in Border Town, it was only possible to produce 3-4 root barrels each month, but only in the case that he stopped the production of the second steam engine.

The only good news was that didn�t have to worry about the quality of the barrels. The blacksmith only had to knock out a rough pipe, and then Anna could do the unifying commissure, her work was seamless and so good that it basically eliminated the risk of a barrel explosion.

So Roland had no choice but to change his former plan. He had intended to recruit hunters from Border Town, who would then form a rifle team � most of them were proficient in archery with either a bow or crossbow, both were handy weapons. In addition, they only need a short amount of time to train with the firearms, so they could be quickly sent into combat.

But now with only four guns produced before the Months of the Demons, he could only pick the most outstanding hunters and had no manpower to build up an elite group. Roland decided to let Iron Axe handle this matter, he already spent fifteen years in Border Town, so he should know who the best hunters are.

*

For the last month, Brian was unhappy.

Especially when he met the militia in the street, his unsatisfied feeling would be doubled� He even felt a trace of loathing.

He felt His Highness had forgotten him.

A month ago when he was called by the chief knight, he was full of excitement. He would have close contact with the 4th Prince, and get orders directly from His Royal Highness, how fortunate and glorious would that be!

He grew up in Border Town, and although he born from a common hunting family, by virtue of his ability he was able to get a place as town patrol.

He knew he could not rely on his family background to become a knight, but instead could only wait for the opportunity to get enough merits to receive the honor of becoming a knight.

His Highness asked him what he knew about the demonic beasts, so he was apparently unwilling to give up his own territory during the winter. He was trying to find ways to fight the demonic beasts. Later the wantonly built walls also proved that there was no doubt that this year they would spend the Months of the Demons in Border Town.

If he wanted to stop the invasion of the demonic beasts here, we would have to set up a front-fighting team. Brian thought that he himself was a good candidate, he was proficient in investigating, fencing, and riding, and in the last year he was even the last person in Border Town who ignited the flames, proving that he did not lack courage, but he had never expected that His Highness intended to elect a team from the civilian population to fight against the demonic beasts!

Yes, a purely civilian team, and not just him, but the entire patrol team of ten people were not accepted during the review by the chief knight. This was simply incredible, did His Highness think that these people, who had never held a sword, would be better at fighting than his own town patrol? He was afraid that when they got to see the evil beast�s fierce appearance they would instantly collapse!

But His Highness seemed to be serious� He not only trained the mob, but even gave them a uniform and many other clothes. Every afternoon Brian could see this group of people dressed up in a brown and gray leather armor, they were arranged in two columns running down the street. In the beginning, they were lacking any order, but recently the had become neater and neater.

While he himself still had to perform his boring task every day, he couldn�t see any possibility of promotion now.

When he was tossing and turning at night, he could hear a sound at his door, then the door opened and someone came in quietly.

�Hey, we are up,� whispered a person in a low voice. Brian could tell to whom this voice belonged, it belonged to member of his own patrol, nicknamed Fierce Scar.

In his room slept five people. In addition to himself and Greyhound, the other three quickly stood up, and they seemed well prepared, they hadn�t even taken off their coats.

�Captain, get up, I have something important to tell you.�

In Longsong Stronghold Fierce Scar had a noble relative, who had not heard of his great noble uncle? So thanks to this he had a high status within the team. It was not good for Brian to ignore him, so he had to climb up and ask, �What happened?�

Greyhound also woke up, �This is� it�s so late, why don�t you sleep� aren�t you sleepy?�

�I have the greatest job in your lives to introduce to you, you want to be canonized as a knight, right?�

�What�What? Knight?� Greyhound was surprised.

Brian heart jump wildly and he quickly asked, �In the end what is the job?�

�You all know my uncle Hill, he isn�t only the herald of Duke Ryan, even more, he is one of his confidants. This is news he himself personally confessed to me,� Fierce Scar spoke with a low voice, �The 4th Prince preparing to shake off the shackles from Longsong Stronghold made Duke Ryan very unhappy. He has decided to let the prince know who the true owner of the western border is. �

�Difficult, difficult, don�t� your plan� assassination�� Greyhound was so nervous he even begun to stammer, and he didn�t even speak a complete sentence.

�How would that be possible,� Fierce Scar laughed maniacally, �After all, he is a Prince, if we kill him, not even Duke Ryan could shelter us. I said this is your biggest chance in your life.�

Brain felt subconsciously that the deal was certainly not as simple as he claimed it to be, but the temptation to be canonized as a knight was too great, he could not help himself and opened his mouth, �Begin to talk, we are listening.�

�Food! If he has no food, he can only humble himself and go back to Longsong Stronghold where Duke Ryan already promised him a place. As long as we can successfully burn the food, which the 4th Prince had previously bought, Duke Ryan will organize the canonization ceremony for us, and will give each of us fiefdom east of Longsong Stronghold. This is a golden opportunity, Captain, what do you think? �

�Y-you are crazy� now, hadn�t His Royal Highness� astrologer said that this year� Months of the Demons would likely hold on for more than four months� if we set the food on fire, if we burn it all, what would we eat!?� Greyhound again and again shook his head, �two� two years ago, there was a great famine, has everyone forgotten it?�

�What does it have to do with us?� asked another person disdainfully, �Anyway, I do not intend to stay here, if we do the job for Duke Ryan, we can live a comfortable life in the stronghold.�

�Yes, do you want to eat this hell of slag for a lifetime, do you?� Other people begun to chime in.

Hell, they already colluded at an earlier time. Brian�s heart became cold, and in addition, except Greyhound most of them were from outside of Border Town, they came from all over the kingdom and they don�t have any nostalgia with this town. Feeling powerless to stop them, Brian had to change the subject, �But the purchased wheat was transferred to His Royal Highness� castle, and all the doors are guarded by His Highness� knights, how could you go through with your plan?�

�That�s why I need your help,� Fierce Scar smiled proudly, �From an early age you have stayed in this broken place, so no one is more familiar with the environment here than you. I remember that you once said that there is a ravine in an abandoned well, and its end is connected with the castle�s water supply. Through it, we can silently enter the castle garden. Didn�t you find it when you were still a child? How is it? With this easy task, you can become a knight in the future � a knight personally canonized by Duke Ryan. �

A knight� should not do any injustice, instead, he should have the courage to fight against it, and he should not be afraid of any danger, and should always be ready to protect the weak! For Duke Ryan�s personal gains, the residents of his hometown would face the threat of hunger and death? Becoming a knight like this, there was no glory at all!

He refused to open his mouth, but Greyhound begun to shout.

�You are a group of maniacs! You� you�re� actually thinking about the idea of burning the food! I would never! Never let you leave this place! I will report it, report to� ahh,� Greyhound only spoke until here, his voice suddenly became weaker, with an incredible look he turned around, looking at a former teammate standing behind him and sneering at him. A black dagger was insert in Greyhound�s waist; the dagger was totally inserted into the body. Greyhound shivered twice, he opened his mouth and tried to say something, but he could only emit a hoarse breathing sound.

The other guard stirred his dagger twice, and then he abruptly withdrew it. Greyhound, like a doll who suddenly lost its support, softly crumbled to the ground.

�How?� Fierce Scar was suddenly so close to Brian, that the latter could even feel the foul breath exhaled from his mouth, �I think you have made a decision, right, Captain Brian?�

TN:

If you are interested into the centrifugal mechanics governor, here are more informations and a video

The lord�s castle in Border Town had not been originally built in its current position.

Whilst burying the foundation of the stone wall, an underground cave was uncovered. The ground suddenly collapsed, so there was no choice but to move the position of the castle.

The waterways that had already been dug were mostly destroyed during the collapse. Even those that were intact were abandoned because of the reconstruction.

When Brian was young, he often played in these tunnels, and one day he accidentally found that the route from an abandoned well led to the well of the castle garden. Brian told his father, and was severely beaten. His father warned him that the punishment for trespassing the castle was death. Once found guilty, he would be sent straight to the gallows.

Brian was terrified and naturally did not walk through the waterway again. But at times when everyone got together to drink and chat, he had more than once boasted that he knew a direct access to the castle. Now he regretted his remarks.

Excluding Greyhound, there were a total of nine people. In other words, the entire patrol team had been persuaded by Fierce Scar�being able to serve Duke Ryan, the lord of the Western Region, with such a lucrative return, was a temptation few people could resist.

The abandoned well was located at the outset of the collapse, and now it remained a wasteland. Held by Fierce Scar�s sword and caught in the middle of the platoon, Brian went down the well. What was once a spacious waterway, was now very narrow. No one had passed through in years, plus the water direction had changed. Many vines had sprouted all over the cave.

The bloke who had stabbed Greyhound was in front holding the torch and bowed. He held a short axe and used it to remove obstacles.

Brian pretended he was trying to remember the road, but in fact, he was thinking about getting away.

Obviously in such an inconvenient place, he had no possibility of escaping. He could only wait till he got to the castle, before getting a chance. What should he do once he got there? Shout to attract the personal knights of His Highness? No. Fierce Scar would raise his hand and finish him off. He had to lengthen their distance first, otherwise he would end up like Greyhound.

Thinking about Greyhound, Brian�s eyes became bleak again.

He and Greyhound had lived in Border Town before it was even established. The two had spent their childhood together and joining the patrol team was also Brian�s idea. He had not expected that Greyhound would be elected as the patrol team leader.

Brian was happy for him for a long time. Because of his stutter, Greyhound had always been despised by others. Now, he had finally gotten the opportunity to be recognized. At least at the time, it was what Brian thought.

But when Greyhound fell and Brian screamed, Fierce Scar told him the real reason they had been elected captains.

�Fool, patrol leaders have to stay until the Months of Demons, to ignite the flames and warn everyone. If you two didn�t do it, did you expect me to do it myself?�

The sentence was like a sharp knife piercing Brian�s heart.

All those compliments and congratulations were false, and the real reason was actually so ugly. He showed a look of shock and despair to cover up his raging anger. It was simply unforgivable. Brian secretly clenched his teeth. Someone had to pay the price!

After walking through the dried-up waterway for half an hour, they finally heard the sound of water.

This meant that they were not far from their destination.

After turning a corner, it suddenly became more spacious, and could accommodate two people standing side by side. The person walking at the head of the platoon said, �There�s no way forward, just a shaft.�

�What�s happening?� Fierce Scar nudged the sword and asked.

�Ask him to look up,� said Brian. �We have arrived.�

The abandoned waterway was connected to the middle of the castle backyard�s waterway. Perhaps it had not been sealed shut due to negligence. Fierce Scar stuck to the wall and looked up, three feet below him was gushing water, and above his head he could see a small circle of the night sky.

He let people guard Brian, while he pulled out a rope from the backpack, tied the hook, and gently threw it up. When a �dang� sound was heard, the hook was firmly stuck in the edge of the well�s head.

Fierce Scar followed the rope, and carefully climbed up. Soon, he tugged the rope several times above, indicating that the rest of the people could come up.

The line of people took almost half a day�s efforts to climb out from the well. The castle which was originally far from sight now stood erect in front of them.

Fierce Scar grabbed Brian and shouted, �Hurry and take us to the warehouse.�

Brian had only come here once. Though the memory of the castle was obscure, he quietly led the crowd, pried open the nearest wooden door and slipped into the castle.

At this hour, most people inside the castle were asleep, and the lamp lights along the corridor walls were completely extinguished. In the pitch-black darkness, someone from the platoon lit a fire. Faint fire could only illuminate a few feet, and Brian knew his chance had come.

When the platoon went to a crossing leading to the basement, he aimed at the bottom of the ladder, and suddenly rushed over. Although the person who held Brian had been paying attention to his movements, but the leap was too fast. Before he could react, he collided and began rolling down with Brian.

Down the ladder, the two instantly came out of the fire�s range, and disappeared in the darkness.

�Oh, damn!� Fierce Scar immediately pulled out the dagger, and chased after them. He thought Brian would use the dark to play hide and seek with him. But not only did Brian not escape, he was also quietly standing under the stairs, as if waiting for him.

Fierce Scar saw that the associate who collided with Brian was lying on the ground motionless. And Brian was holding the man�s weapons in his hand.

�Fool, do you think you�ll have a chance to win?� Fierce Scar held his attack stance, waiting for the others to come down, and then said, �There are seven of us, and only one of you.�

Brian did not answer, and he no longer needed to suppress his anger. He swung the sword, and swiftly struck the peak of Fierce Scar�s sword, with sparks flying. Without waiting for the next stance, he stabbed the sword into Fierce Scar�s shoulder!

Fierce Scar roared and fell backwards. Another one stepped forward, blocking the pursuit of Brian.

This was an excellent place to strike, as the narrow aisle gave the opponents hardly any advantages. He just had to stand in the middle of the aisle facing the enemy, and the opponents could not do anything. It was just too narrow here to accommodate two people waving weapons.

With regards to swordsmanship, Brian was confident he would not lose to anyone of the patrol team.

When this group of scum was lazing around, gambling, and indulging in the bar, he was honing his fighting skills. Regardless of wind, frost, rain or snow, years went by and his routine was never interrupted. This was also why he did not choose to immediately shout for help.

He wanted to personally avenge Greyhound�s death.

The enemy only blocked Brian�s two strikes before his weapons were knocked down.

[They�re more like a bunch of hooligans than members of the patrol team.] Brian thought angrily. [Other than blackmail and extortion, what else have they done? Greyhound and I meticulously performed the tasks given by the lord, but ended up being the weird ones out of the team.]

But� it just so happened, this group of scum, in order to join Longsong Stronghold, did not care about what happened to the town, and used despicable methods to kill Greyhound.

Unforgivable!

He wielded the sword, aiming toward a frightened opponent�s neck�

At this moment, a shadow emerged from the target, and swiftly stabbed close to Brian�s heart. This blow was too concealed, so when he detected it, it was already too late.

In desperation, he crashed backwards to the ground, his body popping up, and felt a stabbing pain at his chest.

After rolling a few laps, Brian immediately stood up and put on a defensive stance. That sword attack only pierced his coat and skin, and there was no serious harm done. But the main point was who did the attack! He did not know any guy in the patrol team with such a fencing skill.

�Huh? You actually dodged the attack.� The man pushed away his teammate and came forward.

By the firelight, Brian found he did not know that person�he was not tall, and yet his hands were very long, hanging down almost to the knees. His face was unfamiliar, and Brian vowed he had never seen this face before.

�You�re not from the patrol team� Who�re you exactly?�

Despite having few dealings with the five people next door, but at least he recognized them. This guy obviously replaced one of them, followed the team in and infiltrated the castle. It was not surprising that he did not discover him in the middle of the night, but it was impossible that Fierce Scar did not notice as well. Since they did not seem surprised, then there was only one explanation that this guy was deliberately arranged by Fierce Scar.

�You already know the answer, so why asking me?� He smiled indifferently. �Anyway, you�re going to die.�

�Damn, he�s injured me!� Fierce Scar shouted hatefully. �Viper, chop off his hands and feet, and I want to slowly drain his blood!�

�Unfortunately, Mr. Kihls, I have to first complete the tasks of the earl.�

Without much pause, the guy known as Viper continued attacking. His movement was swift and mysterious, plus his abnormally long arms, forcing Brian into a bitter struggle. Brian was forced to retreat, and simply could not find an opportunity to counterattack.

[Too careless!] Brian began to feel anxious. [We�ve fought for so long, surely the people above would have noticed, right?]

He wanted to personally revenge Greyhound�s death, but yet now he only wished he could hold on a little longer, till the guards of His Royal Highness came to ambush this group of villains.

�You seem to be expecting something.� Viper suddenly paused attacking. �I guess you�re waiting for the prince�s men to save you? Unfortunately, this stone castle is different from your usual pubs and hotels. In those wooden houses, the floors would creak when people were entertaining. But here, as long as the door was closed, you could shout at the top of your lungs, and no one would hear any movement upstairs.�

After Brian�s thoughts had been exposed, he could not help but hesitate, and Viper was waiting exactly for this opportunity. He kept the sword pointing down to dull the opponent while slightly raised the other hand to trigger the hand crossbow in the sleeve.

A bolt with just a finger�s length was shot from the cuff, and once Brian heard the light buzzing of the machine, the bolt was already thrust in his lung.

Unbearable pain suddenly exploded in his chest. Brian threw the sword at Viper, and turned back to run. But the blood from the lung exuded quickly into the trachea, making it difficult for him to breathe. He did not run far, before he tripped over the threshold, with a staggering heavy fall to the ground.

Viper caught up with him, and wanted to terminate his opponent, but was stopped by Fierce Scar.

�Let me do it,� he said gnashing his teeth. �I want this guy to know what happens to those who stab me!�

A trace of cool flashed across Viper�s face, but he eventually moved aside. �Do it efficiently, and don�t forget our main business.�

Fierce Scar grabbed Brian�s hair and shouted at him, �Believe me, you�ll die a very painful death.�

Brian wanted to spit some blood on his face, but his whole body�s strength was draining away, and he knew he did not have long to live. Past regrets surged to his heart, such as the wife he had not yet met, and the dream to be a knight. But the most regrettable was� being unable to avenge Greyhound.

Wait, what was that?

He blinked, and there was a woman sitting on top of a box. Although under the dim light, her look was not clear, that exquisite body proved clearly that she was without doubt a woman.

Hell, was this an illusion� When he fell into the room, he did not see anyone inside. Did the deities in heaven hear his complaints, and deliberately created a fantasy to comfort him?

�Hey, you guys are not only fighting in other people�s territory, and even intend to kill right in front of me. Don�t you think that�s inappropriate?�

Brian could feel Fierce Scar�s hand tremble, and let loose his hair. He could hear sounds of weapons bursting out of the sheath, and some shouts. �Who are you!?�

[Their reaction is just too� Wait!] Brian was thinking hazily. [Isn�t this an illusion?]

�Of course I�m from here.� The woman jumped from the barrel, and patted the dust from her robe. In the dim firelight, Brian saw her gown was embroidered with a strange pattern�three juxtaposed triangles, and a huge eye in the center. The silhouette of the eye shone golden bright under the firelight.

�What about you guys? Rats that come from the gutter?� Her voice was crisp and sweet, yet without any emotion. This was unreasonable� Anyone who saw a murder scene would not behave so calm.

Viper was also aware of this. He looked somber, walked slowly around the other�s side, and suddenly stabbed her.

The woman did not even turn her head, but casually waved her hand. Viper did not even see her weapon, but just felt a burst of cold wind blowing through his body.

There was a scream. Fierce Scar stared incredulously, and he saw Viper rush forward and retreat quickly. But the original site of the sword was now an empty space.

His arms fell to the ground, as well as the sword.

Fear suddenly strangled Fierce Scar�s throat. The others might not know, but he was very clear about Viper�s bottom line�vicious, dangerous and cunning when attacks. This was the earl�s evaluation of this person. Someone who could be chosen and recruited by the earl, only meant his strength should not be underestimated. Even Brian would have difficulty in resisting his attack for more than half a quarter. But now, he was nonchalantly attacked by a woman, and his whole arm severed.

�What�re you guys waiting for, hurry and kill her!� Viper shouted, holding his wound.

After having lost a lot of blood, Brian�s vision began to blur. He heard chaotic sounds of footsteps, weapons, collision, and muffled sounds when bodies fell to the ground. What had happened exactly? He tried to turn his eyes, looking forward�

And then the patrol leader saw an image he could not understand.

That woman�s figure was like a ghost, and she strolled amongst the crowd, disappearing and appearing at times. Every attack would penetrate the enemy�s vital point. It did not seem like a fight, and it looked more like a dance. He had never seen anyone use weapons with such a sense of rhythm. The sword shadow was flying up and down, and drawing an incredible orbit. The people around seemed like clumsy clowns, compared to her. They futilely counterattacked, and then fell in vain� In the end, she was the only person proudly standing.

That was also the last sight Brian saw before losing consciousness.

Roland was sitting at his desk in a dazed state. He actually didn�t expect that someone was trying to commit murder in his castle. He was afraid that if Nightingale hadn�t promptly discovered them, they would have murdered him in cold blood.

Who ordered this assassination attempt? Was it his third sister, or one of his other siblings? Why were they doing this? It was a five-year struggle for the throne, but in the past few months they had already tried to kill him twice. Roland, full of irritation, banged his desk. This was simply outrageous! Couldn�t they just let him face the Months of the Demons?

Footsteps could be heard from outside of the door. It was Carter, his chief knight. After he pushed open the door he said, �Your Highness, the identities of the deceased have been identified. From the eight bodies, seven were original members of the patrol, but the last one is still unidentified. In addition, there are two who are still alive and under the care of the witch� if not� After being treated by Miss Pyne, they have yet to wake up. Also the path to the sewers is being closely guarded now.�

They were from the town patrol? He knew that the team raised by the former Lord wasn�t reliable. Roland gritted his teeth, actually, eight from the ten people were disloyal, so not letting them join the militia was really the right choice.

�That is good, and also make sure they are always well-guarded, don�t let them commit suicide like the last time!�

�Like�The last time?�

�Oh, nothing.� Roland shook his head. Apparently due to Nightingale�s early wake up call, his head was still confused. �Anyway, I want to know everything about them. Who is their leader? Who is their contact person? Who is their investor? You must investigate all of this and more��

�Yes, Your Highness.� Carter had gotten his orders, but he did not leave immediately, instead he went down on one knee and said, �That the assassins could sneak into the castle was my dereliction of duty. I hope Your Highness will punish me.�

�Enough is enough. At that time, you weren�t even in the castle, so this has nothing to do with you.�

�Well ��� Carter hesitated, �Can you tell me who it was in the end that prevented this assassination attempt? I could see from the scene, that they�� the knight had to swallow, �all of them seem to be have been killed by the same person and were totally defenseless.�

�That you can tell?� Roland was curious.

�If they were evenly matched, the scene wouldn�t be so clean and the wounds would be in a wide range all over the bodies,� Carter whispered, �Everybody was killed down in the small warehouse, in addition to blood and dead bodies there was nothing else on the ground. There was almost no damage to the goods placed down there. Those big boxes which store bacon didn�t even have a sword cut. That shows that the man didn�t need to use any cover, it seems as if he was taking a walk in a small clearing. With all due respect, Your Highness, this is just too incredible. �

�So that�s the reason,� Roland nodded his head, he understood the meaning of Carter�s explanation. After a theoretically strong person was surrounded, he would fall into an extreme adverse situation � real fights usually didn�t end like what was shown in movies, where the surrounded person sends one enemy after the other towards the ground. An attack from a blind spot would be particularly deadly. So to fight many, the correct approach would be to rely on the terrain and the environment so that they could always face the opposition.

But Nightingale was not one of those ordinary people.

�No matter what you do, you have to complete the mission I gave you, first. This person cannot be revealed yet, but when the time comes, I�ll tell you.�

Although he knew that the chief knight was one of his loyal and reliable subordinates and that he also knew that Nana and Anna were witches, but Roland still chose to hide the presence of Nightingale from him, because the difference between her and the other two witches was that she didn�t belong to their side. She only stayed in Border Town because of Anna. She belonged to the Witch Association Cooperation, and would sooner or later leave this town.

Carter gave a salute and retired.

Roland could understand his thoughts. As a person well versed with the sword, Carter constantly practiced a training program that was produced from summarizing and accumulating fighting techniques for hundreds of years, and in truth they were proud of their heritages. But when he saw the scene in the warehouse, he couldn�t believe it and began to have doubts � if sword play could be perfected to such a state, of which heritage were they normally so proud of?

�I thought you would tell me to come out,� Nightingale revealed herself. She was still sitting on the corner of his desk, with crossed legs.

�I also thought about it. How about it? You can just settle down here as my hidden sword. You will get two gold royals as monthly salary, the double of what Anna gets. What do you think?� Roland began to advise it further �You will get a house with a garden, two days off each week, and even paid leave every year � uh, that�s it, the rest would only be a monetary reward.�

To his surprise, Nightingale didn�t flatly refuse him. She only smiled and said neither yes or no, �I cannot abandon my companions, no matter what.�

�That would be now, but when the winter is over, Border Town will begin a time of reconstruction. And at that time, how many people will still care about it. And then� the witches will no longer have to suffer discrimination while walking in the streets. No one will see you as the devil�s spokesperson.�

�And so on� You are always talking about it,� said Nightingale indifferently.

It was time to stop. It was always better to see than to hear. This kind of thing could only be changed slowly. Roland changed the subject, �Nana has been safely sent back, right?�

�Ah yes, but she got spooked.�

Roland sighed, it couldn�t be helped, after all, it was midnight when she had been woken up by Nightingale. When she was brought to the scene and saw the battle place, she almost threw up. Nightingale gave him a short account about the things which happened, and then he told her to get Nana. Usually, Nana had to only heal chickens. But now, when the little girl saw people covered in blood, she immediately fainted. After a short while, she woke up and began to heal the person from the town patrol with her face full of tears.

In order to keep Nana�s family in the dark, Nightingale was also responsible for taking her back.

When everything was settled, it was almost daybreak.

�How was the investigation? Could you figure out which of my good brothers or sisters sent them?�

Nightingale shook her head, �They were all people of your own patrol, with only one exception, but he also didn�t carry any identity-related evidence with him. With enough money, anyone could hire them. But I think that this perhaps isn�t related to your siblings.�

�Why?�

�Because it was extremely unorganized. During multiple occasions, the team actually had a lot infighting. And immediately after their failure they didn�t commit suicide, leaving at least two people alive. And then, they had no professional performance. In general, they were just street punks. This is unlike the style of your brothers and sisters, it is more likely that it was a layman�s plan. I think that even if I wasn�t here there was no way their assassination attempt would have succeeded. Don�t forget that Anna is sleeping downstairs. �

Nightingale reached for Roland�s cup, she didn�t seem to care about drinking from the same cup as him, and then said, �No matter what, your knight had asked for the truth of what happened in the sewers, and I bet he will soon know the truth � compared with the former piece of your sister, that guy is much less professional. If I hadn�t left, he would still kneel before me begging me to not to kill him.�

�That seriously injured patrol member, it seems that he is the one I summoned not too long ago.�

�Really?� Nightingale tilted her head, �I think that you�ll have to reward him. If he hadn�t stood up against the other guys, I would not have found them so quickly and they would have slipped into the basement of the castle. Although it is still not clear why he did that, but the enemy�s enemy is our friend, right? �

Yes, Roland thought, but the important part was not if he is a friend or foe, but rather that Nightingale said the two words.

� �Our friend.�

When Brian woke up, the first thing that caught his eyes was the white ceiling.

The sunlight shining through the window was somewhat bright, so he had to close his eyes a little. Then when his eyes got used to the sunlight, he opened them again, only to find the scene in front of him unchanged.

Feeling that it wasn�t a dream, he thought, I�m� still alive? He tried to move his body, but soon noticed that he could only lift his fingers a little bit. It seemed that his whole body�s strength was gone.

Then he heard someone shouting, �He woke up! Go and inform His Highness!�

His Highness? Brian felt like his brain was filled with paste and that his thought process was many times slower than usual. By the way, what happened after I fainted? I can only remember that Viper pierced my chest and that I was dying, and in my last moment I could see a ghostly woman who defeated all the enemies in an incredible way�

Soon a maid arrived to help him up so that he could sit in the bed. Then another maid came holding a basin and sat down next to him and immediately began to help him clean his face. In his whole life Brian had never experienced such comprehensive personal service, plus the maids were all young women, which made the situation really awkward for him.

Fortunately, the situation did not last long. As soon as the 4th Prince entered the room, everyone else left.

Brian could feel a surging heat within his heart. He had too much to ask, but then, when he tried to open his mouth he didn�t know from where to begin. But contrary to what he had expected, Roland nodded and said, �I already know of all your past achievements, and Brian, you are worthy of the title of a hero.�

Hearing the word �Hero�, Brian suddenly felt his eyes begin to tear up. He began to sob and his voice choked, �No� Your Highness, my friend�is the real ��

Roland patted him on his shoulder so as to comfort him.

It was exactly like Nightingale had predicted. After Fierce Scar was dragged into the torture chamber, he began to tell everything he knew before the warden even put his hands on him.

The one behind this group was not his sister or any other of his siblings, but Longsong Stronghold�s Elk family. Count Elk got in contact with his distant relative Hiller Dmitry. Afterwards, Fierce Scar gained control over most of the town patrol with the lure of a reward. In addition, he also sent an assassin to replace one of the members in the team to prevent an accident from occurring in the course of action. The purpose of this group of people was not to assassinate Roland like he had thought, instead they intended to burn the food reserves so that he would obediently go back to the stronghold.

Their conspiracy resulted in the death of an innocent person � Greyhound. He tried to stop Fierce Scar when he heard of his criminal intent, but he was stabbed to death with a dagger by one of his own subordinates. The whereabouts of the patrol member who was replaced by Viper was unknown. When he didn�t see fire on the castle ground and noticed that Fierce Scar failed to come back, he probably realized that the plan was discovered and fled..

To help stabilize Brian�s mood, Roland promised him, �Your friend Greyhound, he�ll get a funeral fitting for his sacrifice, and his family will be properly cared for, they will no longer need to worry about food in the future.�

�Thank you, Your Highness,� Brian took a deep breath, �I have to know. Fierce Scar� is he dead?�

�No, he is still alive.�

Brian painfully closed his eyes. He would rather have had them not rescue Fierce Scar so that he would have been dragged to hell than both of them staying alive. But now, the chance to fulfill his wish became slim� There was no doubt that Fierce Scar was guilty, but the sins committed by nobility could always be redeemed with money. As long as his uncle was willing to protect him, it was very likely that Fierce Scar wouldn�t die. It was most probable that he wouldn�t even need to go to prison.

Roland could naturally guess his thoughts, �Hiller Dmitry, the uncle of Fierce Scar, is also a distant relative of the Elk family in Longsong Stronghold. The head of the family is Luke Dmitry, a vassal under Duke Ryan, but the fact that he is the distant uncle of Fierce Scar�� here he paused for a little moment, �will not affect the final verdict. Fierce Scar has been sentenced to death by hanging, and there are only three days left until his execution. If you can restore your body by then, you�re invited to witness it if you wish to. �

Brian became startled, �But� But Your Highness, members of the nobility can have their freedom bought, this rule you cannot offend -�

Roland waved his hand dismissively, indicating Brian shouldn�t concern himself with it, �He is a Noble? Maybe for you, he was born in a branch family of the Elk family, so the status you and he have are as much apart as heaven and earth. However, it�s a fact that he has neither a title nor any land, so he simply cannot be considered as nobleman. In addition, even if he were a nobleman, to lead an invasion into the prince�s temporal royal residence and attempt to burn the food stocks, ignoring the fate of the two thousand people in Border Town, carried enough guilt. Adding these three sins together, he could simply not be forgiven.�

At the time when Roland ordered the death of Tyre, he felt a little hesitant within his heart, but Fierce Scar belonged to the entirely inexcusable category. If he were successful, all of Roland�s own future plans for Border Town would be destroyed, and he would never get a chance to turn his situation around. This was more hateful than a direct assassination attempt at Roland himself.

As for the possibility that his action would annoy Longsong Stronghold? Who cares! Since the other party did not want to cooperate with him, of course he would not compromise with them, they even tried choosing underhanded tactics to entrap the entire population of Border Town. At the same time this incident also taught Roland a lesson � this world�s political struggle was different than what he knew from his former world, there they would mostly concentrate themselves on competing under the table, but here they were more inclined to set the table aside and use a much bloodier method. �Rest well. You lost too much of your strength, so don�t leave the castle. I have arranged for other people to take over your patrol�s work, and at the end of the Months of the Demons, I�ll hold your canonization ceremony. �

�Your Highness,� after hearing the words �canonization ceremony�, Brian looked at the prince with disbelief, �You mean��

�Yes, you will become one of my knights, Mr. Brian,� replied Roland with a smile.

�Prepare � stab!�

Van�er stabbed a wooden dummy with a pike, and on both sides his team members also did the same, with the same force and also from nearly the same angle.

This time, it was already his one-hundredth stab.

He only had a tingling feeling left in his arms and he already thought that he would never survive this training. Despite the fact that he began to have this thought after his fiftieth stab, he still endured. After one week of conditioning it was already his natural reflex to obey every given order. Honestly, he himself was the most surprised that he could still endure.

�All � rest!�

After Iron Axe shouted his command, Van�er could suddenly hear the sound of exhaling from everywhere around him. Van�er let also exhaled, and then he put down the pike as he sat on the ground.

Now, he finally realized that their own militia was not responsible for being the errand troop for the guards or the knights. After one week of eccentric training, the training changed more to the fighting portion. For example, now they were standing on the city wall and were thrusting out their pikes according to the captain�s orders � although these pikes were replaced with wooden poles, anyone could imagine their roles in the future.

The logistics team would never do such exercises, so this also meant that they would confront the evil beasts on the wall. Naturally thinking about this, Van�er felt fear. He had even thought of sneaking away, but he didn�t know why, seeing his teammates around himself with the thought of three meals a day and a good salary slowly changed his mind.

�Everyone stands up. Prince Roland is coming.� They had not rested for 15 minutes when Iron Axe clapped and yelled.

Van�er soon returned to his position; the previous special training caused him to have reflexes towards conforming commands. Almost subconsciously, he held up his wooden pole and assembled himself in the preparation posture for thrusting.

Prince Roland and his retinues walked upon the city wall and passed the troop from behind. Through the corner of his eyes, Van�er noticed that His Highness slowed down when passing himself.

Roland groaned in his heart. It was truly the axiom that �getting up late will ruin your morning while getting up early will ruin your whole day.� He just finished dealing with the aftermath of the raid on the castle, and then he had to come to inspect the recent training results of the Militia. The poor guy did not sleep all night, and now he was sleepy. But he had to come, for the team had been in the training stage. As the commander, his prolonged absence would lead to a diminished sense of existence and the morale of his team would also become unstable.

[Umm� What do people usually say when inspecting the troop?] Roland pondered for a moment. �Hi, comrades! Good job, comrades! If nobody responded, it would be very awkward after I called out that phrase. Or perhaps it�ll be better to have casual conversations with someone. That would help me to express my kindness and also raise my reputation.�

He thought to implement his plan and patted a muscular young fellow on the back.

�You were laborious. Did you feel tired? Did you like the meals?�

Depended on the past experiences from reading the news, Roland was expecting the young fellow to answer his questions with a loud and excited response such as �Not tired at all, I feel excellent!� However, the young fellow was so excited that he immediately knelt down on his knee after he turned to Roland, which surprised Roland quite a bit.

Van�er felt that he was being blessed by the heaven that Prince Roland was asking him if he was tired with the training in such a kind tone. Not to mention the royal family, even the ordinary nobles were normally reluctant to talk to plebeians. Almost by reflex, he imitated knight�s salutation to honor Prince Roland. He did not care whether if he was appropriate to do such practice. Van�er only had one thought in his mind that after he returned to his hometown, he would be regarded as a substantial figure.

Van�er felt the chaos in his mind after Roland asked him to stand up. Van�er could not even remember how he replied to Roland�s questions.

At last, His Highness asked if Van�er had any opinions about the training. Van�er suddenly cleared his head. [This is a great opportunity! If I could make Your Highness believe that the Militia alone wouldn�t be able to bear the responsibility of defending the city walls, then perhaps I won�t need to worry about whether to stay or sneak away.]

He carefully cogitated his word choice. �Your� Honorable Highness, the number of the members of the Militia is small. If we continue the current alignment training method, when the demonic beasts attack, we at most can only defend one third of the city wall. Will you consider��

Even if Prince Roland recruited more members, there would not be enough time for training, Van�er thought. Besides, there would be a huge expense for their weapons. It would be arduous to gather enough spears for 300 members within two months in Border Town. It would be difficult to assemble even a hundred spears, therefore, they were still training with wooden rods.

If Prince Roland could realize that, then perhaps he would recruit mercenary from other towns as the primary defense force. At least the mercenary would be able to go on the battlefield without training. They would have their own weapons and armors, except that the price would be a bit high.

Roland pondered for a moment and nodded. �You have good points. It�s unrealistic to have the Militia alone guard entire city wall.�

Van�er felt delighted. His Highness meant� to agree with his thoughts?

However, Prince Roland did not say what Van�er was expecting to hear. Instead, he called Iron Axe. �In a sense, demonic beasts are just mutated beasts and that they don�t have the ability to think, right?�

�Yes, Your Highness. The normal demonic beasts are no different from those wild beasts, and even their habits are almost the same� As for the demonic hybrids, I haven�t seen many so I�m not sure.�

�That�ll be okay. Even though it�s almost 600 meters from the Redwater River to the foot of North Slope Mountain, we can lure the demonic beasts to attack the specific areas.�

�You mean setting up traps?� Iron Axe asked.

�It�s a trap, but not the kind that hunters would typically use. Standard traps capture preys by concealing themselves. Well, I want to do the opposite. I�ll set up roadblocks from places far away from the city wall, such as fences, earth slopes, ditches to force the unintelligent demonic beasts to detour. The continuous roadblocks will lead the preys to assigned locations, and at the end gather at the defense area that we prepared.� Roland looked at the Iron Axe. �As for how to lure those beasts, I think no one knows better than you do.�

Iron Axe thought for a moment. �It�ll be fine to guide then, and demonic wolves don�t like water, demonic boars are afraid of light, and all the other demonic beasts have their own habits. But Your Highness, in this way, we�ll have all the demonic beasts gathered within this area of 600 feet, wouldn�t that be too dangerous?�

�It�s true if we only have spears and arrows as the weapon,� Roland said confidently, �but now, we have a new weapon.�

When it was about the time to leave, the prince once again came to Van�er and patted on his shoulder. �You have a good observation. What�s your name?�

�Van-Van�er, Your Highness.�

�I�ll propose to my chief knight to appoint you as the Deputy Force Commander of the Spear Squad. Mr. Van�er, I�m looking forward to seeing your more achievements.�

*******************

Roland built a flat house in the yard of the firing room to produce snow powder�in other words, the gunpowder.

This 300-square-meter house only had one entrance and was heavily guarded. There were two knights guarding the entrance. To prevent anyone from bringing flammables to the room, all visitors were required to register and go through the security check.

�This is the new weapon that you talked about?� Carter, who was summoned by Roland, pinched the black powder with his fingers, and sniffed it. �Isn�t it the snow powder?�

Perhaps Iron Axe did not know, but Carter often attended the royal ceremonies, and of course, he knew that snow powder was something that people place in the ceremonial barrels. It was the proudest production of the alchemical workshop and its prescription was a confidentiality to outsiders. However, the prince could get whatever he wanted.

�It�s snow power, but not entirely the same,� Roland said, �and it�s the newest modified product of the alchemical workshop. I call it the gunpowder.�

Gunpowder was known as the secret weapon for mass production. Its ingredients were easily accessible. The prescription required three ingredients: sulfur, charcoal, and saltpeter. Gunpowder would be made by just mixing these three ingredients at a 1:1.5:7.5 ratio. It could be easily produced without any technical barriers.

The snow powder in this age consisted of 60% of charcoal, 20% of sulfur and saltpeter, and 20% of other bizarre, inferior ingredients (such as mercury, butter, honey, etc.). It could not function as gunpowder due to its slow combustion speed and insufficient gas release. However, Roland knew that the alchemists were trying to test other prescriptions. In at most 30 years, a prescription similar to the standard gunpowder prescription would be developed.

In history, after the invention of gunpowder, it still took a long time for people to forgo the usage of cold weapons. The reason rooted in the prescription of gunpowder and also the stagnation of the related armament manufacture industry.

However, many people overlooked the fact that gunpowder itself could be an extremely formidable weapon even without relying on firearms.

Right when the firing room for cement was built, Roland had already assigned labs for the several follow-up projects. Most of the labs were being built around the North Slope Mine area so that the labs could be efficiently guarded�the construction of the labs was speedy due to their simple composition of adobe walls and wooden roofs. And their construction would not intervene with the construction of the city wall.

The saltpeter purchased from Willow Town was delivered to the nearby warehouse to be stored. It would be ground, measured, and sent to the labs when it was time to use them. Charcoal and sulfur would go through the same process. The transport and mixture of the three ingredients would be completed by different groups of people. This way, Roland could eliminate the risk of the plan being leaked out.

Roland took 20 pounds from the pre-made gunpowder, and slowly poured it onto a cropped sheepskin.

The gunpowder all went through the process of soaking, compressing, drying, grinding, and screening. They were all in similar sizes and extremely inflammable. To prevent any accidents due to the collision of sparks, the entire manufacturing process did not use any metal products. Instead, they used ceramics or wooden products.

After pouring the gunpowder, Roland folded the sheepskin to three folds and tied it with string.

�That�s all I need to do?� Carter asked. This object in front of him could also be called a weapon? Although it was the modified version of the snow powder, it would not do any damage just by its loud noise. Perhaps it would be effective to farmers who had never been to the battlefield, but it certainly would not frighten the trained soldiers and mercenaries. However� the chief knight pondered cautiously, although the things that His Highness had been doing seemed unreasonable, they all turned out to be extremely efficient. If the demonic beasts had similar intelligence to ordinary beasts, perhaps this gunpowder thing would actually work? For example, a sudden loud noise could make them flee in startle. That way, the stress on the troop could be lessened.

Roland gave the wrapped up gunpowder to Carter and took a bag of the inflammable gunpowder that had been ground. �It�s almost the time, let�s head to the outside of the city wall. Iron Axe should already be prepared.�

About two miles from the city wall to the west, the vacant space between Misty Forest and the Impassable Mountain Range would be the area to do the trial blasting.

Iron Axe and the other hunters had already been waiting here for a long time. Besides Iron Axe, everyone was local and also the ones with the best archery skills. Hearing that Prince Roland had a mission to assign them, they immediately followed Iron Axe over.

Everyone knew now that the new Lord of Border Town was generous about giving remunerations.

Following Roland�s command, they set up long wooden poles on the four corners, tied up strings, and enclosed a watch circle for half of a mile. Roland assigned knights to scout near the city wall in case anyone approached by accident.

Roland examined around the watch circle, and nodded. �Did you bring all the preys?�

�Your Highness, the preys are here.� Iron Axe came up with a cage. Carter noticed the hens and rabbits in the cage.

�Very well, put them on 5 steps, 10 steps, 15 steps, and 30 steps away from the center and tie one on every wooden pole.�

Carter shook his head and suggested, �Your Highness, I�m afraid the preys you selected could hardly have any test effect. These animals are timid by nature. They will flee if there�re any noises nearby. Even if the noise could scare them, but it wouldn�t be able to startle the demonic beasts.�

�To startle the demonic beasts?� Roland paused for one moment and realized. �I�m not planning to scare them, even though this thing is astonishing when it explodes.�

Roland brought the chief knight to the center of the circle, dropped off a bag of gunpowder, and tore an opening in the bag to allow some powder to leak out. Then Roland pulled out the leather bag with gunpowder, and continued to sprinkle the gunpowder from the opening while stepping backward.

It was a windless day, perfect for such a primordial explosive method.

Roland retrieved the leather bag only when they retreated to 100 meters away.

�That�s enough, let�s ignite it here.� He repeatedly estimated the distance, making sure it was errorless, and then said to Carter, �Bring all the hunters here.�

At this moment, Roland was quite excited. He had done a smaller scale of the explosion test so he was not that concerned with the outcome of the experiment. What he really cared about was that this moment would be a moment of great invention. The thermal weapon would officially step on the stage and Roland would be recorded into history as the chief leader.

After everyone gathered, Roland ignited the gunpowder.

Carter lay on the ground. He felt uneasy as he watched the spark furthering away.

With such a long distance, plus it was not even put in the bronze barrel, the exploding noise of snow powder might not even be reached here. It was unnecessary for Prince Roland to demand that everyone had to lie on the ground. However, there was nothing left to say since Prince Roland took the lead himself.

The ground was freezing cold during winter. Carter could felt the chill even if he was wearing chain armor. Carter moved a bit; an astonishingly loud sound broke out as he was about to lie on his side.

Because the distance was too close, the exploding noise and the shock arrived at the same time. He felt a sudden buzzing in his ears and the world became quiet. The shaking of the ground continued momentarily. He lifted up his head and saw a black cloud rising into the air, followed by the falling of stones and mud.

The shock that Roland received was much less than the chief knight�s. As someone that would cover his ears even for firecrackers, Roland promptly prepared protection for himself. The explosive point was unlike in movies, where there would be huge fireballs; the glaring light of flame flashed, multitudes of mud were blasted off the ground, reaching a height of 10 meters in the air. When everything settled down, the only thing that Roland felt was this noise was much louder than firecrackers.

Regarding Iron Axe and the other hunters, they were flabbergasted by what they just saw and heard. Only Iron Axe knew that this experiment was to test a new weapon, but he also did not expect the momentum of the weapon to be so groundbreaking.

Only the thunder of God�s Punishment could be comparable to this!

Roland stood up. He led the group to the center of the explosion. There was a half-meter deep hole on the ground. The bunny that was closest to the center had utterly disappeared, leaving only a short stake on the ground.

Roland examined every other prey. The hens that were placed on the 10 step point and 15 step point were lying on the ground, apparently dead. Although there were no physical damages on them, Roland knew that they died of the shock from the explosion.

The only survivor was the gray bunny that was placed on the 30 step (about 15 meters) point. There were drops of blood from its ear, and it even gave up struggling when people walked near it. It seemed like that the massive blast of the explosion had deprived its soul.

Carter swallowed. The buzzing in his ears was gradually recovering. Until now, he finally understood what Prince Roland meant by �not planning to scare them away.� Was that the outcome of the modification of snow powder? With such accomplishment, the power of alchemists would be much superior to the power of astrologers.

The way Iron Axe looked at Roland had changed. �Your Highness, if the Militia could utilize such a weapon, then Border Town would no longer be threatened by the demonic beasts. Could this weapon be mass produced?�

Roland shrugged. �Probably not, we would only be able to produce 20 to 30 of them before the Months of Demons.� The key issue was the saltpeter. The manufacture in this age was still quiet primordial. The only way of manufacturing was to collect the nitric acid crystals separated out by the lime mixture of human and livestock� waste. Other than the alchemists and the upper nobles that had a demand, there was almost no other uses. So there were few refining fields, if they were all used to do explosives, they would soon be exhausted.

As the ultimate weapon, it had to be used along with flintlock and crossbow bolts.

Nightingale walked in the Mist.

In it, she could see the world had only two colors, black and white.

The outline of all things turned vague, and the lines that used to be straight were folded, and curved, as incomprehensible and abstract as doodles painted by children.

The feeling was hard to get a sense of, and it took her a long time to distinguish the different types of lines. If she handled them well, there was nothing that would restrain her, and she could travel unimpeded in the Mist. Though the wall seemed to link up into one stretch, with a little change of the angle, she could see a gate to the real world, a gate that never existed in reality.

In the Mist, the concepts of up, down, forward, and backward were not consistent, and they would shift and even overlap. Now she did this again and sneaked into the castle under guards� noses, following the changeable lines. Step by step through the void, she went through the ceiling and entered Anna�s chamber.

For Nightingale, it was an absolutely free world.

The Mist was the only place where she truly felt at peace. Quiet and lonely as it may be, she enjoyed the safe, unthreatened feeling it gave her.

Mostly, it was black and white, but sometimes she could see other colors.

Such as the color of Anna who was in front of her.

Different from ordinary people, the witches were an aggregate of magic power which was the only color in the Mist, and Nightingale could see how the power flowed and faded.

However, she had never seen colors as strong and rich as Anna�s. There was a dark green light glittering on her that led to a dazzling bright white core. Nightingale was confused. Generally, the color of magic power was connected to the owner�s performance of ability, and for the witches that she knew in the Witch Cooperation Association who had the power to control fire, the light that shone out of them was dark red or orange and shaped like a fireball. Whether in size or radiance of light, Anna�s fire was far above theirs.

In addition, there was something even more miraculous.

How was she still alive with so much powerful energy converging on her?

Of all the witches in the Witch Cooperation Association, no one had power as strong as Anna, not even the adults. And when Anna became an adult�

Nightingale sighed. She knew that Anna no longer had any hope. The bite grew with power, and she was afraid to even imagine what horror would come to Anna when the Demonic Torture began. She knew the feeling too well. From your skin to your guts, the constant sharp pain tore at you, keeping you conscious until the moment you gave up and accepted death.

Stepping out from the Mist, she restrained the depressed mood and braced herself up, greeting, �Good morning, Anna.�

Anna, who had been used to Nightingale�s abrupt and uninvited visits, nodded. She did not reply but continued practicing with her fire.

Rubbing her nose, Nightingale headed to the girl�s bed and sat down.

She had seen Anna practice many times, from the beginning when she set fire to her own robes accidentally and had prepared a full bucket of robes in a shed in the backyard garden till later when she could easily make the flame dance on her fingertip, and Roland had to dismiss the supervision and take down the shed to make room for afternoon tea and sunbath.

Even so, Anna still followed the old instruction of Roland and kept practicing two or four hours every day in her own chamber.

�I�ve brought some fish cake, do you want some?� Nightingale took out a little bag and unfolded it, handing it over.

Anna smelled it and nodded.

�Go and wash your hands.� Nightingale smiled, feeling lucky that Anna did not hate her but was simply bad at talking. In fact, Anna barely even talked to Nana who she cared about so much. She scarcely talked to anyone except Roland.

In contrast, Roland talked too much of his endless principles. Even for dinners, he had many rules, like washing hands before eating, eating slowly, and never putting anything that dropped on the floor into your mouth, etc. He could go on and on about every principle.

Though Roland�s sermon sounded annoying to her at first, she had to listen and obey because Roland, the fourth Prince of Graycastle and the lord of this land, had accommodated her under his roof. Now, she actually formed those habits and somehow, felt a sense of odd fun when competing with Roland and Nana to be the first one to wash hands.

Anna washed her hands in a pail and lit a little fire to dry them before she pinched a fish cake and returned to her table and ate it slowly.

�Did you really make up your mind not to return with me?� said Nightingale, trying to start a conversation. �We have a lot of sisters there and they would take care of you.�

�Over here, the castle is the only place you can stroll and roam. It�s quite boring, isn�t it?�

�Indeed we don�t have much food or goods, but we�re a family having joined together for the same purpose.�

�A girl like you who has such power will be most welcome.�

�I�m afraid that you�ll not make it through this winter��

Nightingale�s voice lowered. �Maybe it�s too late,� she thought. Even if she went back to the camp, Anna�s power was so strong that she would never survive the adulthood. All Nightingale could do was to watch her die.

�Where did you live before joining the Witch Cooperation Association?� Anna asked.

Nightingale waited for a little while, for Anna barely asked her anything. �I� used to live in a big city in the east, near the capital.�

�Were you happy?�

�Happy? No.� It was a piece of memory she would never recall. It was when she had to depend on others for a living, being despised and mocked. And things turned worse when she found out she was a witch. She was watched and chained around the neck, just like a cat or dog, forced to follow their commands. Nightingale shook her head and asked softly, �Why are you asking?�

�I used to live in the Old District.� Anna briefly went through her story. �My father sold me for 25 gold royals to the church. It was His Highness who released me. I�m very happy here.�

�But you cannot get out of this castle. Except for Roland Wimbledon, everyone still hates witches.�

�I don�t really care about it, and he promised that he would change them all, didn�t he?�

�As long as the church stands, witches will always be treated as evil, and that will make the change extremely difficult.�

Anna did not contradict her and was quiet for so long that Nightingale thought she would never speak again. Then she asked suddenly, �What place makes you happier to live in, the Witch Cooperation Association or here?�

The question caught Nightingale unprepared, and she was flustered. �What, what�re you talking about? O-of course, it�s��

The Witch Cooperation Association? Honestly, she did not have much interest in searching Holy Mountain, but in the association, she had some friends who she would never leave behind.

Border Town? She would not have been here if she hadn�t heard the news of endangered witches!

The answer was obvious, so why was she hesitating?

This time, a smile appeared on Anna�s face, the smile that Nightingale had hardly seen. Her eyes were as clear as water in the lake twinkling in the early sun, and brought her a feeling of odd relief � even though she did not walk in the �Mist�. �Roland used to tell me that you girls are looking for the Holy Mountain among the northern mountains, and I�ve found mine if it�s the safe and home that you want to find there.�

Nightingale realized Border Town was Anna�s Holy Mountain. However, death was coming upon her, and her spirit would approach the next world earlier than most witches.

There were hurried footsteps outside the door. Listening carefully, Nightingale figured out it was from Nana.

The door was flung open before Nana dashed in.

She ran into Anna�s arms, weeping, and said, �Anna, my sister, wh-what should I do? My father has found out I�m a witch.�

Roland was dragged out of bed by Nightingale.

He was taken aback when hearing the news that Nana Pine�s father was waiting for him in the hall. But he realized it was a good opportunity�in order to have the girl�s support in the fight against the Months of Demons, he must persuade the Pines to spend winter in Border Town.

It had been a tricky situation for Prince Roland, as his reputation and popularity had hit rock bottom among the noble. Even his relations with Longsong Stronghold had turned strained. He would not stand a chance to keep the nobles at Border Town in winter, as their business lay mostly in the east of Longsong Stronghold. From the very beginning, Roland had not thought of cooperating with the nobles, who were good at winning power and possessions, rather than fighting side by side.

He got dressed quickly and briefly cleaned himself, before heading to the hall.

Being left alone for so long that he could no longer hide his rage, Tigui Pine stood up and asked as soon as he saw the prince, �Your Highness, where is my daughter?�

This was the first time Roland saw Nana�s father. He was strong and sturdy, not very tall, and had a thick beard that made him tough looking. From his attire of the waisted cotton garment and leather pant attached with big pockets, he looked like more a huntsman than a noble.

�She�s fine, Mr. Pine��

�Why did your guards let her in but yet bar me outside?� Tigui interrupted loudly. �I need an explanation, Your Highness! Please take my daughter to see me!�

Roland did not expect this and got stunned for a little while. He had pictured a scene that a father, who knew that his poor daughter was a witch, would beg his prince to hide the news, or ask him for help to deal with the problem. However, a father who was so pushy and discourteous without his noble manner, did surprise Roland.

Certainly, he knew why the guards allowed Nana in, for they were under his command. They became familiar with Nana who had been coming here for Anna from time to time.

After a moment�s thought, he summoned the maid to take Nana here.

[However rude he is, Tigui Pine is Nana�s father. Let�s see what�ll happen when they meet each other. If he has any plans to send the girl to the church or abandon her, I�ll intervene and take action,] Roland thought.

Following Anna, Nana stepped in the chamber.

Seeing his daughter, Tigui Pine�s anger died away at once. He opened his arms and called Nana, �Come here, my daughter.�

The young girl did not move. Hiding behind Anna, she popped out half a head and asked, �Will you sell me to the church?�

�Nonsense� what are you talking about? Silly girl, the church doesn�t want a girl as silly as you. Come home with me now.�

Roland was confused about what was happening. Nightingale told him that after Nana�s father bumped into her when she was doing magic, she ran to the castle for Anna in panic. Her father was after her, his face murderous.

But all he could see from Tigui was how he cared about and loved his daughter, unlike ordinary people who loathed the witches.

[Do I have my facts wrong?]

Roland hesitated for a little while and decided to be frank. �Mr. Pine, I believe you�ve already known that your daughter is a witch.�

�Pardon me, Your Highness, I don�t understand,� said Tigui, as he stepped over and tried to grasp Nana�s hand, but was blocked by Anna.

�Father, I�m a witch now� sorry,� Nana whispered.

Tigui became anxious and said, �Nonsense! Witch? Must be the teachings from the damn guy Karl. I shouldn�t have sent you to the school because what you�ve learned is nothing but bullsh*t!�

These words hit Roland�s mind, and he realized that all the concealing Tigui had done for Nana might be due to his misunderstanding of him.

Therefore, he was so anxious and worried before seeing Nana.

�Anna.� He winked at the witch, and she nodded. She reached out her right hand to Tigui who tried to bypass Anna and get Nana. Fire burst from her palm, flying pass his top.

Tigui�s eyes widened, flustering backward to dodge the fire. Nana held Anna�s arm in alarm. �Sister Anna, No!�

�Your Highness, what�s��

�As you see, she is also a witch, like your daughter.� Roland extended his hand and said, �Maybe you�ve misunderstood the reason why Nana is free to walk in the castle. Shall we have a real talk now?�

Tigui seemed awakened. �Ha! Ha!� he said, �Your Highness, I��

�Take a seat.� Roland pointed to the table and said, �Let�s begin our talk with some nice tea.�

He sighed secretly. [Now I see now how notorious my reputation is. They even think I�ll put my claw on little girls. Now, I�ve understood everything from Tigui�s ungracious behavior. What will a father, who loves his daughter so much, think when he sees his girl running into the castle where the guards are accustomed to her?

If I�m the father, I�ll bring down the castle on my own.]

The words Tigui used to cover up the truth that his daughter was a witch had proved all things clearly�worrying that the prince would threaten him with some excuse that Nana had fallen into depravity, and only cleansing could save her. He personally did not care much about whether his baby daughter was a witch or not.

Tigui hesitated for a long while before taking the seat. He drank up a cup of tea, dried his lips with his sleeves, looked awkward, and said, �My apologies, I�ve been rude. Please tell me when did you know my daughter was a� witch?�

�It was before winter, and it was not me but her teacher Karl Van Bate who found her awakened. He entrusted me to protect Nana because of Anna, his friend.� Roland explained explicitly. �In this half month, she came to the castle to practice her power when she was available. By the way, she has the power to heal.�

�Has she?� Tigui scratched his head and said, �That was why the cat started to run and skip again.�

�Cat?�

�Er� Nothing special. When I came back home, I found her sitting on porch and carrying a cat wounded by a carriage. I was about to scare her from her back, but when she spotted me, she ran away immediately. The cat had broken legs, but suddenly it recovered.� He gazed at Nana and Anna and asked, �You two are friends?�

Nana nodded quickly before Anna could make any response.

Tigui�s face turned gentle.

Seeing this, Roland asked, �It seems that you don�t trust the rumor that the witches are the evils seduced by the demon.�

�Certainly, my daughter is no evil!� he said firmly, �and whatever she turns into, there�s no doubt about that.�

Roland was touched by Nana�s father who was much different from Anna�s father. He finally understood the reason why Nana was always so sweet and innocent, wearing a smile on her face almost every day. This family was like a warm cradle for a kid to grow up in.

�I have no doubt either, Mr. Pine.� The prince was straightforward. �Your daughter has a marvelous power to heal the wounded. I hope she�ll stay in Border Town, assisting me to fight through the Months of Demons.�

Tigui was indecisive. �Your Highness, forgive me, I have no choice but to refuse. When the Months of Demons come, Border Town will be deadly dangerous, and I�d never allow her to stay in danger.�

[Tigui Pine�s land is beyond Border Town�s governance, I can�t command him directly even in the name of a prince.] Still, Roland believed that nothing was impossible when they were willing to sit down and talk.

�Danger is relative, Mr. Pine, yet opportunity comes with danger,� Roland said, as he read over the relevant materials collected by his assistant minister in his mind. �You inherited the title from your father, am I right? He had been a knight and was rewarded the name and land for his valor in battle.�

�Exactly,� Tigui said, nodding.

�The battle also started in the Months of Demons, and it was an honorable battle fought for the innocent. At that time, a small number of demonic beasts accidentally crossed our stronghold defense through the Redwater River into the hinterland of the Western Region. Your father came across those beasts when he was in his patrol duty. Considering that the town behind him had no fortifications, though it was not in his governance, he chose to attack the beasts. Rather than avoiding and retreating for support, which most man would have done under the same circumstances,� Roland stated, watching Tigui. �I believe you�re clearer about what happened afterward than me. Together with the men who he gathered in town and his squire, your father marched on the beasts and defeated them.�

�Indeed,� Tigui said, his voice trembled with excitement, apparently admiring this glorious history. �One of the monsters, dreadfully huge, looked like either a stage or an ox or the combination of both. Its leg was thicker and sturdier than my father�s trunk and shook the ground when it ran. I could never defeat this kind of monster if I were there.�

�But he did it. Standing near a shallow groove, my father lured the angry beast to him, and when it sped up to strike, he lay down in the shallow groove, holding the sword on a stone with the tip right up. The seemingly invincible beast was too foolish to dodge the sword tip which ripped open its belly, and the guts poured out, covering all over my father. By now, above my hearth still hangs the reward from that battle�a large horn from a demonic beast.�

Roland drank some tea and said calmly, �The battle was worthy of admiration. Your father had kept his faith, compassion, and bravery of a knight. Joe Kohl, who gave your father the title and the land, was an earl in Longsong Stronghold back then. 25 years ago, he was promoted to a duke by my father, King Wimbledon III. He was appointed as the Guardian of the Southern Border with his governance extending all over the Southern Territory. It was a pity that with no one staying in Longsong Stronghold to back the late Pine. After Joe Kohl had received the new appointment, he became a thorn in the eyes of the Duke of Longs Stronghold, when he stayed at the east of Longsong Stronghold.�

�You know it all too well.� Tigui exhaled, looking a little helpless. �Lord Joe doesn�t get along well with Duke of Longsong Stronghold and didn�t obtain his earl�s title from the duke, either. With a bloodline tracing back to the branch of the crown, he�s not beneath Duke Ryan, whether by family or blood.�

�This is politics�, Roland thought secretly, a trick played by King Wimbledon III that would balance two powers.

In order to fully understand the complicated relations between these two families, he had spent a whole day with his assistant minister.

The lands and governance among the noble are extremely complicated. In theory, the superiors were able to command juniors within his land. But it turns out that was far more complex to carry out. As we could see from Joe Kohl and Duke Ryan, though having his land in the Western Region, Joe Kohl, who was an earl named directly by the king, was as respected and beloved as Duke Ryan by the subjects.

After Joe had been titled the Duke of the Southern Territory, the crown would surely arrange new spies on his land, which was the usual means to keep political stability.

�Therefore, when the land was passed to you, the trade and farm had turned bad gradually, and the property was no longer as prosperous as it had been,� Roland said slowly. �Now, here is a new chance for you.�

�A new� chance?�

�I suppose you heard the famine that happened two years ago. Longsong Stronghold detained the food supply of the next month in the name of insufficient ores trading. This year we have the same trouble. The unexpected collapse that happened in the Mine of Northern Slope has backed my people into a corner, and we have to ward off demonic beasts with the help of our newly built city wall. The war will be tough and hard, but yet chances come with danger, as I said before.�

��� Tigui knew what the prince meant. He frowned and said nothing.

�It seems to me that you�re not a general noble.� Roland smiled. �For no nobles dress like you when they�re out and no highborns get their palms full of horns. Mr. Pine, you haven�t left behind your father�s legacy, have you? The fighting skill of a knight.�

It was certain that he did not leave behind the skill, Roland thought, or he would never spend so much time on the Misty Forest. From the information offered by Barov, he spent at least three days every week in the Misty Forest during his days in Border Town. Each time he was fully equipped and brought hunters with him because he could not afford to keep squires. Some people liked fighting and apparently, Tigui Pine was one of them.

�I�ll offer you this chance to win back the honor of your father�to fight for them with your sword and courage. I�ll reward you a piece of land in the east of Border Town, an appropriate piece of land for the viscount if you�re doing well in battle.�

Though it rarely happened, the offer was valid. When a prince had come of age, he had the power to name the viscount, baron, and knight according to law. However, he barely did it to the men who were under other lords� authorities. He was afraid of either being inappropriate to poach from other lords or being awkward to be rejected. But in Roland�s eyes, manners meant nothing compared to Nana�s healing skill, neither did he worry about being rejected by Mr. Pine. Since Joe did not bring Tigui�s father with him when he was the Guardian of the Southern Border, it seemed that Joe had given up the Pines.

Finally, Tigui said, �Your Highness, may I send Nana back to Longsong Stronghold? No one has ever defeated the demonic beasts here, and I don�t want my daughter to perish here in case we lose the battle.�

�I�ve told you from the very beginning, Mr. Pine, that the danger is relative. Have you ever thought what if anyone in Longsong Stronghold finds out Nana is a witch? Unlike here, the church has its root deep and long in Longsong Stronghold. With disciples and spies everywhere, I can�t even save her, once her identity is revealed.�

Roland paused for a moment and added, �Border Town will not fall, for I�ll fight with my people side by side on the city wall when the Months of Demons comes. Our enemies are mutated beasts not unbeatable demons. You father defeated them on a plain without any cover, and we have more now, an unsurpassable wall that stands between the beasts and us. If� I mean, if we�re truly in danger, I�ll send Nana away to secure her safety.� He paused. �And Anna, too. I�ll prepare a boat on the dock in case. I promise they�ll be safe.�

�Then� I lay my trust on you, Your Highness,� said Tigui Pine, and he stood up and kneeled, his chest straight up and his belly flat, before he saluted the prince with a knight courtesy and pledged. �I�ll fight for you.�

�

After Tigui and Nana had taken their leave, Anna rolled her eyes to Roland.

�What�re you dreaming of?� she said, �I�m not going anywhere.�

Iron Axe knew that he was under surveillance.

The hunters involved in the trial blasting were gathered in a two-story building near the castle. Looking through the window, one could see the stone walls enveloping the castle and the guards stationed at the entrance.

It didn�t bother him. Rather, he felt that it was reckless for His Highness to send only two guards to watch over them.

Even now, the roar of the trial blasting echoed in his mind. There had never been a weapon that left him in so much shock. In the Southernmost Land, he had witnessed orange fire erupting from within the earth, which burnt for decades. He had also seen the monstrous winds and waves at the Endless Cape� However, those were the immeasurable prestige of the Heavens, the will of the Mother Earth or the Sea God, as well as the iron whip of the deities used to punish all creatures.

Yet His Highness alone had usurped the power of the three gods and obtained God�s strength to punish all creatures. His power was still lacking compared to the Heavens� thunderbolts, but it was already in a realm untouchable by mere humans.

If the participants in Iron Sand City proved to be still useful, their tongues would generally be cut off. Of course, that was not the safest practice to keep their secrets. Only the dead would carry their secrets to grave. As for the foreigners, even just the sight of them was considered blasphemy. It was impossible for any of them to assimilate into the core class of the Mojin Clan.

Even though the prince was aware that he was from a different race, he still allowed him to witness the Fire of God�s Punishment. The prince even intended for him to form the Hunter Squad. His trust roused Iron Axe�s spirits and set his blood boiling.

After being betrayed and framed countless times in Iron Sand City, he fled to the Southern Territory in the Kingdom of Graycastle. But he still suffered discrimination there due to his mixed blood of Sand Nation and Graycastle Nation people. Dispirited, he came to Border Town with the intention to work as a hunter for the rest of his life. Yet he unexpectedly won the prince�s favor here.

He had no doubts that this new weapon would pave the way for Roland Wimbledon�s victory in the Selection of Crown Prince.

Iron Axe was thrilled to know that he would have an opportunity to serve the future king.

�Everyone, gather downstairs!�

Hearing the shout, Iron Axe looked out. The voice belonged to Carter Lannis, Prince Roland�s Chief Knight.

He finished dressing up and hurried downstairs. He walked towards Carter and stood upright in front of him. He had participated in the training of the Militia, so he knew that His Highness favored disciplined and well-organized troops. The other hunters, however, were much slower. The six people spent about half a quarter just to line up.

�The same old place. Follow me.� Unconcerned, Carter headed straight to the city wall with everyone.

It was the same site for the trial blasting, but without cordons this time.

Other than Roland, there were four knights with him; all of them Carter�s subordinates. Iron Axe noticed that the prince was fiddling with an oddly-shaped long metal stick as he explained something to the knights.

Noticing the arrival of Iron Axe and the others, Roland approached them and asked, �Have you all got used to living in your new place?

�Thank you for your concern, Your Highness.� Everyone bowed and answered that their new houses were very comfortable.

Iron Axe thought that the new houses were much better than the old ones. At least, they did not leak. The roofs were not covered with thin straw blankets, but neatly lined with tiles instead.

�That�s great.� Roland nodded and added, �The current arrangement is for security reasons. You can return to your old houses after the Months of Demons ends. I�ve also distributed your first month�s salaries to your families. You can meet them on weekends, accompanied by guards of course.�

�Thank you for your kindness, Your Highness.� The hunters� replies were cheerful.

This came as a surprise to Iron Axe. Never mind the law of Sand Nation, even the military management of the Kingdom of Graycastle should not be this lax. Was this His Highness�s benevolence towards them? He became a little worried. If the prince wanted to fight for the throne, he must be merciless. That Iron Axe knew all too well, having lived in Iron Sand City.

However, when Prince Roland said that they would test a new weapon based on gunpowder next, Iron Axe immediately threw his worries behind. He stared without blinking at the prince as he showed them two oddly-shaped iron sticks.

�They�re called flintlocks,� said Roland. �I�ll tell you how to use them next.�

�

It took Iron Axe only half an hour to learn how to use the new weapons.

Put gunpowder�that was, the black powder which would cause the Fire of God�s Punishment�into the barrel, put a lead pill, and poke it until it reached the end. Then pour the gunpowder into the flash pan at the rear, aim at the target, and pull the trigger.

He believed he had a talent for killing and were skilled in all kinds of weapons, whether it was the sword, knife, hammer, axe, or spear. But that was due to years of training and combat experience. To master a weapon in only half an hour, this learning speed could only be comparable to that of the hand crossbow.

The other flintlock was handed to Carter.

Chief Knight was also intrigued by the novel weapon and was unwilling to put it down.

After several rounds of simulations, Roland let them test the power of the weapons with live ammunition. The target was already prepared. It was a plate armor propped up by a wooden stick, held up by two knights standing about 30 feet away.

Following the shooting method the prince demonstrated, Iron Axe and Carter aimed and pulled the trigger.

The loud noise coming from the first fire startled everyone present. Iron Axe was no exception. But very soon, everyone�s faces were colored with astonishment.

There was a small hole on the plate armor. The lead shot had cleanly penetrated the thickest part of the armor.

Iron Axe had carefully observed the armor before they began shooting. It was evidently not some shoddy product from a handmade workshop. The mark of the hammer and anvil on the neck showed that it was a standard armor from the Blacksmith Society in the Kingdom of Graycastle. The thickest part of the armor was half the thickness of a finger, strong enough to withstand a direct hit from a crossbow at a close distance. The wiser choice to deal with this kind of armor would be to use a heavy crossbow, war hammer, or halberd.

Therefore, the flintlock was equally easy to operate as the hand crossbow, but far stronger in power. Its loading speed was also equivalent to that of the hand crossbow. As for the accuracy� A target 30 feet away would be nothing.

�Your Highness, the output of this weapon�� Carter said.

�There are only two at the moment. We can produce two more at most until the Months of Demons.�

Iron Axe saw that Carter was visibly relieved. He could roughly guess his thoughts. If this weapon could be manufactured easily, it would take only a few days to train a large number of �quick warriors� with the flintlocks. There would be no restriction in age, occupation, or even gender. Even a fragile woman could pose a great threat to the knights.

Although it was not as shocking as Fire of God�s Punishment, it was still a good weapon. Iron Axe thought it would be easy to kill the giant pachyderm demonic beasts outside the city wall with this power. If he had a flintlock when he was facing the demonic hybrids back then, the outcome might not have been so pathetic.

At the scene, Roland alone understood the true meaning of this weapon.

With his own hands, he had unveiled the curtains to a firearms war.

Roland was standing on the city wall, facing the north. This past month, he repeatedly checked the castle, the mine, and the city walls in a kind of three-point loop. He checked them for every possible detail so that he wouldn�t miss anything.

The militia became very adept at handling their weapons. Due to Carter�s repetitive drills, they were able to stabilize the pike until the Militia Captain loudly gave the command to slash with their pikes.

Standing behind the Militia was the Hunter squad. Every hunter who remained in Border Town and was good with either the bow or the crossbow was incorporated into this squad. These seasoned hunters were the backbone for killing the demonic beasts. Standing only twelve feet away from demonic beasts on the city wall, it was nearly impossible for them to miss their target.

The last line of defense were Iron Axe, Carter, and two hunters from the elite team who were under Iron Axe. The parts manufactured by the blacksmiths were enough to let Anna weld four flintlocks. They would only shoot the flintlocks when a mixed species attacked or the hunters with crossbows were unable to penetrate the skin of the demonic beasts. Their location on the wall wasn�t set, so the four of them had to patrol the whole 200 yard long defense line. If there was a need for them anywhere, they would appear.

As for the explosives, they were kept under heavy protection next to the wall in the warehouse . To keep everyone safe, the gunpowder was stored in its three components, and it would only be put together on the city wall when needed � after all, if the powder detonated at the wrong time, the self-inflicted damage would be even greater than the damage from the demonic beasts. The teeth of the demonic beasts may be able to crush the cement, but if the explosives went off, the whole wall would be destroyed.

So far, Roland had organized two test runs, both including the use of the explosives. Thanks to these two exercises, the militia was used to the loud roars of the explosions and were no longer so scared that they threw their weapons away. The other advantage was that when the defenders discovered that the prince held such incredible weapons in his hands, the team morale suddenly began to skyrocket.

�Your Highness,� Barov tightened his collar, �We have already spent most of the ore income in the last half month, so if the Months of the Demons actually goes on as long as the astrologers have predicted, I fear that the food won�t last till the end of winter.�

�Then I want you to fill up the entire vault,� Roland said without hesitation, �Make another deal with Willow Town and don�t make it the only one. The first steam engine has already been transported to the mine, and the gravel from the collapse has already been completely cleaned up. During the entire winter, we can still get a little yield from the mines. Rough stones are especially in demand. Do not emphasize on price. Instead, sell them as soon as possible so that our wheat and meat storages are always as full as possible.�

Barov nodded, �I�ll give out the orders immediately, Your Highness. Just��

Seeing the hesitant look on his assistant minister�s face, Roland certainly understood what he wanted to say. �Do not worry, I have already arranged a boat. If the line of defense is broken, I will leave the town immediately.�

�That�s excellent to hear.� said Barov, relieved.

Roland smiled at him and said, �You can go. After all, you have enough to do. I have to look for someone else.�

After Barov left, the Prince slowly stepped onto a watchtower. This place was at the center of the city walls and was their highest point. From here, he could overlook the whole front line, parts of the jungle, and the nearby hills. At such a eight, the wind was blowing quite strongly but Roland didn�t care. Only on this high and open platform could he somewhat calm down and forget the coming war.

�You lied to him,� someone next to him suddenly said, �You don�t intend to leave this town.�

�Life is already so difficult, keeping a few secrets sometimes is good for everyone.�

�You�re talking nonsense and don�t understand the situation. If you already consider the identity of a prince as a difficulty, what would you see us as?� Nightingale emerged out of the fog. �Even if you will not be the king, you still have to live through the five-year-long struggle for the throne because you�re one of the main parties. Compared to worrying about such unimportant matters, you should better accompany Anna. I�m afraid� she doesn�t have much time left. �

For a moment Roland remained silent, �I don�t think that she will die during the Months of the Demons.�

�Why?�

�She said that she will not lose to the devil�s bite,� he paused for a second, �And I believe her.�

�You actually believe what a witch says,� Nightingale shook her head, �but we are cursed by the devil.�

�Are you? Well, I also believe you.�

����

*

Brian was wearing his civilian clothes and was standing in front of Greyhound�s tombstone.

He gently stroked the surface of the new stone, it was a pure white stone and on its surface were engraved the words: �In memory of one of the silent heroes of Border Town.�

�Greyhound.�

�I�ve already realized my biggest dream. At the end of the Months of the Demons, His Highness the 4th Prince will hold the canonization ceremony for me. But, I don�t want to sit on the bed waiting for my canonization. My wounds have already healed, so the city wall is the place where I should be. The Months of the Demons is near, and the demonic beasts may be strong, but they will have to go through the line of defense the militia established, and will no longer able to advance. I will also take over your part in defending the town, and brandish my sword in your name. All this will not be the end. Your murderer is still alive� But he will not live much longer, His Highness already promised this to me. The next time I come to you, I�ll bring good news.�

Brian bent down and placed a bouquet of flowers at the gravestone.

�So goodbye, my friend.�

*

�Sister Anna, are you scared?� Nana, who was lying on Anna�s bed, asked her this.

�Afraid of what?�

�The devil�s bite we have to face this winter. I became a witch during the autumn of this year, so it will be the first time I have to face it��

�Well, the first time,� Anna thought, �will be very painful, and sometimes you think that you can�t wait any longer and wish that you could finally die.�

�Ah!� Nana began to shout out of shock, but she immediately covered her mouth.

�But you will survive, just like me.�

�I do not know�� whispered Nana, �I�m not like you, so strong, and afraid of nothing.�

�I�m not really that strong,� said Anna as she closed her eyes. The scene when she met Roland for the first time emerged in her mind. Down there in the cold and dark dungeon, Roland�s clothes were draped over her body. He softly said that he would hire her � until now, she still got goosebumps when remembering this. �Sometimes you will encounter situations or things that will give you the will to live on, even if you need to struggle hard to survive.�

�Such as�?�

�For example,meat marinated in soy paste,� Anna sighed, �How should I know what you dream of? � Ah�

Seeing that Nana was entirely staring at her, Anna wiped her face with her hand, �What are you looking at? Is there some dirt on my face?�

�No �� Nana shook her head, �I�m just a bit surprised, you�ve never talked to me so much � Sister Anna, the appearance you had when you just closed your eyes and thought about the past, you were so beautiful.�

Anna rolled her eyes, jumped out of the bed, and went to the window.

Nana followed directly behind her, �What are you looking at, do you want to flee into the forest?�

�The forest is in the West,� answered Anna snappily, �Here you can only see the Shishui River.�

�Sister Anna, look!� The little girl pointed at the sky.

Anna was startled, then opened her window. A surge of wind mixed with little snowflakes came into the room.

She held out her hand, catching the flower-like sparkling snow. She could feel a chill coming from her fingers.

�It�s snowing.�

*

����

After long silence, Nightingale opened her mouth and began to speak once more, �You actually didn�t lie.�

�Of course,� Roland laughed, �I had very little reason to lie.�

Nightingale said nothing. She only tilted her head, and an unknown look emerged in her eyes.

Suddenly, she felt something cold on her neck, and she couldn�t help herself from shrinking away. She looked up only to find that unbeknownst to her, the snow had begun to fall on the walls. Under the gray sky, there seemed to be an uncountable number of snowflakes. They danced in the wind, flying all over the place, accompanied by the shouts of the militia.

�The Months of the Demons had begun.

The firewood burned, but Gerald Wimbledon felt little heat.

The tent was large and made from leather, with its bottom rim running flush to the ground. There should be no air leakage. Nevertheless, he still felt cold, especially his toes, which were frozen almost to the point of being numb.

�Even your piss will freeze in this damned place.� He spat and stood up, placing his hands on either side of the table, with the veins on his hands bulging as he lifted upwards and the six-square-foot, solid wooden table was lifted off the ground.

Releasing the table near the edge of the fire, Gerald felt a wave of comfort. He took off his shoes and put his feet over the fire to warm himself. Then he unrolled some parchment, and continued to write the unfinished letter.

�Dear Olivia,

I�ve been in Hermes for more than a month, even though the men in the church like to call it the �New Holy City�. Were it not for the Agreement on the Months of the Demons, I still wouldn�t wish to stay here. All I want is to return to your home and share a warm bed with you.

Thanks to the agreement, the corps monitoring the church became their allies. Very ironic, isn�t it? Speaking of the church, I have to admit that what they have done is truly amazing. 20 years ago, Hermes was nothing but mountains and stones, and the church�s towns lay at the bottom of the mountain. But now they have paved the way for carriages to go up the mountain, and have also built a large fortress city at the top of the hill.

If it were summer, you should have come with me to see this place. The so-called New Holy City is even more magnificent than Graycastle. And do you remember the theatre in Graycastle? We went together and saw Hamlet. Then you sighed with emotion about how clever the theater was, and the interior was so spacious.

But if you see the Hall of Military Affairs in New Holy City, you�ll find that the theater in Graycastle isn�t even comparable. I would consider it to be an exquisite work of art instead of a building. Even though the theater is so large, it doesn�t have even one pillar to support it. Rather, eight things like demon�s bones stretch out to the outer walls. Then, many branches and hemp rope are attached to these curved bones, and the roof is suspended in the air. How did they figure it out?

And as for those bones, if they were in fact taken from demonic beasts, then the demonic beasts must have been more than 33 meters tall. Only in Hermes would one encounter such a creature. But my dear, please don�t fear. Even if the demonic beasts are huge, they are no more than minions of demons. And no evil can escape the sanctions of God, neither demonic beasts, witches or demons themselves. Rather, they�ll turn to ashes.�

At this point, Gerald Wimbledon put down his pen, and shook his tingling hands. It was weird that he felt relaxed swinging around a 15-pound, two-handed sword all day, while he felt tired when he wrote for a short time. He laughed at himself, �I�m really suitable for some rough work.�

Speaking of demons, I suddenly remember that my brother was assigned to some sort of poor places like Border Town. I�m afraid that he�s already fled to Longsong Stronghold, even though the demons there cannot be compared to those in Hermes. I cannot blame him. If I had gone to such a place, I would have also sought refuge. Therefore, you can see how unfair my father is. Did he intend that my second brother inherit the throne just due to his intelligence? Father has forgotten that he himself didn�t win the throne of Graycastle by intelligence. Since the death of my mother, I�ve had more and more difficulty figuring out his thoughts.�

Gerald did not know how to continue, for he did not know whether or not he should tell Olivia the truth. He paused for a moment, and decided to keep writing. If the plan went well, he should have already arrived at Graycastle Palace when the letter was received.

�My dear, Astrologer Ansger is right. If I don�t do anything, the throne will definitely not belong to me. He�s read this in the star image, �The Apocalypse Star is moving away from the sun. It�ll completely deviate from its orbit in at most four months.� As the astrologer has told me this, there must not be much time left. I cannot remain idle.

After today�s battle, I�ll secretly return to the king�s city with my loyal knights. Coldwind Ridge is far behind Valencia in terms of wealth. But they aren�t lacking in courageous warriors. As long as gold is promised, they�ll seek the given goal like hungry wolves. Of course, that isn�t my ideal method. All I want is to ask father in person the reason he issued the Royal Decree on the Selection of the Crown Prince. In the end, what makes him forget that I should have the right to inherit the throne?

Astrologer Ansger has already arranged everything. Olivia, my love, you won�t wait much longer. The day I become King, I intend to marry you and make you my Queen. If I should fail� you have no need to return to the king�s city, and you should live a good life in Coldwind Ridge.

Gerald loves you.�

He carefully placed the folded letter into an envelope, and sealed it with wax oil. After checking it a number of times, he knocked on the table, and a bodyguard quickly entered the tent.

�This letter shall be sent to Rose in Coldwind. You needn�t travel all day and night, and don�t have to ride a horse. You�ll be dressed as an ordinary traveler, and should travel between the two places on a business trip. Most importantly, this letter must be sent personally.�

�Yes, Your Royal Highness!�

�Good, you may leave.� Gerald waved away the guards and simply sat down on the table, his feet hanging over the fiery pit.

There was no way back.

He closed his eyes and recalled his childhood. At that time, he played hide and seek in the garden of the king�s city with Timothy and Garcia. When Garcia fell down, he and Timothy went to accompany her. When did the three of them become so distant?

Gerald shook his head and put away the confusing thought. Such sentimental things did not suit him. After all, he knew when the confusion would end�when he was on the throne.

Just then, the dull sound of a horn came through the tent.

�Waaawaaawaaa�!�

�They�re here!� He jumped up from the table and put on his shoes. Outside the tent, the battalion was already on the move. Running soldiers and flags came together to create a torrent, heading for the battlefield. The sound echoed over the distant mountains, neverending.

Demonic beasts were coming.

�Come with me!� He rode his warhorse and came to the top of the city wall.

Only when you stood on the walls of New Holy City could you feel its magnificence. It was like an insurmountable natural moat, standing in the foothills of the Impassable Mountains. The top was flat and wide, so that dozens of people could stand side by side. In front of it lay natural glaciers, and its rear was a plateau.

This was the reason that the church so desperately wanted to build New Holy City on top of the mountain.

With this harsh terrain, it was almost impossible to break the lines of defense.

Gerald Wimbledon had a long-term vision. The strength demonstrated by the church in the creation of Hermes was staggering. They established it in just 20 years, taking timber and stones from the foot of the mountain to its peak.

But even though he was no longer disgusted by the church scoundrels, there was something Gerald had to admit. If they did not support the holding of Hermes, all the countries on the continent would face a catastrophe, which was the basis for signing the Agreement on the Months of the Demons.

When the Months of the Demons came, the four kingdoms bordering Hermes had to send troops to aid the church and fight with the church�s Judgement Army.

The four banner flags flew in the wind, the Kingdom of Dawn�s serpent scepter, the Kingdom of Wolfheart�s knife shield crossing, the iceberg rose of the Kingdom of Everwinter�

and the tower and spear of the Kingdom of Graycastle.

Looking at the black spots in the distant sky, Gerald Wimbledon clenched his sword.

As Brian said, when it started snowing in Border Town, it did not stop.

The town had been wrapped in a layer of white yarn overnight. In the morning, the amount of snow lessened with only a few snowflakes falling every so often, while the sky remained gray. Roland felt incredulous at the fact that it would be a few months before the sun would be visible once again.

�It was simply unreasonable,� he thought. �It was hard enough to find sense in a world with witches and magic power, but how could demonic beasts affect the heavens?� Unfortunately, he had no meteorological tools to help him know about the world�s current cloud distributions.

Walking along the road to the city wall of the Western Region, Carter could not help but exclaim. �The town seems deserted, and with that, there are some people leaving with the noble families.�

�At least this way, they won�t drag us down,� said Roland. �I�ve arranged Barov for a population census this winter.�

�What�s that?�

�That means, you need to go door to door and record how many people are left, their name, and career they�re engaged in, and then register it,� Roland explained. �In this way, we can quickly and effectively allocate human resources during war and distribute pensions after war.�

�Uh� human resources?� Carter blinked and then laughed. �Your Highness, you really have changed.�

�Why?�

�In the past, you would also say some things I didn�t understand and act strangely. At that time, some of what you did didn�t match a prince�s behavior, but now� � Carter paused for a moment, and seemed to look for his words. �Whether it�s your quirky training regulations or the alchemical tests, the results are surprisingly effective. Perhaps this is what my grandfather said that what made someone extraordinary was that they can see what normal people ignored. I�m beginning to think maybe you really could become the next king.�

�� Is that so?� Roland�s heart felt warm. Was there anything more fulfilling than being approved by heelers for men? For a time he felt that his hands and feet were full of strength, and the dark sky was not so oppressing.

Along the city wall, the militia team was cleaning up the aisle of snow. When they saw the prince, they all bowed and gave a salute.

�They should be taught a proper salute,� Roland thought. �How was the situation last night?�

�There was no trace of the demonic beasts.� It was Iron Axe who answered him. �Your Highness, according to previous experience, there�ll be a relatively stable period after the first snow. During this period, the number of demonic beasts is small. And mutated animals are small and weak.�

Roland nodded. �Then keep alert.�

The rear section of the city wall had been transformed into a battalion. When all was quiet, most people would rest in the battalion to save energy. For the guards, a rotation system was implemented. Due to the low winter temperature, each warning patrol only stayed out for two hours before being replaced.

It was Roland who laid these measures into place. When asking Brian, he found out that Longsong Stronghold had no experience in the fight against the demonic beasts. The most unlucky recruits would be sent to monitor the evil creatures for a whole day on the city wall. This meant that each winter saw 20 to 30 people being hung for the dereliction of duty or the violation of military orders.

When the demonic beasts appeared, it was a mess. The defense was not put into divisions, and as such, responsibility was not specified. Thinking of the level of war in that era, Roland understood. There was an extreme emphasis on personal bravery, honor, and pillaging. Even the knights would charge forward in person out of impulse, and one could not expect too much.

Roland toured the walls once again. It seemed that all was going smoothly, but Roland found himself ignoring a problem.

That was the guidance of the roadblocks.

At the moment, these obstacles clearly led the demonic beasts to the center of the city wall, but if what Brian said was true, snow would cover these obstacles within two to three months. If that happened, they could have to defend from the beasts in a line as long as 600 meters. His staff could not take such wide range into consideration.

He could not send a platoon to remove the snow as a few demonic wolves were enough to make the team suffer heavy losses.

Perhaps he would have to rely on the power of the witches once again.

For example, let Nightingale sneak out of the city with Anna and melt the snow with fire, and then sneak back�that was similar to how she stole Nana from the Pine�s.

At that moment, the observation alarm on the left side of the city wall was sounded.

�Look ahead!�

Roland and Carter looked at the position he was pointing to, and a small shadow came out of the snow and moved slowly toward the city wall.

�Your Highness, do you�?� a hunter responsible for defense turned around and asked.

�According to the previous exercise, you should judge whether or not to blow the horn,� Roland said, �and at this point, you�re more experienced than me.�

He hesitated, and ultimately decided to pull on the strings of his crossbow and continued to observe from the city wall.

Roland nodded with satisfaction. For the moment, the order on the city wall was still well maintained. He just did not know if the defense would swiftly organize according to their drills when a large number of demonic beasts attacked Border Town.

The shadow gradually approached. When it came to about 50 meters in front of the city wall, Roland was able to see its appearance.

Was it just a variant of fox?

Its fur was gray and black, and its eyes were flushed. It panted as it reached the city wall.

�This creature seems to have been just attacked, and it�s no threat to us,� Iron Axe said as he aimed his bow.

�You said they were all infected with the breath of hell, and exiled to the west?�

�Not only to the west,� said Carter. �When the Gates of Hell open in Barbarian Land, any place beyond the protection of the Impassable Mountain Range will be attacked by demonic beasts, especially in the north. There, the Impassable Mountain Range seems to be cut off, and the gap is about 5,000 meters. It�s also the main direction of the attacks by the demonic beasts.�

The manic monster wandered around the city wall for a while. Then it raised its head and grinned at the soldiers on the city wall. When it leaped, Iron Axe released his bowstring, and the arrow penetrated its neck, nailing it firmly to the ground.

Roland noticed that the blood flowing from it was black.

�Why could a witch stay conscious after their awakening, but a beast became frantic and alienated when they were ambushed by the same demonic power? If there was ever the chance, I should go to the rear of the Impassable Mountain Range and take a look for myself,� he thought. From the prince�s memory, the Gates of Hell was located in a place where humans could not reach. However, as no one had ever gone there, the information found in the ancient books was all rumors and speculations, and not verified. That was questionable.

�If someone is bitten by a demonic beast,� asked Roland, �will he turn into something like the beast?�

He hoped that this was not some otherworldly version of Resident Evil. They could not extract virus antigens with the current technology.

�Of course not,� said Iron Axe, making a confused face. �Humans will simply turn into corpses.�

�Can we eat the flesh of the demonic beasts?�

Carter exclaimed. �Your Highness! How can you eat these beasts? They�re all tainted by the touch of hell!�

Roland turned to Iron Axe, who nodded. �Your knight is right. Once I tried to cut off a piece of flesh from the beasts and feed it to a hound, but it died soon after.�

�Is that so? What a pity.� Roland sighed. Food was so scarce in this era, so if demonic beasts could be eaten, then they could have a huge harvest in the winter. Just imagine, with all the crazed beasts running from the forest to Border Town, they would not even need any hunting tools.

Once he finished patrolling the city wall, he decided to pay Nana a visit.

He had expropriated a nobleman�s house, which was the closest to the city wall, and transformed it into a field hospital. Of course, it was simply a normal hospital to others. Just to be safe, the place was the most heavily guarded place except the city wall.

When the house owner escaped to Longsong Stronghold, he took all of his properties with him. Border Town was a place where one could give up at any moment. Even though the house was large, there were no frescoes, carpets, or porcelain to decorate it. If it were not neatly cleaned, it would just look like a house that has been abandoned for a long time.

Roland tore down the wooden partition on the first floor to make one large room, leaving only the hallway and entrance intact. He then placed 10 beds to form a simple hospital. There were no nurses, no doctors, and even these 10 beds were unlikely to be occupied. After all, Nana�s treatment did not require bed rest. It was immediately effective.

During the day, she was on the second floor of the hospital on standby. Anna accompanied her whenever she had spare time. Tigui Pine and Brian were in charge of the first floor, with two more guards posted at the entrance. It was foolproof.

However, Roland did not expect that the first patient that the hospital received would be a worker from the North Slope Mine, rather than some soldier defending the city wall.

*******************

Nail felt his hands shaking.

When he heard Iron Head�s hoarse screams, he once again quickened his pace. He wished he could fly to his destination.

Everything was a result of his negligence, he thought. He really deserved to die. How could he forget the veteran knight�s warnings?

He knew that he should not have agreed to operate the large machine alone.

Ever since the big, dark machine was installed at the entrance of the mine, work had become a lot easier.

In the first place, the most tiring job was removing the ores from the mine. When the basket was filled with ores, it would take three to four people to drag it. Usually two people pushed in the back, with the others pulling from the front. After years of mining, the uneven surface of the tunnel would become flat due to the repetitive transporting of the baskets. The iron pads under the baskets also had to be changed frequently.

A week ago, Chief Knight ordered Iron Head and his men to haul some oddly-shaped metal pieces up the mountain. After a few days, they assembled the pieces in a furnace. Nail did not expect that the furnace would come to life and start moving on its own. It was both powerful and dynamic.

The veteran knight said it was an invention by His Highness called a �steam engine�.

As long as they tied the mining basket to the machine with a hemp rope and ignited a fire, the machine would let out a cry. Then it would turn the winch to pull the basket to the entrance of the mine.

It sounded incredible!

The veteran knight demonstrated it a few times, and then asked Iron Head to select a person to operate the steam engine. Nail�s heart soared when he was selected. As long as he stood in front of that machine, he would never have to dig in the mine or push the basket. That was what he thought, but he had been terrified ever since the landslide accident.

He kept the veteran knight�s words firmly in his mind.

Making the contraption work seemed easy. All he had to do was to lift the green rod and press the red rod down. The veteran knight said that the green rod was connected to the air intake valve, and the red rod was connected to the exhaust valve. And the steam would enter the cylinder through the pipeline. When the basket was pulled up, he would stop the machine by lifting the red rod and pressing the green rod down. Then steam would come from the side of the boiler into the tube. After each cycle, the boiler must be filled with water. Although Nail did not understand the meanings of the valve and cylinder, he promised to operate it step by step.

But the veteran knight stressed two points. Firstly, he should not mess up the order. He must start from the green then to red rod, and end with the red rod followed by the green rod. If he did this incorrectly, he would probably damage the machine. Secondly, he had to clear out the surrounding miners before emptying the exhaust, and continue shouting out to remind others what he was doing, until the red rod was completely lifted.

Nail was sure that he absolutely could not mess up the first point. As for the second, he had some problem.

Today, when he turned off the machine as usual, there was no one around. He felt like a fool calling out to an empty room, so he proceeded to pull the red rod silently. The rod was tight, and it took quite an effort for him to lift it.

He did not expect Iron Head to appear right then in front of the boiler. Nail swore that he did not see him approach, and the loud roar of the machine masked his footsteps. White steam screeched from the exhaust port and headed straight at Iron Head�s face!

Nail was frozen in horror, seeing Iron Head fall to the ground. Iron head clutched his face, rolling around. The mournful screams that he let out gave Nail goose bumps.

Soon other miners gathered around. They held down Iron Head who was still rolling, and forcibly removed his hands. His face was a mess, with blood oozing from the cooked flesh of his skin. His eyes were mere white beads. Everyone there knew that it was the end for him.

Behind them, tears welled in Nail�s eyes. Iron Head had always taken care of him. Considering his young age, Iron Head assigned him less work than others, but never reduced his pay. But now this happened because of his negligence.

Caught in his grief and anxiety, Nail recalled what the veteran knight had said. If someone was accidentally injured in the mining area, they could bring them to the new medical hospital near the city wall.

He knew that there was little hope to mend such a serious injury. The wound was too serious and herbs would do little to help. Iron Head�s skin would continue to rot, and he would soon fall into a coma because of his fever. Nonetheless, Nail put Iron Head on his back. Clenching his teeth, he ran, ignoring the surprise of the people around him.

He knew if he did nothing and simply watched Iron Head die, he would not be able to forgive himself in this lifetime.

�Where�s Anna?�

Nana heard footsteps pounding up the stairs and ran to the door to see who it was. She was disappointed to find that it was His Highness.

�She�s still working. She may come later.�

�Work?� Nana heard the prince say that word often these days. �Do you mean she�s burning that gray powder?�

�For the time being, yes.�

Nana pouted and went back to the table. �I also have work,� she thought. �I stay here and treat those who are injured while defending the town.�

�What is it? Are you bored when Anna is away?� Roland smiled. Taking a chair, he sat down by the fireplace.

�Well�� Nana looked down. Honestly, she did not want to help the injured. It was just� too terrible.

She remembered the scene when she first treated Brian. He was soaked in blood, and the reddish-brown clots solidified in his chest. Red and white blood bubbled out of his dry lips. Upon seeing this, she fainted�

She was so ashamed.

Nana looked up and stared at the prince, only to find he was snoring in his chair. �He seems exhausted, too,� she thought, �he must have been constructing the city wall and training soldiers to protect Border Town from the demonic beasts.�

When he invited to come to the castle, she had hesitated for a long time, but in the end she agreed.

�You�ll also encounter something that you want to live for, even if you have to struggle.� Nana did not understand the meaning of these words, but when she closed her eyes, she could see Anna. Her blue eyes were like a lake, gently enveloping her. It was because of her that she agreed to help Roland.

She wanted to be as strong as Anna.

Suddenly, she heard footsteps downstairs. Nana jumped up from her chair to see if it was Anna. However, she was stopped by an invisible hand.

�Wait, there�s more than one person.�

Nana patted her chest, unnerved. �You scared me, Nightingale.�

The door was pushed open, and Brian, who was in charge of the first floor, came in. �Miss Pine, please come down. Someone was burned.�

This is my work, isn�t it?

Nana closed her eyes and took a deep breath. �Alright, I got it.�

She went downstairs. The two guards were busy placing a man who was moaning painfully on the bed. Next to them stood a small man, looking anxious. Brian came forward and tied the wounded man�s hands and feet to the bedside. The guards then sent the small man out of the room and drew the curtain.

�What happened?� Roland went downstairs, rubbing his eyes.

�Your Highness, this man came from the mine of the northern slope. He seems seriously burned.�

The prince looked the man over. �These are steam burns. Is there any problem with the first machine? Who brought him here?�

�He�s in the hall.� Brian pointed at the door.

�I�ll go and ask about the situation. You stay here,� Roland said as he left the room.

Nana slowly went closer and glimpsed at that man from the corner of her eyes. She saw that his face was melted into a ball. His original ruddy skin became pale with dehydration and was hanging onto his face like a rag. On his neck were blisters as large as bowls, some of which had been broken. Mucus with blood wetted the pillow. In the flickering light of the fire, his appearance was more terrible than a demon from a nightmare.

She retreated a few steps and closed her eyes. When she opened them again, she saw her father was watching her with care.

�Are you alright?�

Nana nodded and thought about what Roland had told her: �It�s best to think of treating the wounded like treating a small animal.� With this in mind, she went back to the bed and stretched out her hands.

An incredible feeling emerged from her body, and she gathered a small part of this power into her palm. She saw a ray of green light flowing out of her palm and onto the injured man�s face. Although this green light was so visible to her, others could not see it. The wound then changed. The scalded skin fell off and new skin grew quickly underneath it.

The painful moaning of the wounded man gradually stopped. His breathing became even as if he had fallen asleep.

Nana exhaled. She performed better than she did the last time, didn�t she?

�My God, is this the healing power His Highness mentioned? This is the first time I�ve seen it,� said Tigui Pine. �My dear daughter, you�re amazing!�

�It�s the power of the deities,� said Brian. �I�m so grateful that Nana helped me when I was injured.�

�Ah, this fool.� Nana clutched her face and thought. �Didn�t he know that Nightingale helped me sneak out to cure him?�

�When was it?� Tigui said, surprised, �Why don�t I know?�

�Well� Her strength has nothing to do with the deities. It belongs only to the witch herself.� Roland opened the partition and coughed as he joined the two men�s conversation. �How�s the injured man now?�

�Basically healed,� said Brian excitedly. �It�s like he was never injured! Your Highness, with Miss Nana�s, everyone will have a chance to survive the Month of Demons!�

�As long as you don�t die on the spot, it�s not a problem to keep you alive.� The prince nodded, motioning Brian to wake up the man. �You�re Iron Head, am I right?�

Iron Head sat up. He said in confusion, �Is, is this a dream?�

�No,� said Roland. �You�re still alive.�

�You�re� I�ve seen you in the square!� The man suddenly realized the identity of Roland. He abruptly got down from the bed and fell to his knees. �Prince Roland, did you save me?�

�Tigui Pine�s daughter saved you. She�s a witch with healing powers.�

Nana tensed and wondered if it was okay to say that she was a witch so directly. Sure enough, the look in the man�s eyes changed. �A� witch? Your Highness, aren�t they demons�?�

�What the hell are you saying!� Tigui stood up and shouted unhappily. �My daughter doesn�t have anything to do with demons. She did save your life. Do you think a demon would lend you a helping hand?�

�No, no! Please forgive me for my rudeness.� Iron Head lowered his head. �You saved my life. Thank you, Miss Pine.�

Nana was overwhelmed by her feelings. She wanted to run out of the room. Still, there was a voice repeating in her head, reminding her to �be strong�.

When Iron Head was sent away, Tigui asked with concern, �Is this really alright, Your Highness? If you do this, I�m afraid my daughter won�t be able to live a normal life.�

�Think about the positive side, Mr. Pine,� the prince said. �If we take advantage of this period to break the ice, Nana may be able to have a future where she�s truly free. Otherwise, as time passes, she�ll one day be exposed. When that day comes, I�m afraid I can do nothing but hide her.�

Truly� free? Nana did not know, but right now she felt like she was free. But if what His Highness said became true, then Anna could also leave the castle on her own. Would she return to Teacher Karl�s college?

When Roland returned to the castle, it was already dark and snowing heavily again.

He went into the bedroom and removed his coat. He shook off the snow at the collar, and hung it on the hanger beside the fireplace.

�Your Highness, don�t you think this matter was handled too hastily?�

Nightingale appeared in front of the prince.

�Nana?� Roland poured a glass of ale for Nightingale and himself. Although the wine was much bitterer than the beer he was used to in his past life, he had gradually become accustomed to its taste.

Nightingale took the cup and held it in her hand but did not drink�she was waiting for the prince�s answer.

�There�s no better time than now.� Roland downed his wine and refilled his cup. �If we want to develop Nana�s power before the Months of Demons, we can�t conceal her identity as a witch. She can instantly heal fatal injuries in a way more efficient than the ordinary herbal medicines or bloodletting therapy. I�m sure people will realize this.�

�It�s a blessing that this small town is outside the border of the Western Region, therefore, the church has very limited influence on it�if I were them, I would not be willing to spend gold royals on this unimportant place either.� Roland went on. �The town didn�t even have a chapel, and the missionaries returned with the noble to Longsong Stronghold a long time ago. What do you think of Border Town now? It�s an island cut off from the outside world.�

�� you planned this long ago?� Nightingale asked.

Roland nodded. �The snow will bury the road leading to Longsong Stronghold, and the docking of the ships at the port is controlled by me. We have at least three months to correct the wrong idea that �witches are evil�. If we depend just on publicity, the effect is very limited. So we need to rely on close contact, in order to quickly eliminate this layer of misunderstanding.�

That was why he wanted to keep Nana at all costs. He wanted to create a Florence Nightingale in this world.

Due to this legendary nurse�s dedicated efforts to take care of the wounded, the casualty rate was reduced from 42% to 2%. She was conferred the title of �The Lady with the Lamp�, and she raised the reputation of nurses.

And Nana�s ability was even more magical. Through magic power, she could cure trauma and revive lives as long as it was not death on-the-spot. This was probably better for the morale of the Militia than any weapon.

Moreover, thanks to her father�s identity as a noble in decline and his association with hunters and farmers, he had a peaceful attitude towards civilians, and even allowed Nana to attend Teacher Karl�s college. As compared to the other nobles, even the lowest ranking baron, would not be happy to allow his daughter to mix with civilians�in their eyes, these people were so-called lowlifes.

�Can these� really be done?� Even if it were Nightingale, when faced with the powerful authority like the church, she would still appear particularly weak.

�If we don�t try, we�ll never know the answer.�

Roland did not expect the whole town to change their view, but at least this new platoon he formed had to be firmly grasped in his hands. Later on, he would rely on these people, who came from the civilians, to promote his ideas.

Three months were enough to change a lot of things.

Nightingale was silent for a moment, and then whispered, �Why are you doing this for the witches?�

In order to liberate productivity, become more powerful and have a place in the Royal Decree on the Selection of Crown Prince�of course, these answers were not suitable to be said at this moment. Even though Roland was a mechanical engineer, he had also played a variety of GALGAME. So it could be said he had also seen many battles. Two decades of experience reminded him that this time he was facing a key question.

He pondered the right words to say, and then slowly replied, �I�ve already told you a long time ago, that Border Town doesn�t care about your background. I hope that one day, even a witch, can live like a free man in my domain.�

This time Nightingale was silent for a long time. Only the crackling of charcoal burning could be heard in the room. Her side profile shone like a beautiful picture under the bright firelight.

When she spoke again, Roland felt time had regained movement. �In fact, you don�t have to do this.� Her voice was remote yet gentle. �Please forgive me for lying to you earlier on� My sisters of the Witch Cooperation Association have been drifting around for a long time. They don�t have many expectations. Just a place to settle down would satisfy them, even if it was in the castle.�

�How would that be different from a cage.� Roland shook his head. Then suddenly it dawned upon him. He stared at Nightingale. �Hang on� are you saying that you now allow them to come over?�

Nightingale sighed and avoided eye contact with the prince. �In that case, you�ll become an enemy of the church.�

�They had gone too far,� Roland said nonchalantly. �Once the divine right of kings becomes a slogan, the conflict between the church and the mainland countries will break out sooner or later. As for Border Town, as long as we can live through these three months, the church can�t do much harm to us. We�re far from the base of the church. Will the bishop bring the Judgement Army across the entire Kingdom of Graycastle to capture me? My father won�t allow such a thing to happen. This would be a serious provocation of the royal majesty.�

���

After Nightingale bowed and left, Roland lay in the bed, and let out a sigh of relief.

He did not tell her all his thoughts, such as the church was far away, and according to the speed of communication in that world, they probably would not respond until early summer. Plus the long distance and his identity as a prince, it meant the church would probably only send envoys to investigate the situation.

It would take half a year to carry out a round trip. By then, he would have the ability to break the ties with them.

Therefore, the biggest danger was not the church, but the witches themselves.

This point was noticed only by Roland.

Although the witches were now at a disadvantage, the situation would not last forever. Witches did not rely on blood heritage, but instead a random awakening, which meant witches could not be exterminated, and they would only increase in numbers.

The church relied on God�s Stone of Retaliation to maintain their advantage over the witches, but this could only be used to offset the magic power. By the look of things, the witches� awakening not only gave them a variety of abilities. Even their physical qualities, thinking agility, and their appearance were superior to ordinary people.

They were in essence, considered �New Mankind�.

The more brutal the oppression was, the more intense the resistance would be. When a riot led purely by the witches arose, how much damage would that cause to the Kingdom of Graycastle? The hatred caused by the church, once uncontrollable, could very likely be transferred to the same hate toward the kingdom and its people.

Roland did not wish to see that happen.

So he needed to start from Border Town. He first had to frame a structure to accommodate both parties, and promote this to the entire Kingdom of Graycastle, and even the mainland kingdom.

He wanted to build a world where witches and ordinary people could coexist.

When the moon started to set, Gerald Wimbledon saw the flickering silhouette of the city wall of the king�s city.

After a few months, he was finally back. Thinking of that, he felt the fatigue of the long journey diminished greatly. But he still remained vigilant, and tightly pulled his horse, beckoning his assistant to go ahead and inquire about the situation.

If the plan did not change, Astrologer Ansger should have already replaced the city guards with Gerald�s men. After the assistant shot out the signal, Ansger would let down the side drawbridge.

Gerald kept his eyes wide open, as if he was afraid to miss the faint fire.

He did not have to wait long, but Gerald felt like time had stopped. When his eyelids became too weary, he finally saw the distant flickers�twice under the city wall, and thrice above, just like it was planned. He took a deep breath and waved his troops forward.

By the look of things, he was only one step away from the throne.

Gerald rode through the side door of the city wall, with the assistant by his side.

Behind him were more than twenty cavalries. They were all silently pulling the reins, and controlling the mount to inch forward slowly.

The city walls of the king�s city were made of materials obtained from Fallen Dragon Ridge. The gray-colored stone had a dark red luster under the torch as if it was soaked in blood. The whole city wall was about 6 meters wide. And in order to build this wall that was out of this world, more than 1,000 slaves and masons died on the site.

An army of 10,000 could not overcome this impregnable wall, but yet he was sliding through it so easily. Gerald thought to himself that any loophole must have started from the inside. All of a sudden, he recalled New Holy City. Would their seemingly more magnificent and indestructible wall be destroyed from the inside as well?

�Your Highness, I�ve been awaiting your arrival for a long time.� Marching through the gates, he saw Astrologer Ansger and a small platoon waiting. Seeing Gerald appear, Astrologer Ansger quickly dismounted, bowed and saluted.

Gerald cast his distractions aside. He was probably so excited that he unwittingly let his imagination run wild. �You did well. Have you also swopped the palace guards?�

�Your Highness, the plan had a small mishap. Silver Knight who promised to serve you, was transferred to the Southern Territory three days ago. So now there�s only time to replace the palace chamber guards.�

Gerald frowned, as this meant that he could not bring all the 20 people into the palace. The guards would not attempt to stop him, but would also not allow so many armed men to enter the royal premises.

�Oh well, assign me two guards from the chamber platoon. The rest can stay the entrance, and ensure outsiders don�t come in and bother me.� He hesitated for a second before confirming. Although the plan had changed, the situation was still under control. Father�s guards would generally stay overnight in the outer rooms. As long as someone could hold them off for a moment, he was confident that he could obtain victory.

Entering the inner city, he saw everything he used to be familiar with. Although it was night, he could still recognize every street. This was his territory without a doubt. Everyone jumped off their horses, and advanced quickly toward the palace. As they arrived at the door, the cavalry spread out according to the new plan, forming an ambush outside the palace. Just like Astrologer Ansger said, although the guards were surprised as to why the prince returned at night to the king�s city, they still let him enter as Gerald lied that he had something important to report.

After all, he was the eldest son of the Kingdom of Graycastle, first in line to the throne.

The prince and Astrologer Ansger went through the garden and the hall, and right in front was King Wimbledon III�s residence. The astrologer lifted the torch in his hand and shook it from left to right. Immediately, guards walked out of the darkness, and knelt down to the two men. �Your Highness, please come with me.�

Gerald sniffed his nose and smelled a bloody odor.

Had not the chamber guards been completely replaced? He looked at the guard by firelight, and it was someone familiar�a knight of the earl who supported his succession plans. This made him feel a little more at ease.

�Did someone get into the castle?�

�Your Highness, His Majesty summoned a maid in the evening. And when she came out, she saw our exchange,� replied the other. �Please rest assured. We�ve dealt with it.�

[A maid? Father has not touched a woman for a long time�ever since Mother died.] Gerald felt a little surprised, but now it was not the right time to bother about such a minor thing. He nodded and did not say anything more. He followed the guards into the castle, and the others followed behind them.

Gerald knew the castle like the back of his hand, and he could walk from one end to the next with his eyes closed. He had lived here for more than 20 years, and he knew exactly where the secret tunnels or hidden doors were. But his purpose now was to persuade his father to pass the throne to himself. Sneaking into the chambers was meaningless. He also had to get rid of the guards outside, so that his father could completely understand his situation. Then they could sit down and talk seriously about the attribution of the inheritance.

If he could not convince his father�

Gerald Wimbledon took a deep breath, reached out and beckoned everyone to stop. He then pulled out the hand sword at his back.

The bronze door at the end of the corridor was the only entrance to the palace chambers. Behind the door was the outer chamber, but also the last line of defense. Two to three guards were usually stationed there, so that they could rush into the chambers to protect His Majesty at the first sign of danger.

Gerald first pushed the door to open a small slot. Then he used his shoulder to bang the door, fleeing quickly into the room, whilst holding his sword in an attacking stance, but the outside chamber was silent, without a single soul. At the same time, a strong bloody stench covered his nose.

His heart flashed an unknown premonition, and he ran straight toward the bedroom.

Shortly after, Gerald witnessed a scene that he could hardly believe�

King Wimbledon III was sitting on his bed in his robes, and his upper body leaning against the pillow. His robe was open, and a hilt was inserted into his chest. Blood dripped down his raised stomach and soaked the quilt.

Standing beside his father was his younger brother, Timothy Wimbledon.

�How, how could this happen?� Gerald stood motionless.

�Just like you, my elder brother.� Timothy sighed. �I didn�t want to do this.�

He clapped his hands, and a number of armored warriors quickly poured through the door to surround the royal prince. �This is a chess game, and I originally wanted to follow the rules. Brother, did you know? Garcia did not respect the rules from the start, of course� you too. If not, why would she rush to the king�s city after hearing the astrological prophet of Astrologer Ansger? Seriously, if you didn�t show up, I wouldn�t know what to do.�

�Astrologer!�

He gritted his teeth and looked back. Astrologer Ansger stepped back and said, �I didn�t lie to you. �The Apocalypse Star is far away from Blaze day� is a metaphor that the lost has strayed from the right path, but it also has the meaning of destruction.�

Now Gerald finally understood. He had fallen into a well-designed trap from the very beginning. The stench of blood at the door of the castle was not left by some maid and Silver Knight had not been transferred away. But the most disappointing fact was, Astrologer Ansger, who had taken care of him for more than a decade, and taught him to read and write from an early age, still chose the 2nd Prince�just like his father.

�Timothy Wimbledon! We�re both his sons, but he devoted so much effort to you and assigned the best territory to you. Yet you were the first to lay your hands on him! You�re a demon from hell!�

Anger flashed in Timothy�s eyes but quickly disappeared. �Do you really think so? Dear brother, if you failed to persuade him to let you inherit the throne, would you really walk away quietly? Don�t deceive yourself.�

��� Gerald knew that he was now backed into a corner, and all he could do was to drag his younger brother together to hell. At this moment, he was actually calm, �Do you just want to get rid of me?�

�Get rid of you? No, that�s of no help to me, my dear brother. I had no choice but to resort to this.� Timothy�s tone was still calm as if he was stating a fact. �If I had patiently waited for five years, I would probably end up having to face Garcia�s pirate army. Do you know what she has been up to recently?�

Gerald shook his head and estimated the distance between himself and the 2nd Prince. He remembered his younger brother was very smart since childhood, but he was not good at riding and battle. As long as he could find the opportunity to rush forward to cut off�

�She is forming her own army, Brother. Really, I admire her. She did this even before the Royal Decree on the Selection of Crown Prince. Even I, did not expect this from her. When we were children, we all got along so harmoniously. How did we end up here, planning to kill each other?� He said, and then retreated two steps.� For example, I�m afraid now you just want to split me into two halves with your sword, right?�

���

�I know it, Brother. You are still the same as before. When you want to kill, your eyes have a horrific stare,� Timothy sighed. �Let me tell you honestly. I want to terminate the Royal Decree on the Selection of Crown Prince. If not, the fleet of Garcia would be waiting for me five years later. She had already controlled the Port of Clearwater a few years ago. And Valencia was suitable for creating businessmen, but not for raising fighters.�

�I need an army that can resist Garcia�s fleet, and this can�t be achieved by a trade city.� Gerald Wimbledon, tomorrow you�ll be judged because you left your domain and assassinated the king. I have to return to Valencia tonight to make preparations before the bad news spreads to the Eastern Region. I�ll be deeply sad, and step up rightfully as the second successor. And you�ll be sent to the guillotine on the charges of killing the king.�

�You..!� Gerald screamed and rushed toward his younger brother, but the distance was too great. His sword was intercepted by two armored guards. Then his calf numbed, as a dagger pierced his calf. Gerald suddenly lost his balance and fell crooked to the ground. The crowd swarmed forward, and he was tightly pressed to the ground, bound and unable to move.

�Judge? Do you think you�re qualified to judge me? I�ll divulge all of this, and let the people who support you know what kind of monster you are!�

�Of course you won�t, my brother,� said Timothy patiently. �The Alchemic Workshop has a medicine called �Forgotten Language�, which is made up of mixed lizard venom and horse�s milk from the sandy land of the Southern Territory. After drinking it, you won�t be able to make any sound. Rest assured you won�t feel any pain. Instead, the taste is sweet, smooth and quite intoxicating. If you want to blame someone, then blame our talented sister. If not for her, I would not have to do this.�

He waved to the leader of the guards, and the latter also nodded in reply and saluted. The royal prince was pulled out of the palace. The other armored guards also filed out. Finally, only the 2nd Prince and Astrologer Ansger were left.

�Your Highness, your throne is now secured, so I should call you Your Majesty,� Astrologer Ansger said bowing.

�You did really well, and when I get on the throne of the Kingdom of Graycastle, I will fulfill our arrangement. But�seeing my brother�s tragic appearance today, I feel certain promises should be accompanied by a guarantee clause.�

The astrologer�s expression immediately changed. �Your Highness, you mean��

�Don�t worry. I just don�t want to be betrayed.� Timothy pulled out a wax pill from his arms. �You must have seen this quite often. The wax pill�s shell takes seven days to completely dissolve, about the same time it takes for me to return from the king�s city to Valencia. I�ve used the position of Chief Astrologer as the price for your collaboration, and I don�t wish for others to pull you away at a higher price.�

�Your Highness� you must be joking.� The astrologer�s face turned white blank. Yet he still bit the bullet and swallowed the wax pill in the end.

�Smart choice,� said Timothy nodding with satisfaction. �Now you can go.�

�

When the palace was empty, the 2nd Prince�s face was gloomy.

He grabbed the porcelain on the bedside table and thrashed it on the ground. The porcelain was smashed into pieces. A guard came in immediately. �Your Highness?�

�Get out!� He roared.

�Yes.� The latter quickly headed out of the room and shut the door.

[Damn it! Things shouldn�t be this way!]

His plan did not include killing his father. By virtue of the king�s preference, he just needed to highlight Garcia�s actions to the king and stop her. Plus he had Prince Gerald Wimbledon as bait.

Timothy thought that his plan was infallible. He used the position of Chief Astrologer to lure Gerald�s enlightenment mentor�the low ranking Astrologer Ansger in the Astrologers Association, into writing a letter to Gerald. And Gerald got hooked quite quickly. This was also in line with Timothy�s judgement. His elder brother was stronger at fighting than thinking, whilst not willing to hand over the throne.

The next few letters stirred up the ambition of the first Prince Gerald, and Timothy also finished preparing the next step. When the last letter with the astrological prophecy was issued, he secretly returned to the king�s city, to reveal the news that the first Prince Gerald might be planning a takeover. There was no doubt that once the matter was confirmed, his father would fly into a rage and send the first Prince Gerald into prison. He would face either imprisonment to death or exile.

Then, his father would look upon the other children, and Garcia who was expanding her army rapidly, would certainly be a natural choice.

But� why did it turn out like that? Father heard his news, smiled strangely instead, pulled out a dagger, and pierced his own chest!

Everything happened so fast that Timothy could not react in time, and could only watch his father die in front of him.

He sat down feebly along the bedside. For the first time, he felt he was also a pawn in a game of chest. Father�s last smile was like a nightmare, making him feel creepy. He went over the whole thing repeatedly, and even examined the body, but still, could not find a clue�why would father do that?

He also suspected that this person was a fake. But he could find no evidence, and even the hidden wound at the back was a match.

Knowing Gerald was about to arrive at the king�s city, he had to pretend to be calm, and replace the whole program. He would blame the death of King Wimbledon III onto Gerald, and then use his position as second heir to succeed the throne ahead of time. As long as the coronation was smooth, he would no longer be subject to territorial restrictions. This meant he could directly mobilize the power of the Duke of the Southern Territory to threaten Garcia and force her to give up the Port of Clearwater.

So it seemed that the outcome was not bad either, but Timothy could not help but feel uneasy� as if there were an invisible hand, that had unsuspectingly joined the struggles at the Kingdom of Graycastle. However, he was completely ignorant about it.

At the moment, other than firmly grasping the throne, he had no choice. Timothy Wimbledon swore to himself. If he found out who was behind this, he would be sure to let the culprit know the consequences of annoying a king!

Border Town had been fairly peaceful over the week.

According to Iron Axe and Brian, the strength and the number of demonic beasts would gradually increase as the Months of Demons continued. Taking advantage of the current defensive pressure, Roland sent a sloop loaded with ores to Willow Town.

Due to the use of the steam engine, the number of workers in the North Slope Mine had been reduced by half, while the output increased steadily, allowing it to the level it had been at before it collapsed. The use of machines greatly lowered the manpower required.

Meanwhile, Roland carried on a preliminary reform of the mining system, turning the fixed compensation into a floating salary. He set a daily average output tallied by Barov as a standard, and going above by a certain amount would end in additional remuneration. In addition, anyone who found gemstones or mineral veins could claim extra rewards. This measure effectively promoted the workers� enthusiasm, and lively scenes could be seen everywhere in mining areas.

Roland naturally would like to do something now that the ore was in his hands.

Besides the steam engine, he also planned to manufacture a series of machine tools.

Machine tools had a long history, and generally speaking, they were tools used to produce other tools. So an anvil, which was manually fixed and forged, could be regarded as the most original machine tool.

Making tools by hand was not all that bad, however, the issue lay in the ungainly positioning of the tools. Thus, people added clip or groove on the tool stand to fix the parts that were processed. The early harquebus and flintlock were both handmade on anvils with grooves.

As time went on, merely depending on manpower could not meet the demand of processing, and then the machine tools evolved and expanded. The machine tool applied different fixed methods and toolings according to different usages. In addition, the linkage of handwork and machinery could effectively improve the efficiency of process.

Roland considered making the manual milling machine.

Although the milling machine had versatile functions, he would simply use it to produce involute gears and its frame could be simplified. All it needed was a pair of card slots and a rotatable steel mill. With the help of Anna, a specific molding mill specialized in cutting gears could be easily produced. The top of grinding tool was polished into the shape of a trapezoid and was heated to a hot red state. Then marks were drawn with iron bars, followed by a quench hardening treatment in water. That was how a customized mill was produced.

After solving the key problem, Roland immediately called Carter to hire two carpenters to forge the milling machine base, while Anna continued to make other metal parts in the castle backyard.

There was no doubt that metal processing had become as easy as making pottery with the help of Anna, especially after she grew skilled in controlling her flames. The initial production of small parts all depended on her. Seeing her melting iron ingots into a fluid iron liquid and kneading it, Roland marveled unceasingly.

Without the witches, it would have taken over 10 years to achieve what he had imagined.

Two days later, the first simplified milling machine was placed in the backyard.

Recently, Roland had been busy designing a set of gears, which would be used to regulate the speed and stabilize the output of the steam engine. The relevant fluted discs were in the molding process. Once the milling machine was finished being assembled, the process of gear milling would be carried out.

Gears were nothing new for Chief Knight Carter. The drainage of water in most of the mines in the world was achieved by livestock pulling wooden gears with a winch mechanism. Carter was satisfied this time. He was able to understand what the prince was doing.

Roland told him to bring three blacksmiths and their apprentices to learn how to operate the milling machine in the backyard. It was unlikely that Roland was going to operate these machine tools, so he had to train some skillful workers.

After their respectfully saluting, Roland started to demonstrate how to use the milling machines to produce gears.

Roland did not mind serving as the demonstrator at all. Actually, he just would seem like a type of prince that had various hobbies. Besides, being considered as half-assed, it was easy for him to operate the machine tools.

Carter was responsible for pouring warm lard on the side. In that era, it was a waste to replace oil lubrication by lard. However, something was better than nothing. The lard fell down into a ceramic bowl after soaking the mill, and it could be used repeatedly.

Roland firstly carved an indentation on the fluted disc according to the designed angle. Then he set the fluted disc upright and fixed it on the working table. Next, he pulled the mill above the fluted disc, aiming at the inscribed line, then pressing the pedal. The belts transferred the power generated by pedal�s wooden wheels to the mill shaft.

Later on, Roland held fast to the mill handle and pulled down slightly, and then the rotating mill cut the fluted disc slowly at an angle of 90 degrees.

As the material of the fluted discs was pig iron, it was not hard to carve the indentation, despite the fact that the mill was working the rolled steel after the quenching process. The air was thick with the fragrance of lard, causing the blacksmiths and apprentices who did not eat meat for a long time to swallow their saliva.

After the demonstration, it was time to sign the contract. The business in Border Town had just begun, and the industry was even more recent. Therefore, neither steam engines nor machine tools would get popular immediately. At this time, the majority of people could hardly understand the huge power those things represent or their potential. As a result, Roland had to promote the machines by himself.

The contract said that the smithy using milling machines had to process one set of gears every week. All the needed materials should be provided by the castle and the processing fee was ten silver royals. Besides, the machine tools were not free, and the process functioned more like renting. The smithy had to pay two silver royals to use the tools.

During the Months of Demons, the business in the smithy was not as prosperous as before. It was an order from the prince and it could also benefit the smithy. Thus, nobody went against this order. At the same time, Roland told them that it was the first milling machine and there would be more milling machines being produced constantly. Anyone who was interested could apply at the City Hall.

�Your Highness, why don�t you directly make the processing fee eight silver royals?� Carter asked, confused, after the blacksmiths went away.

�The amount is the same, but the meanings are different,� Roland explained. �This is probably the first commercial lease contract in Border Town. I need to set an industry standard.�

Carter wiped his forehead, knowing that His Highness was talking nonsense. He had experienced this situation. The prince would carry on talking if he pretended to listen carefully.

�A good start can lead to a virtuous cycle. At present, only I need to buy gears, so I provide machine tools. They get rewarded for their labor. Later, when others also need them, the blacksmiths will realize that they can get more commissions from buying the machine tools than renting them.� Roland paused, �Thus, whenever they confront new things, they would consider applying the method of alternative production to avoid the risks. I can get rewards by renting the tools out and the subsequent development of new things will be decided by the market. That�s a virtuous cycle.�

With high spirits, Roland was about to give a long harangue on how to establish a reasonable market when there came the hum of horn.

This was unusual as only when the patrol team could not handle the issue would the alarm signal sound out.

Roland and Carter looked at each other and then rushed to the castle�s backyard. Roland mounted the horse which had been prepared by the guards and headed for the city wall with Carter and his heelers.

When they boarded the city wall, the Militia was already in place. To Roland�s relief, there was suddenly an array of guns on the top of wall. It seemed that the eggs did work.

Roland looked northwesterly, finding a group of demonic beasts approaching Border Town. Roland guessed there were about 20 evil beasts.

Iron Axe ran to Roland from his guarding position, giving a salute and reporting to Roland, �Your Highness, there is something weird about those demonic beasts.�

�Weird? Do you mean that they generally don�t take collective action?�

�No,� Iron Axe explained, �colonial animals would forever be colonial animals. Take wolves for example. Their habitual nature won�t be changed. However, these demonic beasts are not the same kind, and they are not supposed to take actions together. Some hunters even witnessed them fighting with each other before.�

Demonic beasts were often mutated. They had a burning desire to hunt, were prone to be infuriated and did not know how to avoid risks. In a sense, they had lower intelligence than beasts.

Roland carefully observed for a while, finding different sizes and species of beasts, including demonic wolves and demonic bison. Roland thought it didn�t mean that they knew the importance of collective actions.

Because they were still guided by the barriers and traps furnished by Iron Axe. All the beasts had been gradually getting close to the front of the city wall.

Van�er was so nervous that his wet palms could not grip his gun tightly. While nobody was noticing, he secretly wiped the sweat using his clothes.

The hunters who were responsible for observation repeatedly said, �Relax and take a deep breath.� Van�er did as what the hunters said over and over. However, his could not cease to be nervous because he had heard so many rumors about how fierce the demonic beasts were for the past ten years when he lived in the Western Region. Since the start of Months of Demons, the Hunter Squad had killed some scattered demonic beasts under the city wall, which had eased his fear for them a little and he had thought he could be brave enough to face the fierce beasts. The fact was, he was not that brave.

Being picked out by His Highness to be Deputy Force Commander of the Spear Squad, Van�er tried to keep his expression calm, maintaining the appearance of an armed guard.

The beasts were getting closer to Van�er and he could recognize what they looked like. At the head of the beasts was a demonic bison, whose two shiny black embolons were as thick as his arms. Its fur was just like a cloak, fully covering its body. Van�er felt the ground was quaking while the demonic bison was about 70 meters away from the city wall. He licked his dried lips, waiting for the �thrust� order from the hunters.

A loud noise was heard.

The demonic beast did not slow down and directly ran into the city wall, shattering its brain and splashing its black blood.

Before Van�er could catch his breath, two demonic wolves swooped down.

�Stab!�

Hearing the order from the hunters, Van�er subconsciously raised his gun and tried to stab the wolves even though they were not in his attack range. The effect was not as good as they trained: Some thrust their guns immediately after the wolves jumped up, and some failed to react in time after receiving the order.

As a consequence, there was only one demonic wolf being pushed back, while another one fell down on the top of the wall.

�Stay in formation!� the hunters shouted loudly.

Although he was wondering which side the demonic beast would attack, Van�er still remembered what Iron Axe had warned them. When you focused on the things behind you, the danger would come from the front. He kept closely staring at the oncoming beasts, holding fast to his gun.

The Hunter Squad was obviously more experienced than the Spear Squad.

Before the demonic wolf fell down, the hunters had pointed their machetes at the beast. Iron Axe was pretty nimble; he directly dashed to the beast, smashed at its waist with his gunstock and then watched it roll a few circles in the air.

The demonic beasts were great in both physical stamina and defensive ability. Thus, such attack would not cause it too much damage. Alter falling down, the beast got up instantly and showed its sharp fangs.

Iron Axe had already pointed his gun to its forehead.

Then came a gunshot!

The skull of the demonic beast flew into the air and its body retreated back, collapsing and trembling.

�The damn beast was dead now. You need to continue keeping your position.�

�Ah, my stomach.� Someone was screaming.

Van�er glanced at him from the corner of his eye and saw a member of the platoon team sitting beside the city wall, hands stained with blood.

�His tharm was out!�

�It was scratched by the claws of demonic wolves.�

�Please help me��

�Damn it! Bind up with a cloth!�

The scene was chaotic. A few demonic boars with rough skin rushed at the city wall and were hit by crossbows of the hunters.

�Calm down!� Roland shouted loudly. He was blocked by Nightingale just now and arrived at this moment, �Don�t you remember what to do if someone get hurt during the training? Follow the rules!�

What prince said reminded Van�er of his responsibility. As Deputy Force Commander of the city wall�s defense team, there should be someone organizing the rescue when there was an injury.

He named his two teammates and said, �You take him to the hospital quickly!�

According to his previous experience, there was no chance that this man could survive. His Highness, instead, considered it to be more important to follow the orders and regulations, especially for the member of the Militia.

After the wounded were carried away, the order was restored on the city wall. The demonic beasts seemed to be of numerous quantities, only a few could impose threats on the people atop the city wall.

The Hunter Squad shot the left demonic beasts one by one and Van�er eventually took a deep breath. He felt he had use up all of his energy during this half an hour�s battle.

At this moment, the hunters on the alert in the watchtower of the city wall shouted again, �My gosh, what�s that��

Van�er also saw it.

Although it was a long distance from the city wall, it must be a buster from its silhouette. Van�er firmly believed that it would be larger than ten cattle together.

Only Iron Axe recognized what that monster was at once.

He sucked in a breath. There was no doubt that it was a demonic hybrid and that this would bring them big troubles.

Roland could not believe his eyes. [What the hell is this? If the mutation of demonic beasts is at least biologically sensible, this monster is so incredible that it seems to have come out of a horror film.]

From a distance, it looked like a gigantic tortoise with two heads. Upon closer inspection, it turned out to have two wolf heads.

[Is this the guinea pig of Dr. Frankenstein?] Roland thought to himself. The gigantic demonic beast was as high as the city wall and almost six meters long, with six short and thick feet in the shape of rhinoceros� legs. The size of each leg was equal to that of an adult human�s body. As for its heads, the two wolf heads were unlike those of the common two-headed monsters in films, which either let out howls in turn or snapped at each other. Instead, the two heads sank low, with their eyes dimmed and their movements like zombies.

The most eye-catching thing about it was the shell on its back. The shell�s surface had a dim grayish brown color and was covered with moss. With one glance one could tell that it was incredibly hard. This shell was similar to that of a tortoise, it covered the monster from head to tail. If the monster could retreat into its shell like a tortoise, it would definitely be hard to kill it.

But Roland was not worried since a demonic beast that moved so slow was destined to be a target. Even if firearms could not penetrate its shell, it would be easy to hit a wolf head outside the shell. If it hid in the shell, they could blow it with dynamite.

�Your Highness, this is a demonic hybrid.� Iron Axe approached him with a grave face. �Now I understand why there has been a collective action of demonic beasts of different species. They were all driven by this demonic hybrid.�

[Just like a lion that drives a herd of sheep?�] Roland thought and nodded. �This one is rather different from the one you saw last time.�

�It�s also the first time that I�ve ever seen a demonic hybrid of this kind. Though it looks clumsy, you shouldn�t underestimate it. Any of the demonic hybrids would be hard to tackle.�

�It�s almost within the range,� Roland said, �and let the archers try first.�

It snowed lightly, while the wind blew rather unpredictably from the northwest. The weather was not good for archery. But the two huntsmen chosen by Iron Axe seemed confident enough.

They ascended the lookout tower and shot their arrows according to their judgement of the instantaneous wind direction.

The two arrows behaved like a pair of eyes. After they rose to a vertex, under the influence of both wind and gravity, they fell and landed almost vertically on the targeted shell.

Just as expected, the arrows were repelled and this action even sounded off an attention tone like a game in Roland�s mind.

The two huntsmen continued to shoot their arrows calmly for another two rounds.

The last round was successful because the arrows landed at the anterior of the monster. One arrow landed right onto a wolf head, while the other stuck into the neck of its target.

However, it did not screech angrily or increase its attacking speed. It stopped for a moment, and then hid its heads and feet into the shell while moving on.

This incident baffled everyone.

The beast looked then like a tank with its chassis lowered. The ridge of the shell almost touched the ground. In this way, even the best archer could not shoot their arrows into its body.

�Use flintlock.� Roland commanded.

Now the target was about 17 meters away from the city wall. Even a flintlock without rifling could not miss it.

Carter and Iron Axe came to the parapet quickly, mounted their guns, aimed, and fired.

While the smoke was dispersing, Roland could see clearly how the bullets hit the shell and made tiny fragments sputter. A small section of the shell cracked. Yet the demonic hybrid was unaffected and maintained its speed.

[The hardness of the shell still corresponds with that of a carbon-based organism,] he thought to himself. It was a pity that the lead bullets were too soft and prone to deformation. They were unfit to penetrate the thick shell. It would be unrealistic to attempt to shatter the hybrid�s shell with these four guns. They would have to resort to the explosive packages.

Iron Axe made the same judgement like the prince. He commanded Deputy Force Commander of the Spear Squad to carry the dynamite, while the beast was already butting the city wall. When it found it could no longer advance, its shell began to vibrate with such an unbelievable speed and hit the wall with high frequency like a rotary hammer. Stone chips instantly splattered and several cracks spread quickly along the weak spots.

The rubble wall had a high compressive capability, but yet its tensile and shearing strengths were extremely low. To be more specific, it was almost defenseless against vibration. The people on the city wall all felt it. Soon, a loud friction noise pierced the ears of everyone and informed them that the hybrid�s shell had cut a slit into the wall.

Yet the crashing did not stop. The beast moved again until the whole anterior of its body was embedded into the city wall.

The Militia fled from the part of the city wall that was covered with cracks, while the invisible Nightingale carried the prince in her arms and jumped from the wall�if anyone had stared at the prince at that moment, he would find the prince had descended like an apparition.

When Van�er arrived carefully with a pack of dynamite, he found that the middle part of the city wall had an almost three-meter-wide opening. The demonic beast who had crossed the wall then stopped vibrating and continued to advance with its previous speed.

�Hurry up!� Iron Axe said loudly, �Light the dynamite and place it under the beast!�

Though his hands were shaking, Van�er retained the clearness of mind. He remembered every detail of the training about how to use an explosive package. Unlike the packages used in training, each of these explosive packages contained less dynamite and was sealed with wooden planks. Fragments of mining waste were stuffed between the packages and planks. Its firing equipment was also optimized with an extractor of flint and copper wire. When this part failed, at the end of the package there was still a normal fuse. He tore the cloth soaked with oil at the outermost layer in a flurry and pulled at the copper wire with all his strength. From the wooden box there soon came a short buzzing sound. Then smoke appeared�that was a sign it had been successfully lit.

The fuse that had been soaked in salt burned rather slowly and would take about 30 seconds to burn. The world turned quiet for Van�er when he saw the white smoke that came out of the box. He had seen how powerful this thing could be. If it exploded in his hand, not even a fragment of his corpse would remain.

27 seconds.

Van�er listened to his pumping heart and silently counted. He walked up to the demonic beast and placed the lighted explosive package on its path.

15 seconds.

Then it crushed the package. Nothing could stop its advancing movement.

9 seconds.

Van�er turned around and ran.

6 seconds.

3 seconds�

There came a boom. Van�er felt the ground beneath his feet vibrated. Then the world continued its hustle and bustle.

He turned and saw white airflow gush from beneath the shell�it was the snow on the ground that had been blown up by the explosion and looked like a misty flower. The demonic beast stopped advancing at last, as if it was unable to withstand the burden it was carrying. Its gigantic shell fell rumbling to the ground. Black blood gushed out from beneath the shell and soaked the ground.

�Ooh��

There was a burst of cheer in the crowd.

Van�er fell and sat on the ground. Only then did he realize that cold sweat had soaked through his clothes.

[It had finally ended.]

When everyone thought so, the horn sounded loudly again on the border.

Another herd of demonic beasts emerged from the horizon and came toward Border Town.

�Do you feel better?�

Anna patted Nana on the back. She also felt like throwing up, but she restrained herself.

A wounded man was brought to them and while he was still conscious, he repeated, �Save me, save me�� The despair and plea in his eyes was heart-wrenching to watch. When she saw the bowel hanging out of his body, Nana vomited.

Even so, she made up her mind to complete the healing. After Brian placed the bowel back to the wounded man�s body, Nana reached out her hand and healed the wound with her eyes closed.

�Um�� The little girl seemed a little dispirited. She leaned on Anna and said softly, �Today is the first time I heard the sound of the horn. Did His Highness get into trouble?�

�I don�t know.� Anna shook her head. She wanted to take a look at the city wall so much. But she was also worried that she might only make things more troublesome for Roland. She was now a little envious of Nightingale�s power of invisibility, for that power would make going out very convenient.

At that time, there was a booming sound from the city wall. Everyone felt a slight vibration.

Brian stood up and walked to and fro impatiently in the room.

�Take it easy, lad.� Baron Pine was wiping his sword. �Losing patience before going to the battlefield would only make bad things worse. Not to mention, now things are still far from bad.�

�I�m sorry, Your Excellency,� Brian answered. �I just can�t calm down. I just don�t want to sit here wasting my time while others are fighting on the city wall at the cost of their lives. Defending this little town should have been my duty.�

�Perhaps.� Pine shrugged his shoulders. �But the duty of defending the town doesn�t belong to you alone. I�ve heard that His Highness will grant you the title of knighthood. Then you should understand that a knight�s foremost duty is loyalty. If he asked you to protect Anna, then it would be your duty to obey.�

�You�re right.� Brian returned to his seat after a moment�s hesitation.

But soon, they heard the second horn blow�more desperate than the first and rumbling like a thunder in everyone�s heart.

Pine frowned.

�Anna!� Nana cried out in surprise.

When he turned his head, he saw the witch walking directly to the door. Brian caught up and stood in front of her.

�Didn�t you say that you wanted to defend the city wall? Now it�s time,� Anna said calmly. �As long as you come with me, you aren�t disobeying the order of His Highness.�

Brian became bewildered. He turned his gaze to Pine.

[That was clever,] the Baron thought to himself. [What she said makes sense. The prince didn�t make it a rule that she should only stay at the hospital. According to Nana, she can summon fire. If things are really urgent, the participation of a witch might turn the situation around.]

Finishing his thought, he nodded. �Take care of her.�

�Yes, I will,� Brian became spirited instantly and replied cheerfully.

Seeing the two leaving, Nana asked, �Father, will you go to the battlefield?�

�My battlefield is right here, my sweet one.� The baron smiled. �Whether they�re demonic beasts or demons, I�ll never let them hurt you.�

The city wall was not far from the hospital. Anna and Brian ran eastward on the flagstone pavement along the wall. When they came to the central lookout tower, they realized things had escalated for the worse.

The city wall had then a huge opening. Roland�s guards were defending the opening with shields, but still, a few of them were knocked down. Among the demonic beasts, there was one with the look of a boar that was particularly ferocious. The guards at the front who got hit were almost sent flying with their shields.

�Hey, it�s dangerous here. You should leave right now!� Someone warned when he saw Anna in her strange outfit.

Anna acted as if she had heard nothing. She walked directly to the opening. When the demonic beast made its way through the crowd, it turned and headed for Anna. Brian the guard came to the side speedily, lowered his body and waved his sword horizontally�the frenetic beast did not dodge, and one of its forelegs hit the blade and sent the sword flying, while the force of its own body weight severed the leg.

It fell down shrieking and struggled like a fish out of water. No one dared to come close. Anna walked near it and placed her hands on the ground. Soon fire rose from under its body and quickly burned it into charcoal.

Roland also noticed the flame that emerged all of a sudden. When he found that it was Anna who did it, his heart almost leaped out of his chest.

That was never in his plan!

He had planned to make Nana win the affection of the Militia first. After most of the people had accepted witches as one of them, he would slowly make Anna known to them.

But now it was too late. He said immediately to Nightingale, �Pay no more attention to me now. Protect her first!�

[No harm must come to Anna. She�s the key in the development of industrialization. If she was injured, the loss would be immeasurable,] thought Roland.

�Got it,� Nightingale replied. �Take care of yourself as well.�

Anna walked to the opening. Roland�s guards made way for her since they had all seen this girl in the strange outfit many times. She stood right in a wall of shields, stretching her arms out horizontally. Flames grew from her hand like vines and climbed onto the surface of the city wall where the opening lay.

Everyone who saw this wonderful scene was dumbfounded. They could not believe their eyes when they saw a wall of flame rise unhurriedly and fill the opening in the city wall. This, however, could not be an illusion, because the high temperature of the flame made the guards step back involuntarily and the snow around melted instantly, giving rise to dense white mist.

The demonic beast also felt the heat of the flame wall. They fled from it, though a few still darted into the flame before they soon burned in it.

�Everyone, get to the top of the city wall!� Roland grabbed the chance and shouted, �Spear Squad, resume your formation! Hunter Squad, fire!�

After saying this he grabbed Carter�s flintlock and ascended the wall, shooting at the demonic beasts which had no way out.

The prince�s action inspired everyone. After all, in this era, the noble and the royal members hardly fought in the front. When Prince Roland chose to fight with the Militia whom he had selected from the common people, it seemed inspiring indeed.

Everyone shouted �Defend Border Town! Fight for His Highness� and resumed the defensive formation as if the city wall had never been damaged.

The fight lasted till dusk. There was eventually no more demonic beasts alive in front of the city wall.

The flame gradually dimmed and vanished. Anna wiped the dampness from her forehead and walked out of the opening.

Then Roland saw an incredible scene.

The guards all touched their chest and nodded respectfully to her. The Militia, as if affected by the guards, watched her quietly. No one shouted �demon� or �sorceress�. Peace prevailed at the moment on the border.

An unknown power was dreadful indeed. But when the owner of it stood by the people�s side and fought against the evil with them, trust and gratitude would gradually replace fear.

Roland tried to suppress his excitement and walked over to Anna, only to find her pale and staggering. It seemed she would collapse any minute.

�Are you okay?� He held the maiden�s shoulders worryingly, while the latter gave a faint smile, passed out and fell in his arms.

Through the narrow and high window on veranda, the setting sun shone its scarlet light on the floor and imprinted vermilion strips on the wall.

In the whole kingdom, there were only a few places left, where one could still see sunsets, and Port of Clearwater was one of them. It was rumored that the Months of Demons in which heavy snows and storms prevailed had almost no influence on this place. Apart from the fact that Blacksail Fleet couldn�t sail forth from the harbor, the whole city was as busy as usual.

The lord of this harbor city, Garcia Wimbledon, was sitting at the table below the window and reading the letter in her hand attentively. Her gray hair had a tinge of gold in the setting sun. And the play of shadow and light on her face made her features even sharper, lending it even more charm and audacity.

Ryan had stood beside her for quite a while.

Though the letter had occupied the queen longer than usual, Ryan chose to wait quietly aside, for he doesn�t want to be the one who disturbs the peace in this room.

At last, Garcia let out a sigh and put down the letter.

�My father died.�

Ryan was dazed for a moment until he said: �What?�

�My father, Ayling Wimbledon, the King of the Kingdom of Graycastle, has died.�

She seldom repeated what she had said, he thought to himself. She would have ignored his question if she had reacted according to her usual manner. But couldn�t she be joking? Could the king really be dead?

��� Ryan opened his mouth in attempt to comfort her, but his words turned to a question: �how did he die?�

Fortunately, Garcia took no notice of all this psychological activity � she was Princess Garcia, Lord of the Port of Clearwater, the Supreme Commander of Blacksail Fleet, and cared for no one�s comforting, �The letter said, it was my brother Gerald who killed the father and was later caught by the guards. He didn�t commit suicide to escape punishment, so the Hand of the King and a few other ministers made him go through a public trial and sentenced him to decapitation.�

�This couldn�t be the case,� replied Ryan subconsciously.

�Of course this couldn�t be the case,� said Garcia impassively, �My brother was stupid, but not stupid enough to court his own death. Without someone else�s instigation, he couldn�t have done this.�

�Did someone set him up?�

�Let me guess�� Princess Garcia closed her eyes in contemplation, �Maybe someone made a detailed proposal to him, saying that they could help him to take the throne � to bring assassins into the King�s City is impossible unless careful arrangements are made, including killing, swapping, and buying off personal. But that has never been what Gerald is good at, or rather, he doesn�t care to deal with these trifles. So it�s not hard to conclude that the ones who made the arrangements had all his trust, yet betrayed him at the last moment.�

Ryan didn�t reply, for all was just speculation. How things happened no longer mattered. It was the result that mattered the most. He believed that Princess Garcia was of the same opinion.

As expected, Garcia opened her eyes and continued, �There were so many stupid men around my big brother, every one of them a muscular beast. No wonder they were all duped. It was only�� Her voice was then tinged with anger, �Timothy�s ways were far too cruel.�

�Are you saying that it was Timothy Wimbledon who did this?�

�Who knows Gerald better than he does? Who will benefit the most from this state of affairs?� Garcia said, knocking her fingers unconsciously on the table, �A blind man can see that! But he didn�t have to do this, for he had been father�s favorite.�

Ryan realized that Her Highness was upset. It was unusual for her to put on such an expression. Much as she complained about King Wimbledon III�s excessive partiality, she would have never wanted her father to have such an end.

Ryan could understand her feelings more or less. It was exactly how the younger generation felt towards the elder in a big family � the elders are like a mountain to cross, arousing respect, awe and loathing. If she had been right and Prince Timothy had done all this, then the prince could be called cruel.

�But� why did he have to do this?�

�Because he was afraid of me,� Garcia took a deep breath and seemed to be gathering herself together, saying �He was afraid of the Blacksail Fleet.�

Seeing that Ryan didn�t reply, she continued to explain: �Timothy have informers in the Port of Clearwater. There�s nothing strange about that, just like I have arrange informers in Valencia and King�s City. When he knew about the existence of Blacksail Fleet, he could easily guess what was my next plan. However, Valencia doesn�t have an army that can resist Blacksail Fleet. So he used the most stupid way, making Gerald his stepping stone to get what he wants.�

�Do you mean that he wants an army?�

�He wants the crown,� said Garcia, �When Gerald dies, he will be the first in line of succession. Now that my father had died, he must have been on the way to King�s City.� �As long as Timothy becomes Wimbledon IV, he can muster the forces of feudatory and army beyond the limit of domains,� She continued, shaking her head, �But as I have said, he didn�t have to do this as father�s favorite son.�

�Isn�t this the worst situation?� Ryan said worriedly, �What if Prince Timothy is successfully crowned, declares that Royal Decree on the Selection of Crown Prince has come to an end, and then summons you to King�s City?�

Garcia replied scornfully: �This step of his was much too blunt. My father�s partiality doesn�t entail the support from most ministers. The murder of the king is no trivial matter � though Timothy has shifted the blame to Gerald, he could only fool the commoners. It would take him a long time before he could seize the power of Kingdom of Graycastle completely. So�� She turned to look at Ryan, �I may have to change my plan a little.�

Ryan at once went down on one knee and said: �I�m all at your service.�

Garcia stood up and walked to the window, her back to Ryan, �He would take on me as soon as he were crowned. But what he could think of could only be ordering Joey Kohl, Duke of the Southern Territory, to exert military pressure on me. Yet the latter would probably take the mourning of the latest king as an excuse to hold back his troops � the old man�s too sly to take any risks. The most Joey Kohl would do might be mustering his feudatories and making a show of it next to the border Port of Clearwater.� Princess Garcia made a little pause, �But these possible movements might bring unnecessary troubles to us, so we shall sail forth tomorrow.�

�Sail forth? Your Highness, would you want to��

�As it lies at the heart of the kingdom, Eagle City has been a city almost without defense. It is possible to arrive at Town of Clear Spring by the tributary of Sanwan River, and from there one can reach Eagle City within a day. After taking over Joe�s city, the whole Southern Territory will be in my command. There will be such an interesting time lag: when he sits on the throne and wants to command Joey, he will find that the whole Southern Territory has been seized by m. I�d love to see his face then.�

�But as you have said, King Wimbledon III has just passed away. In this way ��

�What then? Shall I shed tears first?� Garcia turned, while the setting sun on the sea surface cloaked her with magenta gossamer. Her face was hidden in the dark, yet there was still some flickering light in her eyes. �Her eyes are so firm,� Ryan thought, �though there could be anger or pain in them, but there should be no place for sadness.�

Sadness is not for Her Highness.

�No, you shouldn�t,� he answered earnestly.

Garcia nodded satisfactorily, �Go and gather the captains here for me. Now that Timothy wouldn�t wait until five years later, I�d certainly not disappoint him. The whole Southern Territory will be declared independent, after I seize the Eagle City.�

�It doesn�t� matter to her if it was done by Timothy,� Ryan thought, �she can always find her way in the most turbulent situation and head for her goal once a decision is made. This is where her charm lies and the reason why I�ve followed her.�

�I�ll do as you bid, Your Highness�No,� Ryan answered respectfully, �Your Majesty the Queen.�

Roland knocked on the door and pushed it open after he heard Nightingale�s consent.

The heavy drapes hung in the room would only be pulled apart in the early morning and evening, to let in some fresh air. At other times they were down for warmth and shade.

The only source of light came from the two candle stands at the end of the bed. The candles burned in silence and projected two crossing shadows on the objects in the room.

He walked to the bed and watched the still unconscious girl buried in soft pillows and quilts. He let out a little sigh.

�Everything is okay at the border front line?� Nightingale came to hand him a glass of warm water.

�Everything has gone on well.� Roland took a sip and handed the glass back to her. �After that day we didn�t encounter any more large groups of demonic beasts. When the injured Militia members returned to the army, they were� inspired.�

�What about the opening in the city wall?�

�Karl moved the shell of that hybrid demonic beast to the damaged spot by rolling logs, and attached it to the city wall with hangers and winches.� Roland knew that Nightingale was trying to divert his attention to keep him from worrying too much. But ever since he stepped into the room, all his attention could not help but be on the girl in slumber.

The person who contributed the most to the last victory against the demonic beasts was Anna. If she had not blocked the damaged spot on the city wall with her flames, what would become of the battle was hardly imaginable.

But she collapsed in his arms and had not woken up since.

�It�s been a week,� Roland said softly.

Theoretically speaking, if someone was in a coma and did not eat, drink or get nutrition through other means (for example, by injection) in more than a week, the body function would then deteriorate until the brain died gradually in the process. But Anna did not show any signs of serious illness or even weakness�her look was at least much better than when she fainted off. Her cheeks were rosy. Her breath was smooth. The temperature one felt by touching her forehead was normal. All indicated that Anna was healthy, yet� unable to wake up.

�It�s also the first time that I�m faced with such a situation.� Nightingale, who stood aside, shook her head and said, �The magic in her has been emptied during the battle. But now it�s almost saturated and even thicker than before. If my estimation is right, she�ll have her Day of Adulthood this middle night.

�Do you mean that she�ll come to adulthood in the coma?�

�No, she might die in the coma.� Nightingale spoke frankly, �One has to undergo the pain on the Day of Adulthood with the utmost willpower. As soon as one gives up resisting the pain, the magic power will bite a witch�s body and destroy it irreversibly.�

Roland took a chair and sat beside the bed. �However, I remember you told me that when Demonic Torture happens, no matter how painful it is, one will retain clear consciousness until one either overcomes this crisis or dies.�

�Yes, indeed. In the Witch Cooperation Association, some witch had hoped to pass the Demonic Torture in a coma. It was not even Day of Adulthood pains� but less severe pains that happened once a year.� Nightingale hesitated for a moment, and then said, �She sank into unconsciousness with the aid of alchemical potion, but that attempt was meaningless� The magic power bit her body and made her awake yet defenseless.�

�Does the pain increase gradually?�

�No. When the time comes, the pain strikes like a thunder. But as for how long the pain lasts, it varies from one person to another. My sister was not weak. It was only�� Her voice lowered.

Roland understood what she meant. The uncertainty was a trial in itself as one did not know how long one had persisted, and how much longer one would still have to persist�this felt like a lonely boat in the stormy sea, thereby making one lose hope even more quickly.

In the silence, he felt a hand upon his shoulder.

�I�ve seen too many deaths in my many years of vagrancy. The witches have been treated like animals�hanged, burned or tortured to death by the noble who take pleasure in their pains. The fortunate witches that survived could only distance themselves from the crowd and live in isolation, while Holy Mountain, a place that is nowhere to be found, serves as a feeble hope for them.� Nightingale�s voice became softer than usual. �But Anna is different. It�s the first time that I�ve seen someone outside the Witch Cooperation Association who cares so much for the witches. She�s needed, respected and treated like a normal person� Your Highness, even if Anna doesn�t come to adulthood successfully, she has found her own Holy Mountain.�

But this would not be the ending that he wanted. Roland closed his eyes and recalled the first time he met her.

Her feet were bare and her clothes were ragged, but yet she did not show any fear in a prisoner�s cage. Her eyes were like unsullied lakes, serene and clear.

She was the flame, yet not so flippant like the flames.

Pictures flashed quickly in his mind.

�Now that I�ve satisfied your curiosity, Sir, could you kill me now?�

�I�ve never used my power to hurt anyone.�

�I only hope to stay by your side, Your Highness. That�s all.�

�The demonic torture won�t kill me. I�ll beat it.�

�What are you thinking of? I�m not going anywhere.�

�

Roland suppressed his emotions and said softly, �I�ll be at her side until the last moment.�

�Me, too, and� thank you.�

After dinner, Nana came as well. When she heard that Anna would come to adulthood, she insisted on staying. Roland had to arrange a room on the second floor for Tigui Pine who had accompanied her.

So just like that, Roland and the other two witches sat by the bed and waited quietly for midnight to arrive.

Nightingale and Nana had to undergo the demonic torture in this winter as well. Fortunately, the awakening time was different for every witch. Otherwise, Roland thought he could not have acted so calmly if the three witches had to undergo their trials of life and death all at the same time.

There was no belfry in the little town. The passing of time became unnoticeable in the dimly lit room. From time to time there was a shrieking sound of the wind current that passed through the window gap. Just when Roland began to feel drowsy, Nightingale observed. �It�s started.�

Only she could see the magic in Anna that then became active. The green flame became thicker and thicker, and its center turned from bright to dark. The restless magic gradually converged to the center, as if dragged by something. It struggled and seethed, but yet its effort was in vain.

Roland did not see this change, but he still felt that something was different.

The flames of the candles flickered, though there was no wind in the room at the time. The flames became darker and darker as if devoured by the shadows around. Then the color of the flame changed from red to green.

He turned his gaze to the girl in bed. Anna was still in slumber without the slightest change of expression on her face, as if nothing in the room that happened was relevant to her.

Then the candlelight became almost invisible�the flame was not out, but the green part of the flame was nibbling away at the red part until all light vanished and darkness prevailed.

But soon light returned to the room, while the flames of the candles remained pure green. In the green light, the three looked at one another in confusion.

Then Anna�s groan pulled their attention back to her.

She slowly opened her eyes.

�Anna�� Roland was in a daze and thought, [Is she waking up?]

The girl blinked and smiled, and then reached out her right palm to the prince.

Green flame leaped from her palm and burned quietly.

Roland understood her intuitively. He placed his finger into the flame after a second�s hesitation, but the expected burning pain did not come. Instead, what he felt was only gentleness and warmth, as if he had placed his finger in lukewarm water.

The next day after Anna woke up, Nightingale came to bid farewell to Roland.

�Though we don�t know why, Anna is probably the first witch to have spent the Day of Awakening without pain,� Nightingale said excitedly before leaving. Having lived with Roland for a long time, she got used to the word �awakening� to describe the transformation of witches. �I�ll bring my sisters in the Witch Cooperation Association to Border Town. I hope you�ll accept them, just as you have accepted Anna.�

That was exactly what Roland prayed for. Anna�s ability alone helped the town to improve the hot forging process so that the town could see the dawn of the Industrial Age, let alone the ability of a bunch of witches? Of course, considering Nightingale�s safety, he asked her to stay, hoping that she could go to the Impassable Mountain Range after the Months of Demons.

But Nightingale was obviously too eager to wait. �Many of my sisters will face the difficult period during the winter. If I could tell them the news earlier, maybe more of them can survive the awakening. Don�t worry, few demonic beasts can sense my whereabouts.�

�Then, when is your Day of Awakening?� Roland finally asked.

Nightingale mounted her horse and said, �The end of the winter or early spring.� She waved to Roland and rode off. �Don�t worry about me. That pain becomes lighter and lighter these years.�

Her reply made Roland lost in thoughts.

He had been thinking about the reason why Anna got through the Day of Awakening successfully. After all, Anna said after awakening that she did not feel the slightest pain, which was a total reversal of Nightingale�s notion��A witch gains her power from the demon, and thus she is tainted and evil.� Such notions were rooted in people�s mind, as they saw the witches would suffer terrible pain on the Day of Awakening. And when the witches died in the awakening, their blood and flesh would be dried and their skin would be burnt, which became the irrefutable evidence of their depravity.

However, Roland never believed in that notion.

He had probed the memory of the real Prince Roland, but yet failed to find any evidence of the existence of God or demon. Since power was not endowed by God, then it should not be regarded as a standard to distinguish between good and evil. In fact, even if the gods existed and frequently interfered in the secular world, believers should be endowed with power after they chose their camp, and not the other way around.

According to the description of Nightingale, the magic power gathered in the witches� body. Then was it possible that the vessel was damaged because the magic power could not be released? Roland thought it was quite possible, as the witches, faced with most people�s hostility and oppression, had to hide their ability and pretend to be normal. Therefore, they had few opportunities to use their magic power before they reached their adulthood.

Of course, Roland would not think that his castle happened to be a wonderland. He had already talked to Anna, knowing that she experienced insufferable pain before. If anything was different during this year, then it was the fact she used her ability almost every day since she came to the castle.

And what Nightingale said before she left implicitly confirmed his assumption�Nightingale often used her ability of invisibility as it was hard to be noticed, and she had also been forced to train her ability; what�s more, she could use her ability without any misgivings now. And that was why the bite on the Day of Awakening had little effect on her.

After Roland returned to the castle, he immediately asked Nana to strengthen her training. If no one was hurt while defending the town, she would have to heal a variety of small animals. If the assumption was proved through Nana�s training, it would have an earth-shattering effect on the witch community, as the curse of demon would change into the endowment of God. As long as he could ensure that his domain was safe and open to the witches, they would come here endlessly.

Anyhow, everything got back on track after this incident.

Roland urged the production of Steam Engine II, which could also help Anna to familiarize herself with the new ability.

Another shed was put up in the castle backyard, but to shelter snow this time. He felt that it would be safer to build his experimental base in his own territory.

According to what Nightingale said, a witch�s ability would be stable in her adulthood, and she might generate new derivative skill. Though he had not seen Anna�s new skill yet, her way of controlling flame was completely different now.

No, whether it could be called as a flame was uncertain now, Roland thought. If the former flame could be barely understood with common sense, the green flame now was utterly unexplainable.

He named it as �Heart Fire�.

Because it could exist away from Anna, and change its shape at Anna�s will, just as what she was doing now.

A flicker of flame stood on the iron plate two meters away from her, swinging slightly back and forth, as if it was saluting. But Roland knew that it was controlled by Anna. Normally, it kept a temperature close to that of the body; once Anna wanted to heat it up, it would instantly rise to a higher temperature and the color would change from green to dark green. Similarly, it could also change into a large cluster of flames; in addition, it could move at a slow speed.

Unfortunately, it could not be far away from Anna; through repeated testing, it was confirmed that the Heart Fire would disappear if it was five meters or more away from Anna.

Another feature of Heart Fire was that Anna could summon a lot of flames, though she could barely control two flames simultaneously until now.

Recently the border was quite calm. Demonic beasts still appeared outside the wall, but without demonic hybrids, it was hard for them to break through the defense line. As Roland said, the beasts became stronger and quicker, but they were just beasts. The demonic beasts were led to the middle section of the wall, so that the Militia of about 100 soldiers could cope with the situation.

So in addition to the daily routine inspection, Roland spent a lot of time on construction.

He had set aside a site on the south of the castle, and planned to build houses on it for the arriving witches. As the investor of the project, he appointed Karl to be in charge to build a number of two-story brick houses. A reasonable and pleasing layout, easy entrance and exit, convenient drainage system and other issues had to be taken into consideration, as he strove to create a well-planned neighborhood.

He even considered distributing the witches to live in the old and new area of the town, so that they could live together with the common residents. Later he thought it over and deserted the plan. That might be helpful to speed up the common residents� understanding of the witches, but it might cause irreparable consequences, before the misunderstanding was cleared up. After all, the different view of witches only existed within the Militia right now.

What�s more, Roland could not guarantee that all of the witches brought by Nightingale would be pure and harmless�most of them had suffered the pain and torture of the world, so Roland was afraid they were much more sophisticated. After all, witches like Anna and Nana were rare.

Therefore, if the witches lived together, it was more convenient for centralized management. Relevant rules and regulations had to be drawn up before their arrival. Roland had no experience to refer to. After all, he was neither the personnel of Superpower Office of National Security Agency, nor was he the founder of the Avengers, how could he know how to manage a group of people with super powers! He had to work out a temporary system by referring to the personnel management system used in companies, and planned to modify it slowly while putting it into practice.

Of course, Roland knew that this plan was full of flaws. Anyhow, as a pioneer, who else could he rely on? If he chose to hide and be conservative in Border Town, maybe he could touch the threshold of industrialization in decades. But being a mortal man, how many decades could he afford?

If he wanted to lead the town to the next era and be the pioneer of the reform, he had to have an adventurous spirit.

Just when he was writing his thoughts on the parchment, Barov opened the door and walked in.

Shaking the snow off his coat and saluting to the prince, Barov said, �Your Highness, a messenger of Longsong Stronghold has come.�

Petrov never thought that he would return to Border Town so soon.

He was unwilling to leave his warm house in such a cold winter, especially when the demonic beasts were raging on the continent. Nevertheless, Duke Ryan designated him to place the tricky document in the hands of Prince Roland.

Certainly, he knew what was said in the document�in fact, the entire nobility of Graycastle was discussing the alarming news: the king died in a murder and the murderer was Gerald Wimbledon, the king�s eldest son. Subsequently, the king�s second son rushed to the king�s city and declared that he would succeed to the throne as the second-in-line, since the kingdom could not survive without a king.

However, his action was not accepted by all. It was claimed that Gerald�s trial was rather strange, as he was exposed only a few times during the whole interrogation, with his mouth sealed and his hands tightly bound. Therefore, some people were hoping to investigate the murder thoroughly and then decide who should inherit the throne.

Besides, it was rumored that Timothy Wimbledon, the 2nd Prince, was the man who pulled the strings behind the murder. As the real murderer of the king, he pretended to be sad, but could not wait to ascend the throne.

Regardless of the controversies, the 2nd Prince temporarily took over the position of the king, thanks to the full support of Prime Minister. At the same time, he issued recall orders to all his competitors�the battle for the throne had come to an end, and the princes and princesses, after receiving the orders, had to return to the king�s city before the end of the winter. The new king would confer domain and titles on them, based on their ruling of territories over the past six months.

Of course, Petrov could sense the eagerness behind the command.

Through this, Timothy Wimbledon could know his siblings� reaction and know whether he could sit on the throne firmly. If they chose to give up the battle for the throne and return to the king�s city, then Timothy Wimbledon would become the undisputed Wimbledon IV.

All the documents to Border Town would be transferred through Longsong Stronghold first. When Duke Ryan read the recall order, he was fairly disdainful of it. The last king had controlled the lords well before he died; as for the 2nd Prince, his ascending to the throne was already controversial. Moreover, since Gerald was beheaded on the guillotine, it was highly doubtful that anyone would be willing to return to the king�s city.

Anyway, in the eyes of the six noble families in Longsong Stronghold, this command came at a good time.

About two months ago, Earl of the Elk Family made an unauthorized scheme, which made the duke unhappy, especially when he knew the scheme failed. The prince also gave a fierce response, and he directly sentenced Kihls Medde to be hanged. With this, both sides came to an open rupture.

The duke had originally planned to calm the troubled waters after the end of Months of Demons. But now with this document, he had a more legitimate option. After Roland Wimbledon returned to the king�s city, Border Town would naturally be owned by the duke again. And if the prince refused, the duke could force him to leave�in the name of the new king.

The duke did not care much about who would inherit the throne in the end.

But as a messenger, Petrov did not feel very comfortable. Last time he promised that he would bring back a new trade agreement, but the scheme of the Elk Family came first. Now he visited Border Town again, but he brought bad news again�whether it was the death of King Wimbledon III or the recall order of the new king, neither would be welcomed by Prince Roland, Petrov believed.

The sail to Border Town was quite smooth. As Kingdom of Graycastle lay in the south of the continent, the river did not freeze even in winter.

From time to time, Petrov looked outside the window. He did not see any people being starved to death or fleeing from the town, which indicated that Border Town did not fall to the demonic beasts.

That surprised him slightly. After all, he witnessed how the city wall was built when he visited Border Town last time. Truth be told, he had little confidence in the stone wall plastered by mud.

What he saw next surprised him more. A sailing ship with the banner of Willow Town slowly passed them on the right side of the river�he had seen such a scene before, but never in the Months of Demons! [Border Town is doing business, even when they are fighting against the demonic beasts? How could they resist the brutal beasts without summoning all miners to the defense line?] he thought.

Three days later, the ship arrived at the dock of Border Town.

The wooden dock was still old and shabby, but beside it, a simple wooden shed was newly built. Once the ship was ashore, two guards walked out from the shed, staring at every move of the boatmen.

Petrov immediately understood the meaning of setting sentries here.

Prince Roland apparently did not want anyone to leave the town secretly through the waterway.

Petrov jumped off the ship and showed his identity to the guard. Then a man brought a horse for him and accompanied him to the castle.

Just like last time, Prince Roland Wimbledon met him in the living room. What�s more, the prince ordered his attendant to prepare a sumptuous meal, although it was not the normal dinner time.

The attendants served grilled ham, dried fish slices, an unknown salad of wild vegetables, as well as butter bread, and vegetable soup that could be seen at any dinner party.

It seemed that the prince liked to talk business after dinner.

Petrov thought, while his hands were busy with the forks. After all, he had not had much of a chance to enjoy a good meal. Even his Honeysuckle Family, except having dinner with guests, would just eat potato and bread with bacon.

When the dinner was finished, the dessert was served. Petrov respectfully handed over the document.

Roland took the document and opened the sealing wax with his dining knife. He flattened the document and took a quick glance. Then he was stunned.

[The king was dead?]

Roland had no feeling toward his nominal father. He was already in Border Town when he woke up as Prince Roland, and he had never seen the king face to face, plus he only found complaints and resentment toward his father in Prince Roland�s memory. Because of this, he thought he was caught in an embarrassing situation�should he have a sorrowful look on his face?

He could sense it was a conspiracy when reading the following contents. [The eldest son murdered King Wimbledon III? The 2nd Prince, under his new authority as the new king, announced the end of the battle for the throne, and commanded all his siblings to return immediately to the king�s city?] He doubted that.

Roland coughed and raised his head, and caught the regretful look in Petrov�s eyes.

[So that�s it,] Roland thought, [Duke of Longsong Stronghold must be happy to see this. Whether I obey the order or not, I�m in a dilemma.]

[Instead of bringing the promised agreement, Petrov brought a piece of bad news which might cause my death. He must be feeling guilty at this moment,] Roland thought. He secretly smiled, folded the document again and said, �I got it.�

�Uh, Your Highness, what do you intend to��

�Even if I intend to leave, I have to wait until the end of the Months of Demons. If I leave, what will the people of Border Town do in the heavy snow?�

To someone else, Petrov would certainly say things like �Don�t worry, Stronghold will help you handle the situation�, or any other diplomatic words. However, faced with Prince Roland who he had only met twice, he could not speak so readily. For the first time, Petrov detested his own identity as a messenger. In the end he merely nodded. �I understand. Should I deliver a reply for you?�

Roland called the attendants to bring over a pen and paper. He soon wrote a document and covered it in sealing wax and his personal seal. Petrov glanced at the envelope when he got the document from Roland. It was clearly written to Timothy Wimbledon, the second Prince of Graycastle instead of King Wimbledon IV.

[He has showed his attitude,] Petrov thought.

Roland pushed open the door to his office, where Barov had been waiting for him for quite some time.

He tossed the document to Assistant Minister Barov, settled back in his chair and put his feet on his desk.

If outsiders had not been present, he would have wanted to hum a tune.

�Your Highness, please restrain your grief,� said Barov. He read the letter, frowning and frowned. �The king has unfortunately passed away; the first prince is the murderer. It is a tragedy. I don�t know what Your Highness intends to do next.�

�Gerald�s death was so peculiar. I want to see how Garcia and Tilly react before deciding,� said Roland, �but in any case, we should be taking precautions.�

Barov looked at the prince, waiting for him to continue.

�With this change in royal power, the king�s city may become turbulent. The first thing to do is to vacate your beloved ones and family members.� It was important to prevent the Second Prince from taking these people to threaten his personal ministers. Right now, Assistant Minister Barov was indispensable for maintaining the administrative and normal financial operation of Border Town. Roland sipped his tea and continued, �You, Carter, and your subordinates, need to write letters to your family members. I�ll entrust the guards to go to the king�s city with the letters and arrange shelter for them in other towns.�

�No need to come to Border Town?� Barov was not a fool. After 20 years of experience in politics, he immediately understood the prince�s deliberate intention.

�No.� Roland neither wished for the adversary to use the families to threaten his subordinates, nor did he want his subordinates to think he was trying to use the families to threaten them. So he chose a compromise, relocating them to other safer towns first. When things settled down, he could bring them to Border Town.

�I understand. Thank you for your concern, Your Highness.� Barov nodded his assent. Roland sighed with relief. He really had too few talented employees.

�And about the ore trade, the recent export of iron ore will be suspended. We�ll only sell raw gemstones to Willow Town,� he commanded. �I need to keep the iron ore for my own use.�

�This will reduce revenue, Your Highness.�

�But it won�t go down too much. The miners have found a new gemstone deposit that can make up some of the gap,� Roland said. And there would be no business during the winter. No one was willing to go out any time the demonic beasts might be hanging out. As a result, there would likely be only two or three transactions for the next four months. For the lightweight barge, obviously the transport of gemstones was a more cost-effective choice.

�Understood.� Barov jotted everything down.

After Barov had left, Roland called on Carter Lannis. �I need to expand the size of the Militia. After the recruitment release, please arrange to transfer a few members with quick response and high ability, to the new platoons to become captains. The training must be based on the same method that was implemented last time.�

�Your Highness, if you follow the old training method, it will probably be a long time before the new platoon is ready.�

�That�s still stronger than a rabble,� said Roland, waving him to do what he had said. The platoon trained thus far was far from being able to be called an army, he was afraid that they were at the level of college students after military training. But sometimes the measure of fighting capacity had to be compared to the opponent. In addition to the demonic beasts, they were also likely to encounter a group of private corps, mercenaries, and �mixed platoons� temporarily put together by serfs. As long as they were equipped with cross-era weapons, college students would be almost adequate.

After Carter had left, Roland could not help laughing.

He had not expected such a coincidence! It was a timely benefit, just like the passing of a pillow when sleep beckoned.

Was it bad news for him? A dilemma? Wrong! He knew little about Garcia Wimbledon, but she was not the kind of person to be trampled upon at will. The first prince had been sentenced to death in such a short period of time. Even if there was no insider, she would probably not return to the king�s city easily.

He was just to follow suit. As long as he could guard Border Town without moving elsewhere, someone would certainly jump out, and the Duke of Longsong Stronghold was likely the first person to feel uneasy. Otherwise he would not have been so anxious about the documents and delivered them to him in such bad weather.

For the Duke, the sooner he saw it, the sooner he would sleep and eat in peace.

If Roland chose to stay in Border Town, it was equivalent to defying the new king�s will. He would wait until the Months of Demons were over. The duke would then probably want to give him a profound lesson under Timothy Wimbledon�s banner. But this was exactly what Roland needed.

If anyone were to ask what industrialization lacked the most, the answer would definitely be people.

It required a large number of people to join in this large-scale production, turning the public into individual parts of a huge machine to drive it into operation. It was no exaggeration to say that with the �sheep eating men� enclosure movement in Britain, a large number of farmers were deprived of their land, making them free laborers, which then laid a solid foundation for the later industrial revolution.

The industrial age was so harsh, as long as educated workers were put into this furnace continuously, the exchange in return would be huge. The smaller the industrial classification, the larger the population needed to be.

Roland had been troubled constantly by the problem of population.

There were just over 2,000 inhabitants in Border Town. Even if it was a new era of machinery, it was still only workshop-style production. Without a large number of people, many projects could not be launched. Where could he swindle so many people to come to this town?

Could he buy slaves? There was no mention of where to buy thousands of slaves at once. Adult slaves were expensive, and did not have much significant training. Younger slaves, under the age of ten, would take too long to train. Even if child labor was employed against conscience, the waiting period would still be too long.

Could he recruit talents? How many people would be attracted to Border Town? This would result in more costs than buying slaves.

Could he encourage people to give birth to more children? Forced marriages? Forget it�

He had also considered Longsong Stronghold. But since the kingdom was in a stable state, if he were to attack the surrounding lords, it would simply be gambling with the future. Duke Ryan would also not dare to confront him blatantly, he would rather secretly try to put a spoke in his wheel.

However, the situation was different now. Now that Timothy had ascended the throne, he was eager to see all his competitors disappear. This recall order reflected his eager mood. Duke Ryan had obviously been able to understand this. Once released from the old king�s constraints, it would be strange for him, as the ruler in the Western Region, to do nothing.

This was the opportunity Roland had been anticipating for a long time

Longsong Stronghold, as the border of the kingdom, was a century-old city with nearly 10,000 permanent residents. Behind Longsong Stronghold, there were towns with large tracts of land and no defense ability. If it was possible to defeat Duke of Longsong Stronghold and win the city, he would be able to get a large number of free people, while completing the original accumulation of wealth in the meantime.

What easier way was there to gain population than annexation? What else could accumulate wealth faster than plunder?

The news was like a lighthouse dispelling the mist, illuminating the direction of Roland�s progress.

He would never miss such a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.

Nightingale stepped slowly along the mountain trail.

The path under her feet was only as wide as her shoulders. To one side was a huge stone cliff. Opposite were steep rocks. The two apart was about three meters wide. Below was a bottomless ravine. She carefully followed the stone cliff to avoid slipping.

When she looked up, she saw that in the sky, there was only a thin ray of light, like a hanging silver thread. But she knew that it was noon. Even in the daytime, she had to carry a torch. The light coming through the rock was not bright enough to illuminate the road ahead. The long path gave the illusion that she was inside the mountains.

The only advantage here was that despite the cold wind whistling and snow swirling in the mountains, the gap between the cliffs remained unaffected. Occasionally a few snowflakes fell from overhead down the cliffs and paths, quickly turning into water vapor. The temperature here was different from outside. Occasionally she could see warm gas rising from the abyss.

Had it not been so, she would not have dared to go alone through the Impassable Mountain Range in the Months of Demons. The Mist could hide her body, but could not isolate the temperature. She would have frozen to death if she had walked in the cold wind for less than two hours.

But Nightingale was unwilling to stay here for more than a moment, for she always felt something in the dark staring at her. It gave her the creeps.

If she could, Nightingale would have wished to walk through the Mist. Unfortunately, she did not have enough strength to do that. Prolonged usage of strength would quickly exhaust her.

Nightingale lifted the torch. On the opposite, rocks were flickering in and out of sight. In the faint firelight, she could occasionally see shadows of different sizes on the opposite cliffs. Nightingale knew that they were caves, so deep that light could not shine, and they looked like a cluster of shadows. In the same position as the cliff close to her, there was also a corresponding deep hollow.

This reminded her of the hearsay about the mine on Northern Slope. It was said to be the demons� underground den. From there, there were many byroads in all directions supposedly dug by monsters. Northern Slope was only one corner of the Impassable Mountain Range. Were these caves connected to the mine?

The idea made her shiver.

West of the Impassable Mountain Range was the uninhabited Barbarian Land. Who could dig numerous caves inside these mountains stretching hundreds of kilometers? Perhaps nobody but the monsters, who had survived in Barbarian Land, could do that.

She did not dare to contemplate further, and instead she concentrated on walking forward.

Finally, the path in front changed. The shoulder-wide path was divided into two, one slightly upward and the other straight down, extending deep into darkness. Nobody knew where it led to. At the turnoff, she had stronger feelings of being watched as if countless pairs of eyes were gazing at her in the darkness. It made her mouth go dry and her scalp tingle.

Nightingale gritted her teeth, opened the Mist and hurried upwards. Soon the strange sensation vanished.

With the altitude rising, the surrounding temperature was gradually falling. The silver thread overhead was growing wider and wider. After half an hour, a huge cave appeared on her right. The entrance of the cave was slightly higher than the road. She stepped into the cave and could see faint lights of fire deep within.

It was the hideout of the Witch Cooperation Association.

Nightingale stepped out of the Mist and was immediately discovered by the guarding witch. A black gas wall blocked her way, but soon disappeared into the invisible. In the darkness, the companion�s voices cried pleasantly. �You�re back!�

�Finally back,� she thought, but when she noticed her companion�s arms wrapped with two pieces of white cloth, Nightingale�s mood, which had just leaped, sank again. �Two more sisters��

The other person�s voice paused for a moment. �Uh� ah, they were Airy and Abby. They died five days ago and didn�t make it to adulthood,� she said, forcing a smile. �This often happens, doesn�t it? Don�t say this. You can go to the camp. Wendy has been talking about you for a long time.�

Airy and Abby, a pair of twins born to an affluent family of Fallen Dragon Ridge, had at last ended their lives in this deep mountain. Nightingale sometimes wondered whether she had done a right thing. If she had not taken the two away, at least they could have enjoyed the rich and healthy life, not having to drift away with the others, before death.

But at the thought of Wendy, a warm current surged in Nightingale�s heart. If Wendy had not helped her, she would still be a puppet, used as a tool and possibly discarded at any time. Nightingale wanted to tell her the news as soon as possible. And she wanted to tell all the sisters that they did not have to hide like rats, here and there. Some people were willing to accept them. And they could spend their Day of Awakening every year in peace!

Entering the camp, Nightingale saw a familiar figure squatting at the side of the campfire, handling the food. The other witches had not arrived yet. She could not help crying out. �Wendy, I�m back!�

Wendy was startled. She raised her head, revealing a smile with which Nightingale was familiar. �Veronica, welcome home.�

Wendy was a very kindhearted woman, and also one of the earliest members of the Witch Cooperation Association. She was 30 years old, but there was not one wrinkle on her face. Her reddish-brown straight hair was almost waist length. She had mature facial features, full of charm like a big sister. She cared about every sister in the association. It did not matter whether it was daily life or psychological enlightenment, and she was ready to do whatever she could to help. Had it not been for Wendy, the association would not have been able to gather so many witches so quickly.

It was because of her that Nightingale had decided to get away from her family and embark on the journey looking for Holy Mountain. Wendy was also one of the few people who knew her original name.

�How many times have I told you that I�m no longer that cowardly little girl,� said Nightingale, shaking her head with a smile. �I�m now a powerful witch, and Veronica has ceased to exist.�

�Your history still belongs to you. To rid yourself of the bad nightmares of the past doesn�t mean to sever the links,� Wendy said softly, �Of course, it�s OK as long as you like to do so. I�ve been waiting for your return. You have experienced a hard journey.�

�Well.� Nightingale stepped forward and hugged. �Thank you.�

After a while, Wendy asked, �What happened to the girl? You couldn�t save her?�

Speaking of this, Nightingale was suddenly excited. She grabbed Wendy�s arm, and excitedly said, �No, she did not need me to save her. Instead, she saved all of us!� Then she recounted her experience in Border Town. �The lord, called Roland Wimbledon, is the fourth Prince of the Kingdom of Graycastle. He�s willing to have us in his care. Besides, he promised that in the future he would let the witches in his territory live as free people.�

Yet Wendy did not seem as thrilled as her. Instead, she asked suspiciously, �Did he really say that?�

�He did, and he had already saved Anna and Nana before I even got there. The prince has never believed that our power is given by demons. On the contrary, he said the power belonged to our own�� Nightingale stopped abruptly, realizing that they did not believe what she was saying.

Well, she thought, it was not Wendy�s fault. Neither was she convinced of the subsequent new life by merely one witness. Long had they been bullied and oppressed during their journey from the Eastern Region to the Impassable Mountain Range. It was not rare for them to be sold and discarded, and with the bloody samples in front of them, they had long ago lost their trust in people.

She calmed down at the thought. Things had turned a little more complex than she had expected.

�Wendy, you know that my derivative skill, besides being able to see the flow of magic power, it enables me to tell if people are lying,� Nightingale said seriously. �I asked him why he had risked so much for the sake of witches, and �we don�t care about what you�re at Border Town� was the answer he gave to me. He hopes that all witches will have freedom.�

�If he did what he said, he would be targeted by the church.� Wendy frowned. �Granting that the prince hasn�t realized what it means to protect witches, you�ve known no better.�

Nightingale could not hold back her smiles and said, �At first I had almost the same opinion, and you know how he answered me when I asked him �can you really do that?�.� She paused and stated word by word, �He said �you�ll never know the answer if you don�t try.��

�He wasn�t lying?�

�He wasn�t lying.� Nightingale assured.

�That sounds incredible.� Wendy softened her voice. She could not think of any reason that Nightingale, an old friend, would lie to her.

�It is.� Nightingale shared her feelings. She would have never made up her mind so quickly without witnessing with her own eyes. And it was proven by her power. In retrospect, Roland barely lied, as he had said to her when they were on the wall. During the two months that she had spent with him, Nightingale had been very pleased. The only thing he had hidden from her was the actual use of the ice.

She hardly cared about the hiding. It would be weird if Roland unveiled all his secrets to a witch he had just met.

�I�ll share the news with everyone tonight when they�re all back at the camp!� She looked at Wendy and said in a deep voice, �I hope you�ll help me to persuade them.�

When night fell, the witches who had spent all day working outside returned to the camp. Seeing that Nightingale had come home safely, they were extremely glad and surrounded her to ask all about her journey. The white bandages tied around their injured arms weighed heavily on her heart. After answering a few questions thoughtlessly, she raised her hands to silence all witches.

It took her some time to tell them everything. She began by telling them about the time she snuck into Border Town, the acquaintance of Roland, Anna, and Nana, then the construction of the wall, the assembly of the steam engine, the fighting against the demonic beasts, and finally Anna who had just passed through to her adulthood. Nightingale even took out the design of the steam engine to convince others that it was true.

Most witches had been cocooned in an isolated world since they joined the Witch Cooperation Association, so it was hard for them to imagine the outside world. They seemed charmed by the stories, and when Nightingale came to the part about Anna passing through the Day of Adulthood unscathed, they were abuzz. The Demonic Torture had haunted them all their lives. All these years they had suffered from hunger and cold, leaving behind the secular world and secluding themselves to the Impassable Mountain Range in order to seek the legendary Holy Mountain. If what Nightingale had said was true�a land where the lord would accept them and a method that would protect them from Demonic Torture, Holy Mountain seemed less worthy to pursue.

Just then, the audience moved to clear a path for a green-haired witch who had half her face tattooed with serpentine. She walked towards Nightingale.

�Hello, my respected mentor,� said Nightingale, as she bowed to the witch, �Snake Witch� Cara, founder of the Witch Cooperation Association. The witches in the association addressed her as mentor.

�I�ve heard your stories,� she said with a hoarse and hollow voice, �and you mean to tell us that all we have done is wrong?�

�No, mentor, they aren�t just stories. I mean��

�Enough.� She waved her hand impatiently. �I don�t know what adventure you have been through, weaving your stories. A highborn prince who pities the poor witches? It�s as silly as pitying a frog.� She sneered as she turned around. Spreading her arms, she shouted, �Sisters, don�t forget all of what the common people have done to you!�

She went on without waiting for Nightingale�s explanation. �There�s no doubt that the common people, the incompetents, have targeted us with blades and whips in the name of gods. Without God�s Stone of Retaliation, they have no authority to oppress us. It�s deities who grant us the power, not the evils. It should be us who work on the behalf of deities, not the church. It should be us, the sisters of the Witch Cooperation Association! Holy Mountain, told in old books, refers to the quarters of deities.�

What?! Nightingale could not believe her ears. She had known that the leader of the Witch Cooperation Association was kind of eccentric, and although she was hung up on searching for Holy Mountain, she was far from mad. Despite not being as approachable as Wendy, Cara still sincerely cared for them. What Nightingale had not expected was that she would have such hostility toward ordinary people.

Had Cara secretly buried her anger and hatred all these years? And what she had claimed, about being detached from worldly affairs, was this really a way to save power for striking vengeance without warning one day? What had made her uncover her disguise now? Maybe�

�We�ve found the clue to the opening in Holy Mountain, the same as what we read from the old books! All we have to do is wait. In twenty days, when the blood moon rises in the sky, through a huge gate emerging from underground, we shall reach our final realm.� She turned back, looking straight at Nightingale. �The common people have deceived you, and we�ve lived in a big fraud since we were born. What we�ve suffered in the Day of Adulthood is the test given by deities. One who is determined and resilient will obtain the true power. The church�� She sneered. �It�s just a gang of common people who want to work in the name of deities. Sooner or later, all of them will go to hell.�

�And you, child. There�s time for you to stop this.� Cara paused. �I�ll forgive your ignorance and fault if you forget your stories. We�ll retake you as one of us, and together we�ll find peace in Holy Mountain.�

Nightingale�s initial excitement had cooled. The suffering was a test? The ones who did not make it through the torture on the Day of Awakening were simply worthless losers? The statements were exactly what the church was advocating. But no one stood out against these ideas, and instead, they wore a face of agreement. Even Wendy did not make a comment. Suddenly all turned dull and boring to her. Standing in front of her, the witch who was the founder of the Witch Cooperation Association and the leader of the witches seemed so unfamiliar.

She shook her head. �In that case, I�ll take those who�re willing to go, and good luck with those who decide to stay.�

Just as Nightingale was about to take her leave, she felt a faint sting on her leg. She looked down and found a black snake with sparkling blue stripes biting her flesh. The Snake of Magic, which bore various venoms and was able to strike the target in silence, was often used by �Snake Witch� Cara.

The paralysis struck her hard and quickly. Nightingale moved her lips and struggled to say something, but the darkness overwhelmed her.

Nightingale did not know how long she had been here, but when she woke up, she found her hands were bound behind her against a stake along with her waist and legs. She struggled to move, but yet she was bound so tight that her body was attached to the stake and got stuck.

When she tried to use her power, she could not sense the familiar feeling that she felt every time she induced power�the magic power was disconnected. Nightingale looked down and caught the sight of a crystal prismatic stone hanging around her neck hangs.

�You�ve woken,� said Cara, as she walked over. �How do you feel about Petrifying Venom? Nightingale, you know I reposed great hopes in you, and I meant it. Yet, you�ve disappointed me.�

��� Nightingale drew a deep breath and said, �You kept the God�s Locket of Retribution from us. Cara, do you actually know what you�re doing?� Their respected mentor chained her own people with the exact lock that was used by the church to hunt down the witches. What made her angrier was those who stood aside and showed no hint of dissent. [Damn it!] Nightingale cried out in her mind, [haven�t you found you�ve turned into those whom we hate the most?]

�It�s just a way to punish some kids who�re out of control,� Cara said with no regards, �and Nightingale, you�re the one who needs to be punished. Or� shall I call you Veronica? A girl who fell from a noble and became a witch, yet still dreams of reclaiming her nobility.�

�I don�t understand what you�re saying.�

�You�ve disappointed me. I thought you�d stand on our side when Wendy saved you from the chains of the noble. Now, take a look at what you�ve done. You mean to gut our foundation when Holy Mountain is within our reach.� Cara shook her head and sneered. �Take your sisters to a prince? Either you have been chained too long to live without a master to enslave you, or� you plan to sell them to the nobles for your nobility.�

�All I�ve done is for my sisters.� Nightingale damped down her rage, for she knew that curses and abuses made no difference here. �All I want is they�ll suffer no more tortures on the Day of Awakening and live a better life, in warm shelters and with enough food. I don�t mean to interrupt your plan, and yet they deserve a chance to choose their own life. Many things are changing in Border Town now, and the design of the steam engine that I showed you is one of them. The engine could run itself and hold the enormous power that�ll save us from the labor of fetching water from the mountain stream.

Cara sneered and said, �This is what you mean?� She turned and pulled out a wad of parchments from hands of a witch who stood behind her, waving in front of Nightingale. �I admit the drawing is too difficult for me to understand, but a lifeless thing built by a pile of cold irons could run itself? You take us for ignorant kids!�

Walking towards the brazier, she tossed the parchments into fire.

�No!� Nightingale cried out in vain, witnessing the drawings turning into ash in the brazier.

�You�ve run out of my patience, I�ll give you one last chance,� said Cara as she pulled out an iron spike with a hot red tip. �If you confess in front of all sisters of the Witch Cooperation Association that you�ve been deluded by nobles, I�ll spare your life and punish your gullibility with whipping. Otherwise, I�ll drive this spike through your heart and nail your body on a stake as a warning,� she said word by word, �and don�t waste my last bit of mercy. State your decision.�

Nightingale watched the spike moving towards her, along with the hot wave from the tip. She knew that she was no longer the young girl that she used to be. The girl who had been too weak and coward to stand up and resist. She was Nightingale, a witch with great power that even death would not be able to make bend her knees.

She closed her eyes, waiting for the last moment. Somehow, Roland appeared in her mind.

�Stop it!� The shouting surprised her, and she opened her eyes, seeing that Wendy walked out of the crowd and said to Cara, �Mentor, please have a look at the bandage bound on your arm. We�ve seen so many departures over the years, and you want to add one more with your own hands?�

�Why, did she deceive you too? Wake up, Wendy, those stories are lies.�

�I don�t know.� Wendy shook her head. �I�m not intending to leave for Border Town with her, but I think she�s right in that we deserve a chance to choose our own life.�

She turned to the crowd and asked loudly, �Is there anyone who wants to go with her?�

There were no replies and the crowd fell into silence.

�So let her go by herself,� Wendy said. �She didn�t undermine the Witch Cooperation Association, and I won�t watch you kill her and do nothing.�

By now, Nightingale had fully understood what Wendy meant. Wendy did not believe her words either. That was why she stood aside as Nightingale wanted her to persuade other witches. Though disapproving her idea, Wendy who was a kind and caring person would never let her friend die under such circumstances.

The crowd started whispering together about what Wendy had said before some other witches stood out.

�That�s right. If she wants to go back to the outside world, let her.�

�Too many lives have been taken by the church and pains. Respected Mentor, please reconsider.�

�Shut up! All of you!� Cara�s rage soared. �What if more girls follow her after we let her go with impunity? What if she betrays us and sells our location to the church? There�ll be nowhere to run!� Hardly did she finish speaking before she shoved the spike towards Nightingale. But Wendy was faster, she wove a strong wind that blew Cara away.

Then she tossed out a coin, and with a wave of her hand, she cast a rapid airflow that wrapped the coin and dashed to Nightingale. The airflow disappeared instantaneously when it neared Nightingale, and yet the inertia of the coin carried it further, hitting right on the God�s Stone of Retaliation that hung on her neck.

The hit broke the crystal prismatic stone into pieces.

�Traitor!� Cara struggled to her feet and screamed. She extended both her hands pointing at Wendy and Nightingale, and out of nowhere two snake shadows appeared, one of which opened its mouth and bit hard on Wendy�s hand, but yet another that aimed at Nightingale missed.

The ropes slipped onto the ground, keeping a shape of binding, but Nightingale was nowhere to be found.

Cara broke out in a cold sweat at the thought of the opponent�s ability, and instantly she aroused all her power to summon demonic snakes. Glittering with various colors, the snakes poured out from her chest, forming a wall of snakes from which she retreated hastily.

Yet Nightingale was faster.

Taking one step� only one step forward, she emerged right behind Cara, holding out both of her hands, she put the spike that would have been driven into her heart by Cara, directly through Cara�s body.

Seeing Cara fall down, all the witches surrounded her in a panic. �Respected Mentor!�.

�Idiot!� Cara coughed with pain, her hands clamping to the wound. She could no longer feel her legs. �Hurry, go kill that traitor!�

However, at that time, Nightingale had already disappeared into the Mist with Wendy.

Back at the crossroad, Nightingale found that Wendy was still in a coma. Her forearm had turned black, and the poison was obviously spreading through her blood. She could not hesitate any longer. She took a deep breath, rolled up the sleeve of Wendy�s injured arm and bound the upper arm as tightly as possible. Then she drew a dagger from the sole of her boot, and cut deep into the arm.

It took her nearly a quarter of an hour to amputate Wendy�s arm completely. She carefully wrapped up the removed arm with her cape and tied it steadily on her back with two straps. As long as she could bring Wendy back alive to Border Town, Nana would be able to heal her and reattach up her arm.

But� could Wendy bear such pain for so long?

It took her three days to come here alone, and she would be slower when carrying Wendy on her back. If she walked too fast and accidentally slipped off the cliff, she was unsure whether she would be able to climb back up again.

Wendy�s arm was still bleeding and she might die in three or four days. But Nightingale had no other option. She would never leave Wendy behind. After all, Wendy was wounded because of her.

�Do you need a hand?�

Startled by the random voice, Nightingale released the Mist and simultaneously looked around in a defensive position.

But there was no-one in front of her.

�Don�t be nervous, I won�t hurt you.�

Nightingale looked up and saw a girl flying in the air. �Who are you?�

�I�m Lightning. I just joined the Witch Cooperation Association recently. I usually wander around, so it�s natural that you don�t know me.� She tried to give a reassuring smile. �But I know you, famous Nightingale, the killer in the shadows.�

�Did Cara send you here?�

�No, no, you misunderstand me.� Lightning slowly fell, one foot treading on the ground. �I want to go with you.�

Nightingale could not believe what she heard and asked, �Pardon?�

�You said that we should have the right to choose our own way of life.� She paused. �I choose to go with you. That�s simple.�

�But� why?� Nightingale had been completely disappointed with the Witch Cooperation Association. The sisters refused to go with her, and even Wendy could not fully believe in her. Yet the girl in front of her� she was actually still a child, 14 or 15 years old, about the age of Nana, believed her. She had short blonde hair and a face high in spirits. Her speech and manners were full of confidence that did not match her age. She did not wear the robes of the Witch Cooperation Association, and instead, she was dressed in a fitted coat and trousers. Outside she wore a short and shabby leather jacket with many pockets and patches. Around her waist was a crude-looking belt, which seemed to be picked up from somewhere. At first glance, she dressed like a man.

�Because I�m quite interested in what you said. The black machine which puffs out white smoke, the gray powder which will turn into a rock when mixed with water, and the powder which explodes like thunder. I want to see them.� She held her head up and said, �I�m determined to be an explorer, so it�s only natural I go to any and all interesting places.�

[What kind of reason was that�] Nightingale was stunned. However, she knew that the girl was not lying.

�I don�t understand� why would you join the Witch Cooperation Association if you want to be an adventurer?�

�Not an adventurer, an explorer!� Lightning stressed. �I�m different from those people who work for money and call themselves adventurers. They�re nothing but greedy wolves that will do anything for cash. Explorers only do things that we�re interested in! As for my reason for joining the association�� she said confidently, �Isn�t it a great adventure to look for Holy Mountain? But Cara doesn�t have the slightest sense of adventure. She has been totally driven by that ancient book, trying to connect everything we saw with the description in it. She said she had found the Stone Gates which rose from the ground, but they were just two old pillars. If she keeps on like this, she�ll never be able to find the real Holy Mountain. An explorer must honestly record what they see. We can never find a horse by reading its description. My father has emphasized that point again and again.�

Nightingale had a lot of questions that she wanted to ask. For example, what kind of father would cultivate a daughter full of strange thoughts? But she knew it was not the right time to talk, as Wendy might die at any moment. She was happy to get a hand from Lightning since she was not an enemy.

�Is your ability flying?�

�Uh-huh.� Lightning nodded. �Even if I carry both of you, I can fly like the wind.�

�Then I�ll have to trouble you.� Nightingale quickly bound Wendy on her back and climbed onto Lightning�s back, hugging her tightly.

�Ugh� you�re so heavy.� Lightning gritted her teeth and rose slowly. �Maybe I won�t be as fast as the wind.�

�

They hurried toward Border Town. When Lightning was exhausted, Nightingale would carry her under her arm to walk through the Mist and when Lightning had recuperated her vigor, she would fly with Nightingale on her back.

Only when both of them were exhausted would they stop to take a short rest. At that point, Nightingale would ask Lightning some basic questions about things like her father and her family.

Lightning claimed that her father was the greatest explorer in the world, who left his footprints everywhere. He owned an ocean fleet and was kindly addressed as �Thunder� by the crew. Lightning lost her mother when she was little, so she did not have much memory of her. In a violent storm, her father�s ship hit a rock and sank, and then she was carried to a small island by the ocean currents and lost contact with her father. With the knowledge and skills taught by her father, she managed to live on the island alone for nearly two months. When winter came, she awoke as a witch.

After that, she flew all the way to the west and arrived in the Southern Territory of Kingdom of Graycastle through the strait. She wandered here and there, and finally joined the Witch Cooperation Association. She believed that, as long as she kept exploring, one day, she would be able to meet her father in some wonderful land� if he was still alive.

Nightingale failed to acquire much useful information from what she said. With her ability, she could only tell whether someone was lying or not, but she could not judge the objective truth of the words. In other words, if someone said that the sun was square and did not doubt it, then her ability would still show that they were telling the truth.

Anyway, she could guess from some of the information, that Lightning must have been born in a rich family. People who were struggling with poverty would not have the time to explore. In addition, the fact that her father owned an ocean fleet further confirmed it. So Thunder was probably a wealthy ocean-crossing businessman. Besides, Lightning�s blonde hair showed that she might come from the Fjords across the sea rather than from one of the kingdoms on the continent.

Wendy woke up several times, drank some water with Nightingale�s efforts, and then she quickly fell unconscious again. Nightingale was increasingly anxious. She felt that Wendy�s body was becoming colder and colder.

Nightingale and Lightning took turns to hurry forwards, and it took them one and a half day to finish the three-day-long path. At the entrance, the horse given by the prince was still tied to the ground, and the heap of straw in front of it was half eaten.

Without catching her breath, Nightingale mounted the horse with Wendy on her back and rushed toward Border Town, with Lightning flying after her.

The second recruitment in Border Town went much more smoothly. Thanks to the winter food rations, the members of Militia were given a larger amount of better-tasting food. Many would save their bread and dried meat, and gave them away secretly to their families on visitation day each week. Roland told Carter and Iron Axe to turn a blind eye, but nevertheless, it became known when families happily talked about the food they brought home.

In the first place, a military force comprised of civilians was an excellent chance for publicity. The word-of-mouth approach became even more effective than any announcement the City Hall could make. Most people in Old District were well aware of the Militia organized by His Royal Highness by now, where the soldiers were paid a high salary and fed three meals a day. The fighting with the demonic beasts was also not as dangerous as they had imagined. Thus, more candidates from Old District showed up compared to the first recruitment. There were even some residents from New District who came to sign up.

There were more candidates that met Roland�s requirements than he had anticipated. The second Militia was thus expanded to 200 soldiers. Carter was appointed to helm their training. When the horn sounded, the new recruits made their way to the city wall and were on the standby as an auxiliary force.

Chief Knight Carter and Assistant Minister Barov raised objections to this. The first Militia was already a force capable of fighting demonic beasts, making the recruitment of a second Militia unnecessary in their eyes. Never mind the fact that the size of the second Militia was twice the size of the first one. The higher food rations and salaries of the soldiers also led to a hike in their financial expenditure. What was worse was that the gold royals they spent did not give them any significant returns.

But Roland insisted on his decision.

That was because these people were not recruited to fight demonic beasts.

At the moment, he dared not to tell his men about the plan he had in mind. He wanted to conquer the stronghold before the duke could attack Border Town, but he worried that Carter and Barov would completely shut down his idea.

Unlike Border Town, Longsong Stronghold was the official border of the Kingdom of Graycastle. Its city walls were 10 meters high, built of bricks and stone. The duke and the six noble families of the Western Region were stationed in the inner city, so they could mobilize about a thousand soldiers at any given time. In theory, it was impossible to conquer the stronghold with his Militias made of fewer than 300 soldiers�even if they were equipped with flintlocks, a technology invented in a different era.

Besides, the witches could not serve as their secret weapon of decapitation due to the God�s Stone of Retaliation; Roland had confirmed this with Nightingale several times. Duke Ryan and the six noble families must have spared no efforts in purchasing the stone�naturally, this was done in the name of donation. It took several dozens of gold royals for them to trade a single stone, which could seal the power of the witches within a certain range and hence acted as the most powerful weapon against the demons. The stones were thus the biggest annual income source for the church.

Roland�s only chance was open warfare.

Most of the armies kept by the lords in this era were conscription-based, where most soldiers were drafted just before the war. To prevent runaway soldiers, the lords were forced to lead them to the battlefield personally. This gave Roland an excellent opportunity to implement his annihilation plan. However, he was still unsure how to seize this chance. After all, his knowledge of war strategies came from movies, television, or historical stories. He had no firsthand experience with them.

Since he could not figure it out, he thought he should focus on the things he was good at instead.

He stretched lazily and left his office, heading towards the wooden shed in the backyard.

The assembled Steam Engine II stood quietly in the middle of the field. Upon first glance, it looked more polished than the previous version and the welding marks were evener. Thanks to Anna�s new ability, her green Heart Fire could penetrate into the tiny gaps for welding, allowing the individual parts to fit better than their last attempt.

In addition to a better appearance, Steam Engine II also functioned more efficiently, thanks to a newly equipped centrifugal governor. Its existence was remarkable as the first automatic control system and feedback system in history. The structure of centrifugal governor was very simple, consisting of two thin hinged rods, each with an iron ball at the end, and one rotating spindle. It looked like the bamboo dragonfly, a toy for children. When the bamboo pole was rubbed between hands, the two rotating blades would rise into the air because of the centrifugal force.

As for the centrifugal governor, the two iron balls acted like blades. When the steam engine worked, the spindle would rotate. If the engine output was high enough, the balls would spin faster and gradually rise under the influence of the centrifugal force, leading the rods to reduce the aperture of a throttle valve. When the output lowered, the balls would spin slower and fall because of gravity to increase the valve output again. This would keep the steam engine running with a near-constant output.

Now that it was speed-controlled, Steam Engine II was able to take on sophisticated tasks.

And the gears produced by the blacksmith now sat neatly in the corner of the shed.

Going by modern assembly line standards, none of the gears would pass the quality check and would be thrown into the defective bin, waiting to be recycled. But in this era, they were rare artistic works�the involute design of the gears carried an inherent sense of harmony, and the gears emitted a unique metallic sheen after being immersed in lard.

Besides the gears, the carpenters had prepared the foundations, caps, as well as other parts. He sent the guard outside for Anna, so that they could begin assembling the first steam-driven boring machine together.

In Roland�s plan, this was the most effective way to mass-produce flintlocks.

If he had relied on the work of blacksmiths, the manual production of a single gun barrel would be time-consuming. But with the boring machine, they could directly drill the barrel from the casted iron bars. In one day, they would be able to produce more than ten barrels.

With a change in the cutter, the boring machine could also be used to cut rifling. Fitted with rifling, the flintlocks could be fired with even greater accuracy.

With how things were going, he was sure that he could arm his two Militias of nearly 300 soldiers by the end of winter.

However, Roland still could not guarantee that, in the face of charging enemies, his soldiers would be able to calmly load, aim, and shoot their targets, rather than dropping the weapons and running away. The two Militias had only been in training for a short period of time and had no experience in battling human beings after all.

Thus he had to bring out an even more powerful weapon that could obliterate the enemy before they could start their own assault.

That weapon was cannon.

As the Lord of War in the history of warfare, the lethality and deterrence force cannons commanded were incomparable to flintlocks. A six-pound field cannon had the range to attack the enemies before they could gather. The mixed-up armies of this era would not be able to keep their discipline under the constant attack of the cannons. As long as Roland could equip his Militias with three or four cannons, his enemy would not even have the chance to charge at them.

He had made his arrangements step by step�after he had invented the manual milling machine, he processed suitable gears that he used to build the steam-driven boring machine on the basis of speed-controlled Steam Engine II. And with the boring machine, he could produce a variety of gun barrels and cannon barrels.

There were at least two months before the Months of Demons ended. If his plan worked, the Militias of Border Town would have the ability to compete with the duke�s troops in an outright battle.

As Roland squatted on the ground to install the base, three figures suddenly emerged out of nowhere, staggering upon landing, and together falling torwards the ground.

Anna was startled. A cluster of green flame rose up and transformed into a wall of fire, blocking those figures.

Roland looked up and found that one of the women was Nightingale after the long separation. Her appearance looked so discomfited that her cheeks were abnormally red. While the frigid wind was obviously blowing outdoors, her forehead was covered with dense beads of sweat.

�Your Highness, please call Nana to come. Hurry up!�

She looked up as she exclaimed in palpable anxiety.

Roland had noticed that the woman on her back had a pale face and her eyes were closed, half of the arm was missing, and the crimson blood was seeping through the cloth that wrapped the open fracture.

�Cardin, go to the hospital and bring Nana here!� He shouted at the guard near the door, with a tight heart.

�Yes, Your Highness!�

Other than the two people, there was a little girl tucked in Nightingale�s armpit. She appeared to be nothing serious, and her eyes looked around curiously.

�Are you okay?� Roland went up and untied the cloth belt from Nightingale�s back, and removed the woman with the broken arm.

�I�m all right, Your Highness, cough� Sorry. I didn�t bring the sisters of the Witch Cooperation Association back,� Nightingale gasped, in a weak voice. Apparently she had experienced a long journey that made her exhausted.

�Don�t say anything. First, take a good rest,� Roland said as he picked up the unconscious woman who had been seriously injured and let Anna hold Nightingale. The five people went back to the castle. Nightingale�s room was next to Anna�s. He ordered the maid to fire up the furnace and prepare a vat of hot water in the room. After Nana�s arrival, he explained about the issue before she healed the wound, and stepped out of the room when he finished.

As long as she was not dead, Nana would be able to recover her from her wound as usual. To keep her life, the problem was not serious. Nightingale also brought back the woman�s broken arm to reconnect it. However, the arm had lost blood for a long time. He did not know whether it was possible to connect it back. The next steps would involve undressing to conduct the cleaning and treatment. As a well-educated man in his previous life, Roland consciously chose to avoid it and left the room.

�But how could things go this way?� He thought, �Was the camp of the Witch Cooperation Association attacked by the demonic beasts, and only three people managed to escape? If that was the case, it was surely a great loss.�

He was lingering uneasily outside the door. About half an hour later, the door was opened. The first one to get out of the room was the little girl who had come in good condition with Nightingale. She nodded towards Roland, �You�re exactly what Nightingale said.�

��� Roland was slightly puzzled, �What did she say about me?�

�A prince who cares about the witches�. She gently shut the door, �Unfortunately, the news was too unbelievable. Most people of the Witch Cooperation Association didn�t believe her. In fact, I didn�t believe her either. But my dad had said that the world is so big with various types of people. I�m Lightning, Your Highness. Nice to meet you,� she said as she bowed her head, with her right hand on her left shoulder�that was probably a way of saluting.

But Roland was not concerned about it. He keenly captured the phrase �most people did not believe her�. �Has the members of the Witch Cooperation Association been attacked by demonic beasts?� Roland asked.

�Attack? No� Why did you ask this question?� She touched her forehead with her index finger, and then revealed a sudden expression, �Ah, I understand! You�re referring to the big sister with a broken arm. She�s Wendy. She was hurt by Cara, the leader of the Witch Cooperation Association,� Then, Lightning roughly told the whole story.

Roland was silent after hearing this. It was so� unbelievable, he thought. He had really underestimated the brutal oppression of the witches in this world. �Accumulatively over the years, the witches� distrust towards the church and the nobility had reached its peak. According to Lightning�s story, the priority by the leader of the Witch Cooperation Association, after gaining enough power, might be to eradicate people like me.�

But fortunately, Nightingale had safely returned.

Not only that, but even two witches were brought back to Border Town. As for the project of building houses for the witches, Roland thought it over and decided to let Karl go on. �We may not need it now, but we�ll get more witches in the future,� Roland thought to himself.

�Are you a member of the Witch Cooperation Association?�

�No,� she replied, �Like Wendy and Nightingale, we�ve already left the Assosciation. It�s impossible to go back. Cara must hate us bitterly.�

�Will she be able to survive after being pierced by Nightingale� Roland asked, frowning.

�Probably. There�s a witch called Leaf, who can increase the effectiveness of herbs several times,� Lightning expressed her thought, �With the more usage of hemostatic grass and blood agent, it should not be a problem to save Cara�s life. But compared to your witch, the effect is far worse.�

�It�s really a hassle,� he thought to himself, �It isn�t a worry to be targeted by the Church, but it may be a bit ironic to be aimed by witches. Fortunately, the adversary�s purpose is to find the Holy Mountain, and now they shouldn�t have enough time to trouble Nightingale.�

�You said it before that you didn�t really believe in Nightingale. Then why did you escape with her from the Witch Cooperation Association?�

�Because of the black machine wheezing white gas, and the gray powder able to turn into a stone after making contact with the water, and the snow exploding with a thunderous sound!� Lightning repeated Nightingale�s words, �The prince that is kind to the witches may not exist. But she should not have lied about all of these to me. Otherwise the story could not have been made so lifelike�it�s an explorer�s intuition. By the way, the big block I saw in the yard just now, was it the black machine able to blow white gas? Nightingale seemed to call it� the steam engine?�

�An explorer?� Roland automatically ignored the last question.

�Yes, an explorer,� she repeated the word emphatically, �That�s why I chose to follow Nightingale here, and the explorer is curious about all of the unknown.�

��� Roland secretly sighed, �Is it the young people�s frivolity? In this era, the people pursuits other than survival must be born in a rich family. Look at her tomboy�s dress and short golden hair.� �Are you sure you�re not called Ezreal?�

�Who is that? I�m called Lightning,� said the little girl.

Slightly after that, Anna and Nana pushed the door open and came out.

�How�s it going on?� asked Roland, �Is the treatment going well?�

At the sight of Nana�s nod, he breathed a sigh of relief. �In general, the broken limbs should be connected within six to eight hours. Beyond the time limit, the success rate of surgery would be greatly reduced. Lightning said that they had spent nearly a day rushing towards here from where they were hiding. During this period, the limb�s open fracture was in a state of gradual atrophy. The conventional surgery has almost no way to engage with the nerve. I can only say that Nana�s treatment ability is really excellent.�

The little girl also looked a bit tired. The treatment seemed to have consumed a great deal of her energy. Roland encouraged her, �You have been working hard. After dinner today, you may go to bed with Anna.�

�Of course, that includes Tigui Pine too,� he thought.

After all the chaos today, Roland no longer had any mood to assemble the steam boring machine. Instead, he ordered the cook to prepare a particularly luxurious dinner and serve unlimited plates of black pepper steaks and fried eggs. It was enough to stuff Anna and Lightning silly. Even Nana, who tried her best to maintain a proper etiquette, had her lips stained with grease at the end of their dinner. Roland also asked the maids to place stewed shredded pork and wheat porridge in the insulated porcelain and send it to Nightingale�s chamber to make sure that the food was still warm whenever they woke up.

Once dinner was settled, it was time to decide their accommodations. Fortunately, the previous lord was a pompous person and had his castle built in the standards of a medium-sized town, despite only governing over a budding town. To describe it in Roland�s terms, it was a three-story villa with an executive suite, equipped with towers at its four corners. Coupled with a parvis and a garden in the backyard, the castle covered an area of 900 square meters.

He arranged for Lightning to stay in the chamber opposite Anna�s. The next one was left for Wendy after her recovery. When he saw Nana sticking to Anna like a piece of sticky candy as they entered the chamber, Roland could not help laughing and shaking his head.

Roland poured himself some ale after returning to his office. The change in plans was swifter than he had expected. He had expected that Nightingale would bring him more witches that would help him strengthen all branches of technology, such as chemistry, agriculture, and biology. But he had underestimated the hostility that the leader of Witch Cooperation Association harbored against nobles. Witches who were neutral, like Nightingale and Lightning, were rare exceptions. As for Wendy, Lightning explained she had no intention to leave the Witch Cooperation Association. But after Wendy was attacked by the Snake Witch Cara while trying to rescue Nightingale, she was forced to.

[If there are only two witches, then so be it,] Roland thought, as he knocked back his ale. [It�s better than having none.]

During the dinner, Roland had inquired about Lightning and Wendy�s abilities. He learned that Lighting had the ability to fly like a bird, while Wendy had the power to manipulate the wind. These abilities, Roland believed, would contribute little to the development of technology. However, they would be a great help in the upcoming war if used wisely.

Moreover, he found out that the powers of the other witches at the camp were varied and random. He could still come up with scientific explanations for some of those powers, but the rest was completely inconceivable.

Take the leader of the Witch Cooperation Association, the Snake Witch Cara, as an example. She could condense her magic power and mold them into snakes. The snakes were not only tangible but also aggressive. The different snakes carried different venoms. As far as Lightning�s knowledge went, those venoms were enough to either paralyze or kill.

However, be it Anna or Cara, witches� powers were confined to a close fight. Anna�s green fire could only reach as far as five meters, while Cara�s snakes would lose their power if they strayed too far from their master. Nightingale and Lightning�s powers were even more restricted�they were effective only through physical contact.

Thus, facing the army of the church equipped with crossbow bolts and God�s Stone of Retaliation, all they could do was to scatter and run.

Having spent most of the night in his office, the flame in the hearth gradually dimmed as it reached midnight. Roland sneezed and was about to go to bed.

When he opened the door, something unusual caught his sight�like the last time, he saw a girl sitting by his bedside. Half of her figure was enveloped in darkness, her shadow reflected on the wall like a mural. But it was different this time. Instead of her usual robes, she was dressed casually. And unlike the first time he met her, he now knew her face enough to tell who she was at a glance.

It was Nightingale.

Roland became nervous. Could it be that his good fortune was here?

Noticing the prince�s entry, Nightingale stood up and walked over to him. She had recovered a lot in the brief time she had rested. Rosiness took over the paleness in her cheeks, and her hair had recovered its shine. He had to admit that the ability of witches to heal themselves was extraordinary.

�You�ve suffered.� Roland coughed, breaking the silence. �Why don�t you take more rest? I�ve heard everything from Lightning.�

Nightingale shook her head.

Roland could tell something was off, for her face was solemn and her eyes were full of indescribable persistence. The resoluteness that was rare even on a man�s face made Roland realize that she seemed to have made a decision. He hid his other emotions and waited for her to speak.

Yet Nightingale remained quiet. She drew a deep breath and kneeled, raising her dagger in her palms above her lowered head. This was the greeting manner of knights and nobles who wanted to pledge their fealty to their superior.

�Prince Roland Wimbledon, I swear an oath to you in the name of Nightingale and Veronica,� she said bluntly. �As long as you treat witches well, I swear to serve you, whether as a shield against demons, or as a blade piercing the darkness. I swear my loyalty from this day to the end of my life, without fear and regret.�

[I see,] Roland thought. [After the Witch Cooperation Association disappointed her, she�s hoping I would lead the witches.] As a time traveler, Roland ought to reject her. He preferred working together via employment or partnership, or even better, comradeship with the same dreams and ambitions.

Yet he knew it was pointless to harp on equality and freedom. Without soil suitable for growth, planting seeds was a worthless act. As a prince, he could never deviate from his aristocracy before he united the entire kingdom.

After a moment of silence, Roland took the dagger and tapped her shoulder three times with the flat side of the sword. �I accept your fealty.�

Nightingale�s shoulders trembled slightly, as if she could finally relax.

Roland reached out his right hand to her.

Nightingale took his hand and kissed it gently. Thus, the accolade came to an end.

Although it was strange for a witch to swear her loyalty, Nightingale�s ability to do so showed that she was at least not lowborn. She had even mentioned the name Veronica� �Is that your true name? Without your family name?� Roland asked, pulling her up.

�Yes, Your Highness. I don�t mean to hide it from you. I left the Gilen Family five years ago and have nothing to do with them since,� Nightingale answered calmly. She had let down the last of her walls around Roland and gave him a brief explanation of her past.

She was born in Silver City, named after the silver mine there. Her father was a viscount while her mother was a lowborn. Though such a marriage was uncommon, they lived a happy life together. Nightingale had a younger brother named Hyde. She grew up in Silver City, where she spent the happiest time of her life.

Before long, things changed. When she was 14, the refugees rebelled in Silver City while her parents were out doing charity work. Her parents never came back. Nightingale and her younger brother were sent to his father�s brother, another branch of the Gilen Family.

In the winter of the same year, Nightingale awakened and became a witch.

With great care, she hid her power, but yet the old Gilen discovered it anyway. He took her brother away, and with her brother�s life, he threatened her to follow his command.

Nightingale had no choice but to obey. After being trained by the members of the Thieves Guild invited by the old Gilen, she had to do illegal things for him, which included stealing the contracts and papers from the houses of his business rivals, eavesdropping on the meetings of the City Hall, and, what was worse, even poisoning the water in wine glasses or water tanks of his potential rivals.

The business of the Gilen�s boomed, but yet the old Gilen treated her worse. He beat her whenever he felt bad. She was often locked in a room closed with steel bars and was forbidden to go out unless she was outside under his order. What confused and hurt her most was that her younger brother barely visited her. She started to suspect that her younger brother had been murdered by the old Gilen.

As Nightingale pleaded over and over again, the old man finally brought Hyde over, who, on the contrary, despised her and wished that they were not siblings. He told her to go to hell and live with demons as a witch should do.

Nightingale was shattered to hear it, yet the nightmare wasn�t over. The old Gilen told her a truth that hit her harder � it was Hyde who informed him that she was a witch in order to get away from her, the farther the better.

After sending Hyde away, the old Gilen warned her grimly that whenever she disobeyed him, he would secretly kill her younger brother, who would inherit their father�s title when he came of age.

In despair and deep grief, Nightingale became a puppet of the Gilen Family. In the year when she was going to pass to her adulthood, she came across Wendy who, perhaps, had found her on purpose.

Nightingale�s broken heart, in little sparks, began to light up again when she heard of the Witch Cooperation Association that had witches who suffered as much as her and yet still fought for a better life.

It did not take her long before she transformed from confusion to determination. A week after they had met, she survived the torture on the Day of Adulthood, and her power improved tremendously. She found out that the Mist was more than a form of concealment and no bars would block her way anymore.

One night after she healed from the torture, she walked into the old Gilen�s chamber like a ghost and cut his throat with a dagger. Seeing the blood spurting out and his breath turning staccato, she was surprised to find herself more peaceful than she had imagined.

After that, she left the house with little concern for her younger brother, Hyde.

She and Wendy started their quest for the Witch Cooperation Association.

After the story was finished, Nightingale waited a moment, and seeing the prince was still deep in the past story, she took off. It took Roland a long time to revive. Indeed, every witch had a long story of suffering, and those who survived to reach their adulthood must truly be the best.

How lucky he was to become a prince through time travel.

The next morning, Roland visited Wendy in Nightingale�s chamber.

Wendy looked much better after a night�s recovery, and her reattached arms also regained color. She struggled to bow to the prince regardless of the weakness.

�I�ve learned of your story. Thank you for saving Nightingale�s life.� Roland pulled out a piece of parchment and came straight to the point. �There�s no doubt that Cara would never accept you as one of them again. I hope you can settle in Border Town and serve me. Please sign the contract if you agree. Your payment is the same as Anna�s, one gold royal per month.�

�Your Highness�� Nightingale blinked trying to say something, but she held back.

Roland knew what she wanted to say. Nightingale did not want him to push Wendy to make the decision so hastily, for Wendy had changed her life and saved her once again in the Impassable Mountain Range. She believed that Wendy would certainly change her mind and back Roland after living in Border Town for some time.

�I didn�t want to raise this subject so hastily, but danger grows as things delay.� Roland paused for a moment. Wendy did not interrupt, waiting for him to go on. �I guess, maybe I know the method to help witches detach themselves from the torture of the Day of Awakening.�

Their expressions changed, at the same time. They asked, �What?�

�It�s just a guess with no firm proof,� Roland said, waving his hand. �Witches suffer less at the camp than in exile. The only difference between them is when in exile the witches hide their identities and powers for the fear of being revealed, and when at camp they have to keep using their power to run the camp.�

Wendy nodded. �You�re� right.�

�Anna has trained herself every day since she lived in the castle. She even exhausted her power and sank into a coma before the Day of Adulthood. She passed through the hardest barrier safely before waking up, unscathed.�

�So I believe that this is the key to dispose of the Demonic Torture. If we liken a witch�s body to a vessel that holds her power, the power grows with her, and when the gross power exceeds the volume of the vessel, it�ll counteract and harm her body. In the Months of Demons, the power in the body hits the top.�

�So if a witch can constantly release her power and keep it on a safe level, the torture will ease a lot or diminish on the Day of Awakening.� Roland paused, and then went on. �As the Lord of Border Town, I can offer witches the places, where you could release your power freely without being arrested, charged, or being executed directly. If I�m not wrong, there�s no doubt that Border Town is the Holy Mountain you�ve been seeking for so long.�

Since they were born, witches were taught that the dangerous power was given by demons. Some slightly enlightened witches viewed the power that would bite the owner as a curse. It was an infinite loop, which meant that the less time you use the power, the more serious the feedback damage became. But Roland, who had traveled back in time, viewed the power in an opposite way. Having learned from the memory of Prince Roland and excluded the existence of true god, he simply treated the power as an energy that the witches could control with their own will.

Wendy was silent for a long while before she asked, �What do I need to do� if I sign the contract and come to your service?�

During centuries, due to their unique powers, some witches were secretly chained and used as consumables by some men of ambition. The stern ban on it enforced by the church did not hold back those men�s claws. They enslaved the witches with no mercy, and what happened to those who were no longer valuable was appalling.

Roland certainly heard about those things, but he had a long-term view and wanted more. He wanted a win-win sustainable development system. He smiled and answered, �The first thing you need to do is train your power over and over again until the moment you could fully control it. Just like Anna.�

Three days later, in the castle garden.

�Sister Anna�� Nana pulled Anna�s sleeve.

�Yes?� Anna turned her head.

�Did you notice Nightingale� has been acting a bit strange lately.�

�Strange?� Anna paused for a bit. �Are you referring to her dress?�

Nightingale stood beside Roland. She was not wearing her usual strangely decorated cope which she did not seem ever to wash or change. Instead, just like Anna, she was wearing the bizarre outfit that Prince Roland invented. Although Anna did not want to admit, Nightingale�s slim and tall body indeed amplified all the merits of that outfit�her well-proportioned legs, skinny waist, and that long curly hair. Collocated with the clock and peaked cap, she would have caught everyone�s attention.

�I�m not talking about the clothes,� Nana mumbled, �Don�t you feel that the way she speaks to Prince Roland and the way she looks at Prince Roland are very different now?�

�Is it?�

��� Nana quirked her lips. �Alright, Sister Anna, don�t blame me for not warning you.�

[What the hell?] Anna shook her head and paid no attention to Nana. Instead, she focused her attention on the two new witches.

The one named Lightning looked about similar age as Nana, but her style of dressing was distinctly different. Anna roughly counted that there were at least 12 sewed pockets on Lightning�s coat.

As of the other witch Wendy, she was wearing casual outfit instead of the same decorated cope of Nightingale that Wendy wore on her first arrival. There was one aspect of Wendy that especially caught Anna�s attention. It was that the size of Wendy�s breasts was rather� impressive.

�Since all of you agreed to sign the contract, then let�s begin our first training.� Roland was now doing the tasks with ease as he had the experience in training the previous two witches. �Lightning, you first.�

�Okay!� Lightning raised her hand and walked out of the shack.

There were flurries of snow outside with no wind, the young girl easily floated to the midair and waited for Roland�s next instruction.

�Try to fly as fast as you can!� Roland raised his head and said out loud.

�Aha, here we go.� She made a thumb signal, positioned into a running pose, and then started to run around the castle swiftly.

Roland estimated that the speed was about 60 to 80 kilometers per hour, based on his experience of driving on the highway every year when he went back to his hometown. The speed was not fast, similar to the airspeed of pigeons. However, it was impressive that she was able to carry both Nightingale and Wendy along when she flew to Border Town.

What was the idea of being able to carry 100 kilograms of weights when taking off? Roland imagined a piston engine that was carrying 100 kilograms of aerial bombs.

However, the following experiment broke his wonderful illusion

As the weight was exceeding 50 kilograms (about 110 pounds), Lightning�s flying altitude drastically dropped from the previous flying altitude of 100 meters to only about 10 meters. When the weight was added to approximately 100 kilograms, Lightning would barely fly up to 2 meters.

This meant that if Roland wanted to transform Lightning into a bomber, even with explosive bags that weighed only a couple of kilograms, she would have still run into the enemies� crossbow range due to her flying altitude.

However, Roland soon discerned the new capability of the young girl�she would be the perfect candidate for either investigation or firing. The annihilation plan that had been bothering Roland seemed to have a possibility now.

When Roland was testing Lightning�s power, Wendy was quietly watching Roland from aside.

After Wendy�s departure from the cloister, she had seen countless people in her 15 years of wandering life: plebeians, farmers, artisans, soldiers, and the noble. Those people had all acted the same. They expressed their admiration and amorous feelings to her when they did not know that she was a witch. When they found out, all of their previous adornment to her would turn into abhorrence and fear, at the same time with a despicable lust that made Wendy want to puke.

She thought that she would have only accompanied witches in her life, and would no longer approach any men. This was the reason that she rejected Nightingale� It was not due to distrust, but rather the fear that obsessed her.

However, Roland Wimbledon changed her views.

The way he looked at her was too normal�as if he had seen for countless times. The first moment that Wendy saw Roland in Nightingale�s room, she thought it was because that Roland was hiding his emotions very well. Besides, Nightingale was there too. However, in the following few days, he also had carried the same expressions.

Perhaps Prince Roland�s standards were higher than the ordinary noble?

And for that roll of contract, Wendy thought that it was merely a pretentious act. However, as she was reading it, she discovered the numerous provisions that not only regulated responsibilities but also clarified her granted rights.

How incredible! Prince Roland was willing to take the witches. It was already very generous of him not to deprive their freedom, but he even notified their rights on the contract?

For instance, Art. 2.1 (it was the first time that Wendy saw such written articles), she was granted with paid vacations. According to the following definition, it meant that she could receive remunerations without having to work. The following article stated that the witch should complete the project assigned by the employer, but if the witch felt difficult in completing the project, she could propose to switch or reject it. The next article said that the employer should guarantee the security, housing, food, and remuneration for the witch. If this portion of the conditions was not satisfied, the witch could terminate the contract on her own.

These articles were a bit difficult to read but fully expressed their meanings. The contracted withes were not the prince�s belongings. Wendy was granted with responsibilities in accord with her rights. In this contract, she felt the sincerity of Prince Roland�if it were merely a pretentious act, there would be no need to list such detailed articles.

Coming to this conclusion, Wendy could not help looking at Nightingale. Wendy knew very well Nightingale�s personal experiences and knew her deep loath toward the noble. However, as of this moment, when Nightingale was talking to Roland, her tone and expression showed a different kind of emotion�a change that perhaps even herself was unsure.

It was only two month after Nightingale left the witch group and went to Border Town. Through the two months, Nightingale developed a complete trust toward this young man.

She would instead end with the Witch Cooperation Association to return to Border Town. In her heart, Roland Wimbledon had more possibilities than the Witch Cooperation Association in bringing the witches to their true sanctuary. The act of her respected mentor was also heartbreaking. That founder of the Witch Cooperation Association seemed to forget how hard it was for every surviving sister.

Wendy knew that she could not return. If fate brought her to the place, why would not she trust Nightingale�s decision? Just like how she trusted her for numerous times�

�Wendy?�

�Ahh�� Wendy came back to the reality from her thoughts. She found that Lightning had already completed the capability test and everyone was looking at her.

She showed an apologetic smile and headed to the outside of the shack.

Since she had made her determination, then she should not lose to the younger generation, right?

At that moment, the buzzing noise of horn came from the west side. The sound reverberated among mountains and broke the serenity of the town.

He had heard the horn go off several times before. In most cases, it was when dozens of the demonic beasts came to assault the border. The Militia now could handle such situation with ease.

Therefore, Roland did not panic at all. He announced to suspend the training for today, asked Wendy and Lightning to go back to the castle for rest and Anna to escort Nana to the medical center for patients, and he himself rushed to the city wall with Nightingale.

Unexpectedly, Lightning opposed. �As an explorer, I have resided in the Western Region for so long but haven�t even seen a large scale assault of demonic beasts. That�s disgraceful and humiliating. I request to come along!�

Without a second thought, Roland rejected Lighting�s protest and told Wendy to keep an eye on Lightning, strictly forbidding Lightning to run around at a time when the demonic beasts were assaulting.

He then looked at Nightingale. The latter nodded her head, grabbed his hand, stepped into the Mist, and went straight to the city wall�when Roland found out that Nightingale was able to bring any objects with her into the Mist, he soon addicted to such a transportation method. Traveling straight through roadblocks and ignoring the topography, with several meters in one step, this gave Roland the pleasure as if the world was his camp.

After arriving at the foot of the city wall, Roland found a vacant corner to step out of the Mist and went on the defensive line alone. The wilderness from the far side looked snowy white. He did not see a large scale assault of the demonic beasts. Was this a mistake? Not only Roland, the Militia that came afterward also had an internal discussion.

The prince found Iron Axe and noticed that Iron Axe was staring afar with such a solemn expression while his hand was still tightly holding the horn.

�Did you set off the alarm?�

�Yes Your Highness, please take a look�� His voice sounded much dryer than usual. �That thing is coming.�

That thing? Roland looked afar but could only vaguely see a small black dot. It was hard to spot it even in a pure white background. According to the rules, the horn alarm would only go off when the patrol team could not adequately handle the situation. However, as an experienced hunter, Iron Axe must have had his reasons.

�It�s a demonic hybrid.� Iron Axe swallowed. �I met it six years ago.�

[Really?] Roland frowned. Theoretically, demonic beasts would keep assaulting Longsong Stronghold until they died�they did not have intelligence so they had no idea of retreating. Longsong Stronghold had never been conquered, but it did not die and even lived till six years? An inauspicious feeling arose in Roland�s heart.

However, the distance was so far to the point that he could only saw a black dot, but Iron Axe was able to decipher the type of the demonic beasts. That was a shockingly good eyesight. Or perhaps, Iron Axe misjudged, Prince Roland thought.

The demonic beast did not make Roland wait for too long. It started to move toward the city wall. Soon, everyone noticed the unique physical features of that target.

Unlike the massive body of the previous demonic hybrid, it looked like an enlarged feline at a glance. However, it had wings on its back that covered the sides of its body when the wings were not expanded. Its head was similar to lion�s but had two pairs of eyes�if the extra pair of eyes was not for decoration, then it could notice any movements from its back without turning its head.

Carter and the other hunter had already loaded ammunition and prepared for combat.

However the lion type demonic hybrid did not rush to attack. It stopped outside of the shooting range of crossbow bolts and looked around.

That distance was within the effective shooting distance of flintlock, but the hit rate was almost zero.

After a moment, it suddenly jumped to the left side and expanded its wings, making the whole body flying to the midair. Just like what Iron Axe said, it could fly for a short distance to glide. After it got over the roadblocks, the demonic hybrid quickly ran to the west side of the city wall where nobody was guarding.

Roland�s trepidation grew, the inauspicious omen came true. From how it observed the weakness and strength of the opponent and chose to attack the weak side, it proved that it had intelligence�that was what the wild beasts lacked. The wild animals sometimes would attack the weak side of their pray. However, such was instinctual act through years of inheritance. When facing an unknown opponent, it was impossible for the wild beasts to judge, not to mention to make a comprehensive analysis.

What did it mean by owning intelligence? Humans relied on the exceptional brain and outstanding resilience to climb to the top of the food chain from the cruel ecosystem. Roland was afraid to think furthermore. He waved his hand to have Chief Knight Carter accompany him. The rest of the hunters would follow Iron Axe to attack the demonic beast.

It ran to a vacant area, jumped and got over the city wall with ease. It moved straight to the residential area, wholly ignored the Hunter Squad.

�Bastard?� Roland cursed. �The Militia members from the second range of the city wall, follow me. The substitute members shall go on and guard the city wall!�

At this point, he could not bother to care the fact that the Militia only had fencing training. The team would most likely come apart during the movement and would be attacked by the demonic beasts. Carter led the guards to follow the prince. Every one of them had the strongest fighting capacity, and they could substitute any possible lacks. At the end of the team was the flintlock team led by Iron Axe.

As they entered the Old District, their views were blocked by flat houses. Besides, the roads were narrow and covered by snow, so the team had limitations on their movements. Roland had to separate the team and move around in the crisscrossed ally, hoping to find the demonic beast.

Roland regretted not bringing Lightning. If he had a witch to investigate in the air, then the team would not need to run around the allies with no directions.

They searched for about eight minutes and all of a sudden the screams of the town resident came from the deep end of the alley.

The team immediately adjusted their direction and moved toward the sound. Fortunately, many of the Militia members were residents of the Old District. After knowing the destination, they swiftly moved around in the narrow alley and even walked across the backyard of someone�s house. When they reached the place, Roland saw someone was bitten into two pieces, and the intestine was scattered and apparently dead.

�Jesus� this is Iron Fork, I know him!�

�Damn it, did it run away?�

�Watch out! To your right side!� Someone called suddenly. As soon as the sentence finished, a black shadow whipped across from the right side of the wooden house with the scattering wooden fragments. It came straight through the wall of the wooden house, flew into the group, and pushed down a militia member with its claw and bit him.

Iron Axe was the first one to react. He raised the gun and was about to shoot, but found that the diffused Militia members blocked the alley. He had no chance to fire, so he had to squeeze through the crowd and walked to the target step by step. All the other hunters noticed this problem. They all clung their gun under their arm and jumped onto the roof of the houses.

Demonic hybrid did not care about the guns that were pointing at it. It expanded the wings, blocked the stabs from the crowd, and picked up the militia member that was covered in blood. However, the gun was fired when it was about to leave.

There were drips of dark blood on its body.

The demonic hybrid roared in anger after being attacked by the gun. It threw off its prey, opened wings and was about to fly into the hunter that was standing on top of the roof. At the same moment, Iron Axe squeezed out of the crowd, aimed at the demonic beast and fired.

The near front shooting was impossible to miss. The hot gas of the gunpowder even sprayed to the nose of the monster. The bullet went straight through the eye of its target and all the way into the monster�s brain.

The demonic hybrid stiffened and collapsed.

�

Icy rain trickled down and diluted the blood-smelling air in Holy City. Alicia panted heavily, leaning on her longsword.

It was not the first time for her to have taken part in the defensive battles of Hermes. But it had never occurred to her that they could ever possibly lose New Holy City.

The city wall was completely destroyed.

Alicia had never seen so many horrific monsters in her life. An enormous worm-like hybrid beast scuttled from underground, with its body close to the glacial cliff and its bony claws deeply embedded into the city wall. When it had climbed to the top of the city wall, its whole body had not even fully emerged from the ground.

Enormity alone would not matter so much. But to everyone�s surprise, the beast opened its wide mouth and spat out countless demonic hybrids, which instantly created chaos on the city wall.

The army that had been in order soon turned into a state of commotion under the attack of demonic beasts. The vanguard of the Judgement Army, to which Alicia belonged, were also scattered in this commotion. She saw how her companions were devoured one after another by demonic beasts, unable to help them. Warm human blood mingled with the black blood of the monsters, flowed along the cracks on the flagstone pavement.

As the retreat bugle call was heard, the mangonel in Holy City was also started. Stones as large as a table were hurriedly thrown down, regardless of the soldiers that still fought on the city wall.

Alicia remembered how a huge stone had hit Captain Dicarto right beside her. When she got up and stood on her feet again, she saw that he, along with his armor, had been crashed into the cracked pavement. His whole body looked like a creased parchment. His smashed bowels had flown out from his belly, whereas hot steaming blood had collected and formed a small puddle beneath him.

If she had not escaped the attack of the stone before it was too late, she thought, her end would be just like that of Captain Dicarto.

As for how she had escaped and retreated under the city wall, Alicia could not remember clearly. All she could remember was screaming and cursing. Everyone stabbed and chopped anyone and anything with their weapons in madness, not knowing whether they fought with demonic beasts or their own companions.

Out of around 100 soldiers of the Judgement Army, there were only 12 left including herself.

�What should we do next, Captain!�

�Captain Alicia!�

Alicia came back to her senses. Right. According to the ordinances of the Judgement Army, when a captain dies in battle, then the duty of the captain naturally fell on the shoulders of the deputy captain of the same platoon, who should lead the platoon in following battles.

She bit her lips until she tasted her own blood. �We�ll go to the North Gate of Holy City. If demonic beasts want to attack New Holy City, they�ll have to pass from there.� This command meant forsaking the city wall and the populated area of the inner city, but she had no choice, for nowhere else could be more important than the pivot of the church�the Hermes Cathedral.

What she did not say out loud was a question that lingered on her heart, [What could she and the other 11 people do, if the glacial cliffs were incapable of stopping these monsters?�

[Perhaps today is the day for me to sacrifice myself for God�s kingdom. May the Lord have mercy,� she prayed silently and shouted at the same time, �The Judgement Army never gives up! Let�s move!�

�The Judgement Army never gives up!� her companions echoed her.

The 12 ran to the North Gate in a trail formation, while the noises of fighting from the city wall died down in the sounds of wind and rain.

When they arrived at the North Gate, Alicia saw that quite a lot of soldiers from the Judgement Army had gathered before the drawbridge. It seemed that everyone shared the same idea, the thought of which made her feel a little better.

However, the drawbridge was let down even at this moment of crisis. Alicia could not help but frown. She walked to a handsome warrior in the red robe of the chief justice and saluted him. �Your Excellency Chief Justice, I�m the Captain of the 4th Platoon of the vanguard, Alicia Quinn!�

�I�m Tucker Thor in charge of the defense of North Gate. You have all my regard.� The man nodded to her. �We�ve set up a rescue center behind the North Gate. If any of your soldiers are wounded, you can send them to the center.�

�Sir, I don�t understand why we don�t raise the drawbridge. The demonic beasts on the city wall could swarm here at any minute. We must make sure that we don�t lose the inner city.�

�Calm down, Captain. I know you and your men are unafraid of making sacrifices. But you should not sacrifice in vain. The situation is far from desperate for the church.� He wiped the raindrops away from his forehead. �Await orders now at the gathering point. If Cold Expelling Pills are used up, remember to ask for them from the Supply Officers.�

Upon hearing what Chief Justice Tucker Thor had said, Alicia found herself chilling in the wind. After the battle, sweat and cold rain had mingled and made her body freeze. Piercing wind blew in her direction and sent her trembling.

She took out a sheepskin pouch from her underclothes� pocket and shook the pouch with its opening down to her palm. Yet only some thick fluid dripped down. It seemed that she had crushed the pills in battle. She sighed and raised her head, only to find a Cold Expelling Pill in reddish brown color being handed to her.

�You should take mine.� Tucker Thor smiled to her. �You can give it back when you have one.�

Alicia did not refuse his kindness. She took the pill, bit and swallowed it. �Perhaps we�ll never have the chance to eat this thing once again.�

�Yes, that way it wouldn�t be too bad.� Tucker went so far as to nod in agreement. �This thing tastes way too bad.�

Upon these words, a strong fishy smell rose from the stomach of Alicia and gushed to her head. Even battlefields with all their corpses would not smell so repelling. She felt as if what she had swallowed down was no pill at all, but a mixture of long-rotten flesh and blood. Unbearable numbness gradually came to every part of her body from the stomach. Chills were suddenly repelled. Instead, glowing warmth started to flow in her veins. Her body resumed its normal temperature while frozen sweat ran down. Her head was steaming. Her numb toes went nimble again.

�But it should not be today.� Seeing her have swallowed the pill, Chief Justice Tucker Thor waved his hand. �God�s Punishment Army is coming from the cathedral. The demonic beasts can�t pass through the North Gate. Take your men to the gathering point. Remember to check if they all have the pills. They aren�t supposed to follow your example and to find there�s none when the pills are needed.�

God�s Punishment Army, the crack troop of the church! Alicia had heard about it for long, though she had never seen it with her own eyes. But no matter how powerful God�s Punishment Army was, it could only be composed of humans. With human�s bodies, no matter how hard they had been trained, there could be no chance of their beating numberless demonic hybrids easily.

But since Tucker Thor said so, she could only leave the North Gate with her platoon of 11 men and approached the gathering point to the west.

Here hundreds of retreated members of the Judgement Army had gathered. They stood dispersed in the field and let rain run down their faces. Some of them even sat on the ground in low spirit. Only a small number of them stood in formation and awaited the enemies that could appear at any minute.

If it had been a few days ago, Alicia would have scolded these people. But now she was confused herself. In order to build this New Holy City, countless believers had died. Every stone in this city had the blood of believers and Judgement Army spilled for it. The bishop always said that to own Hermes meant to own Kingdom of God on earth.

However, on this day the Kingdom of God seemed soon to fall into the hand of demon�s minions.

�Demonic beasts are coming!� Someone yelled. �Be prepared to fight the enemies!�

Alicia gathered herself together and held up her long sword. Gazing at the shadows in the sky that were approaching, she shouted, �For Hermes!�

�For New Holy City!�

But the expected final battle did not happen.

Someone walked to the female warrior and lowered her sword handle.

�Step back,� he spoke in a soft and clear voice. Alicia noticed that the other party was one of the soldiers who remained in formation. On his arm, he wore the band of Regimental Commander. �The God�s Punishment Army has come.�

She turned her head and saw a platoon of tall warriors, one after another, all clad in shiny armor from head to toe which reflected a silvery tone in rain walking through the North Gate. They all wore crimson cloaks on their backs and carried various weapons in their hands. Some held swords and shields in their hands, and others held halberds, spears or iron axes. They did not resume formation after crossing the drawbridge but joined the fight against the attacking demonic beasts directly.

[What kind of strategy is that! It�s child�s play! When faced with demonic hybrids whose strength and speed far surpassed humans, the only way to beat them is to keep the formation and fight them collaboratively. Do they want to fight the demonic hybrids individually in this way? Should I just wait aside and do nothing while the God�s Punishment Army fights the monsters?] Alicia thought.

�We have to give them a hand!�

�It would be no use.� That man shook his head. He looked gloomy. �We should just watch. If we step in too rashly, we can only make things worse.�

�Make things worse?� Alicia stared at the man, exasperated. �Did I make a mistake about the man? Is he only a coward?� She held her sword handle tight and walked past him, ready to join the fight. However uncertain she felt about the future of New Holy City, all she could do was fight the enemy until the end of her life.

Before she took another step, the female warrior saw an incredible scene.

A flying demonic hybrid was swooping down from the sky. With its gigantic gray wings that stretched nearly 4 meters wide, it seemed to have come directly out of hell. It had the head of a bird with ram�s horns on it and two claws with barbs that could penetrate the cuirass of any warrior.

They were used to attacking by vertical fall, which was covert and made defense extremely difficult. The heavy shield was defenseless in face of the pouncing force. The strong force of impact would crash the arm as well as chest bones of the one who held the shield. There would be no way to survive under that condition. The only way to deal with the fatal attack was to dodge it by rolling aside before the hybrid landed.

But no one from the God�s Punishment Army ever dodged. A warrior in silvery armor reached out both his hands the minute before the hybrid pounced on him, he hit the hybrids claws with his own hands. The pouncing force was so great that it sounded like firecrackers. Mist rose from him and the monster. His armor also groaned under the force.

He lowered his body by bending his right leg and kept his back straight. The hybrid was unable to crash him at that moment. Another warrior soon aimed his javelin at this flying hybrid and a silver light darted before Alice�s eyes�she saw the shattered head of the monster.

The former warrior tossed the dead body of the hybrid to the ground. His arm was in a crooked unnatural position. It seemed he had taken damage from the previous attack. Despite the broken arm, he took out an axe from his belt and threw himself toward the other demonic beasts.

Alicia could not believe her eyes when she saw how humans had been successfully resisting these monsters. Hundreds of God�s Punishment Army warriors had sprung to the herd of demonic beasts. Their crimson cloaks looked like a river of blood that prevented the enemies from taking one more step. She now understood what the regimental commander meant by �making things worse�. Every one of these warriors had the power to fight ten demonic beasts, for their strength, agility and speed could be compared to those of demonic hybrids�No, even better than them. Common demonic beasts would mean nothing in front of them.

�They�re just wonderful!� Alicia beamed with happiness. With these powerful warriors, Hermes Cathedral could not be lost to the enemies. �Ah. I haven�t known your name yet. I�m Alicia Quinn, a Captain in the Judgement Army. You seem to have known about the power of the God�s Punishment Army?�

The other party looked at her with his eyes that were as cold as the icy rain. He did not tell her his name but said, �My brother is a warrior in the God�s Punishment Army.�

*******************

�We seem to have won,� at the dome of the cathedral, Archbishop Mayne said with a telescope in his hands. Here was the pivotal point of New Holy City. One can easily overlook more than a half of the battlefield from here with the spyglass of fjords merchants. �Make the mangonel stop. The God�s Punishment Army will soon arrive at the top of the city wall.�

�Isn�t the victory a sure thing?� the other answered. He wore the same golden archbishop�s robe as Mayne. Yet his voice sounded hoary. �The most important thing is the armies of the four kingdoms are all crashed.�

�Right. In this way, their defensive force on the border would be weakened so much,� the last one among them said. She was the youngest among them, no more than 30 years old, and the only female among the three archbishops. �A standing army of 5,000 well-equipped and well-trained men plus nearly 1,000 knights. Even if one set off replenishing the force immediately from now, that would still take four to five years. Um�� She exclaimed, �What a wonderful and malicious scheme!�

�But to reach this end, we�ve lost many men of the Judgement Army. They�re all core forces of the church.� Mayne sighed. �If any other plan could have worked as quickly as this, I wouldn�t have tossed them into this hell.�

The old man touched his beard and said, �We have no other choice. Just like our Holy Book has told us, Wilderness Beasts have emerged. There�s little time left. If we can�t unite the whole continent and integrate all the forces, only doom awaits us.�

�Doom isn�t bad at all.� The woman smiled provocatively. �Humans are greedy, malicious, and shortsighted. They do things which are more horrible than what demonic beasts have done. The devil in hell may be kinder than us.�

�Heather!� The old man bristled with anger. �What you�ve said was heresy! Are you trying to disobey God�s command?�

�You don�t have to worry about that, Lord Tayfun.� Heather shrugged her shoulders disapprovingly. �I�m the one who�s in charge of the Tribunal, not you! Besides, does God command that we should survive? How do you know whether or not he would care more for the devil?�

�You�!�

�That�s enough! Tayfun! Heather!� Mayne said scathingly, �That�s enough for today. Later on, I�ll report the whole situation to the pope. Now you should both finish your own business.�

�

When the two had left, Mayne stood before the French window and looked toward the north. Behind the fracture of the Impassable Mountain Range lay the snow-covered Land of Everwinter and to the west of it was the Barbarian Region, where everything began.

He knew that Archbishop Tayfun was right. God�s Punishment Warriors were too rare. They were only chosen and trained from the ones who were most faithful to the church and had the strongest will. With almost 100 years� of efforts by the church, there were still no more than 1,000 people in this army, whose number was far from enough to fight against the demons.

But those were all that the north could provide. If they wanted more forces, there was no alternative to uniting the continent.

Of course, what Archbishop Heather said was also right. She had brought ten thousands of criminals and witches to trial. But all the trials that the criminals and witches had gone through were not half as cruel as the deliberate Pyrrhic victory of today.

The higher one�s status was in the church, the more one could feel that God was neither good nor evil.

�How do you know if he would care more for the demons?� Thinking of Heather�s words, Mayne could not help but laugh out loud. Only she could make Lord Tayfun sore and speechless. �It was only that�, he thought to himself, �God didn�t care for the people on earth, as he didn�t care for the devil.�

�He only cares for the one who wins.�

The funeral was held on a wasteland on the southwest side of Border Town.

It was not appropriate to call it a wasteland. Yet this piece of land that no one cared about was already surrounded by a small fence of rubble, and the wall covered with thick snow. From far, it looked like a silver lining. Although one could cross over with one foot, yet looking at it, Van�er still unwittingly thought of the border city walls - they were the same color, the same shape.

He heard of this ritual from traveling businessmen. When a great noble or member of the royal family member died, the deceased�s family would gather at the cemetery, where sad tunes were played and people mourned before the coffin was finally buried underground. The higher the status, the more pompous the occasion would be.

The dead got more attention than the living. He thought enviously at the time. What happened when someone from Border Town passed away? Probably a pit would be dug and filled at the edge of the Misty Forest. Who could know if the demonic beasts would dig out the corpse and eat it during the Months of Demons?

Death was always familiar to the inhabitants of Border Town, especially every winter on the way to seek refuge in Longsong Stronghold. Everyone would cram together in the shacks of the slums. Dying of hunger and cold, or illness and pain, was quite normal. No one had time to be sad. It would make more sense to save this energy to beg for more bread in the city center when the dawn came.

But today, His Highness went so far as to arrange a funeral for a soldier!

It was rumored that the soldier was in the pursuit of a hybrid demonic beast when he was thrown to the ground and had half his head bitten off.

Van�er knew this unlucky guy, who was considered a familiar face at the Old District. He had no name and everyone just called him Ali. He had a wife and two children. The older one was about six years old and the younger barely started walking.

In usual cases, this family would be over. The woman could find another man. But who would be willing to take care of the two children? The two little ones could be stranded on the road so that they could learn to feed themselves. Or the mother would still keep them by soliciting clients at a bar and finally die of a variety of strange diseases.

But His Royal Highness seemed trying to honor his commitment when he recruited the Militia. In case of sacrifices during the war, one would not only receive all the pay, there would also be an additional compensation. What was it called again? Van�er thought, ah� yes, the pension. And this money was worth five gold royals.

In addition, provisions of food and charcoal would be issued every month. This meant that Ali�s wife could take care of the two children even if she did not work. Well, these benefits could hardly be counted upon, but the gold royals were undoubtedly real. He saw His Royal Highness place the pensions into the hands of the chief knight, who then transferred it to Ali�s wife.

Hell, why did he suddenly feel a little envious of Ali? No, no, Van�er shook his head repeatedly to expel these silly ideas. He did not want his wife to benefit from his death� and she most likely ended up as someone else�s wife.

After distributing the money was the address of His Highness. It was very short, but it touched Van�er. Especially the phrase �We�ll never forget those who have sacrificed their lives to protect loved ones and the innocent�. After hearing this, he felt a surge of warmth in his heart. That was why recently, in addition to the bread and silver royals, he always felt he had some other pursuits�at least this winter, they survived, relying on their own hands, and not the charity of Longsong Stronghold.

The last part was the burial. Ali�s coffin was placed in the dug pit. Chief Knight let everyone queue up, and every member of the Militia, whether he was a formal member or a substitute, stepped forward with a shovel to fill in a row of soil. As for queuing up, everyone was familiar with it so more than 200 people immediately formed four columns. When it was time for Van�er, he suddenly felt that the shovel became slightly heavier. The attention of his platoon members around him also slowed down his every action.

After he stood aside, his eyes transferred this feeling to the next in line.

The tombstone of Ali was a pure white rectangle stone, and Van�er did not understand a single word on it. Ali was not the first person to take residence in this wasteland. Next to Ali�s was a tombstone of the same design, the top of which was covered with snow. When everyone left, Van�er saw the new Captain, Brian, pour a pot of ale slowly on the tombstone.

If this was his own destination, it did not seem bad. He could not help but think so.

�Your Highness,� on the way to the castle, Carter suddenly spoke. �You did that to��

�Was that inappropriate?�

�No.� He thought and finally shook his head. �I can�t tell, I just think that no one has ever treated the recruited subjects like this�they have neither title nor family background, not even surnames or names.�

�But you still felt good, right?�

�Uh��

Roland smiled. Of course, he knew how strongly this idea would appeal to Carter, who also saw honor in fight and guardianship. When people start thinking about for whom and why they were fighting, the platoon would undergo unimaginable changes. There was a deep significance for Carter: once honor was no longer the privilege of the noble alone, and through his training and teaching, the civilian population who had nothing could also obtain honor by defending their homes, his doubled sense of accomplishment was simply indescribable.

Of course, the public funeral was just a beginning, Roland thought, he still had many means that could be used to enhance the collective sense of honor, such as the design of a military flag, the composition of a military song, the choice of a model hero and so on.

Every kind of spirit had its own origin. Only the relentless practice day after day would instill the idea and gradually achieve results. In order to ensure the reliable operating system in the future, he even arranged a small team consisting of himself, the City Hall, the Militia team to ensure that the follow-up food and charcoal were continually distributed.

As things progressed, Roland felt that his burden was getting heavier. Border town was still too backward, though people�s livelihood had started to get on track. There was adequate food reserve, and so far no one had starved or frozen to death. This would have been a miracle in other cities. Even in the king�s city, the capital of the Kingdom of Graycastle, the winter wiped out many refugees or orphans every year.

But he wanted far more than that, the City Hall�s operating load had already reached the limit. All financial and administrative management relied on Assistant Minister Barov and his dozen apprentices. If he wanted to further expand the department, he had to recruit some managers. He had once asked Barov if there were any capable students or colleagues left in the king�s city, but he received a cold reply: �Even if there were, they wouldn�t be willing to come. Your Highness, do you realize how bad your reputation is in the king�s city?�

[Well, that sounds reasonable,] he thought unhappily.

Back at the castle backyard, Nightingale stepped out of the Mist and gave a warm embrace to Wendy, who was waiting outside the wooden shed. Lightning hung around the unfinished steam boring machine and once she saw Roland, immediately insisted she wanted to help assemble this automatic machine.

Looking at this scene, he suddenly felt that his efforts had been worth it.

Four days later, a firing room was built in the backyard at North Slope Mine.

Two deep holes were dug in the yard, each one was round, with a narrow top and a wide bottom. The front diameter was about 20 centimeters, while the rear end was enlarged to 26 centimeters. Roland intended to use these holes to cast the mold. The hole had already been baked by Anna, and the surface of the soil was sintered into a whole like an outer shell. The chamber faced downwards so that a better wall quality could be achieved during casting. If the chamber were placed higher, more dross and bubbles would be produced. All the cave sizes were calculated by shells as he vaguely remembered that the so-called six-pound and eight-pound cannon were named according to the weight of their shells. So a few 12-pound iron balls were poured out, and the ball diameter plus barrel wall thickness were used to calculate the mold diameter.

Roland decided to customize the standard himself since he had no measurement tools. He intercepted a section with his own ring finger and set it as a centimeter. He then used this method to produce other sizes of iron bars and engraved the section lines.

A 12-pound iron ball diameter roughly measured about 12 centimeters. He set the thinnest wall with a thickness of four centimeters. The back of the chamber had its wall thickness expanded to seven centimeters, in order to prevent bombing. Thus the mold diameter could be obtained in this way. As for its length, although he knew that the cannon was measured by its caliber, he could only remember the caliber of battleships and cannon tanks. As for antique-like guns, he really had no idea.

He also took into account that a shorter tube, would not only be lighter but would also be cost-effective and reduce the amount of material needed. So Roland casually came up with the figure of one and a half meter, knowing that if the test results were not satisfactory, this figure could still be adjusted in the future.

When the cannon was first invented, it was made of iron on the wooden core and sealed with iron powder. Then it was reinforced with iron hoop, before the core would be burnt away in the borehole, just like the barrel storage. Roland knew that this type of cannon had a high risk of bombing due to gas leaking, so he decided to use the overall casting and the boring machine drilling process. As for the steam boring machine, whether it was drilling a 6-pound cannon or a 12-pound cannon made no difference in the level of difficulty.

He also believed that the caliber equated to justice, so he chose the 12-pound cannon which had a larger muzzle and a thicker barrel. If it got any bigger, it would not be easy to use as a field artillery. As for the weight of the shell, whether it was calculated as a shot or an iron ball was not important, as long as it could shoot out. After all, he was just drawing on the experiences of history, and not imitating everything.

�Let�s start,� said Roland taking a deep breath, facing Anna. The latter nodded, grabbed a piece of steel ingot, and hung it over the top of the hole. Green flames ignited. The ingot quickly turned red, and then melted, forming a small molten waterfall, which flowed into the hole. The steel surface was red and orange, the core became incandescent, and its brightness was difficult to look at directly. In order to protect the witch�s eyesight, Roland also deliberately set up extra support for her in the hole. She only needed to determine the location in advance and place her arm on the support pad, then she would not need to stare at the liquid steel to observe whether it flowed into the hole.

These steel ingots were slowly accumulated over time. Anna alone would not be able to kick start the great steel making era, but producing a small batch was easy for her�once the temperature issue was solved, frying the steel would be able to produce more high-quality steel.

This was also why Roland dared to customize the size of the barrel. Compared to pig iron or bronze barrels, steel cast barrel was obviously stronger. Even if the size was not right, the cannon would still not bomb easily.

The liquid steel gradually increased, while the steel ingots were swiftly used up. Roland felt some heartache as he saw this. How long would it take before he could build a pile of chimneys and blast furnace on his domain so that he could refine an endless amount of steel? For a long time, steel production was one of the criteria to measure the power and strength of a country. He finally understood the reason for that now.

Anna�s cheeks became glowing red after filling the two molds. Roland saw this and took out his handkerchief to dab the sweat from her nose. At the beginning, Anna showed a little resistance towards Roland�s touch, but now she would stand still and allow Roland to do so with her eyes closed.

Her falling bangs looked red on the edges as they reflected the liquid steel, while the softness of her neck seemed to invite a nimble. As he was much taller, he could see the exposed half of her delicate clavicle. When they were close to each other, he could get a whiff of the fragrance from her body.

�Well, okay�� Roland put away the handkerchief and suppressed his passion. �Let�s call it a day. You did well, and I�ll inform the kitchen to reward you with an extra slice of black pepper steak.�

[Not now,] he thought, [this will look like I�m taking advantage of her. Wait till she�s really free�]

Anna opened her eyes. Although the sweat had been wiped away, her face seemed redder than before. She nodded towards Roland and gently said, �Yes.�

*******************

Over the next few days, Roland traveled between the castle and the North Slope Mine.

In addition to the barrel, he also needed to produce a sufficient amount of boring knives.

This tool for drilling was produced in the same way as barrels. The diameter and shells were exactly the same. Once removed from the mold, Anna would heat it again, and rely on hammer processing to mold it. It was very different from the shape of a screwdriver and it looked more like a blunt iron bar. The only difference was that the head had a gap knocked out for the discharge of metal debris. Finally, quenching was used to improve the hardness of the boring knife.

Unlike modern high-precision boring machines, Roland only needed a rod that could drill holes. Taking into account the high wear and tear rate, he and Anna made five of these simple boring knives in a week. Prior to this, the steam boring machine had already proven its ability�the production of pig iron barrels increased rapidly from 2 per month to 10 per day.

When everything was ready, the cannon was mined by the miners from the pit, cleared of surface scum, and transported to the blacksmith shop.

The two cannons almost exhausted the rolled steel accumulated by Roland. Steel was definitely a priceless commodity. During transportation, the prince ordered Carter and two knights to guard them the whole journey. Chief Knight felt arranging the extra security was not necessary. Who would steal such a heavy thing?

The blacksmiths carried out leveling and polishing of the appearance of the cannons at the request of the prince. After polishing, it was transported to the castle backyard. At this point, the two rounds of solid steel stick appeared dark gray and emitted a thick metallic luster.

Roland could not wait to put on the boring tool and put the cannons in place together with Carter. The top of the knife needed to be in the center of the steel bar.

Roland pulled off the steam engine door at this historic moment. The boring knife began to move slowly and it did not take long to rise to a stable speed.

�Come on!� the prince shouted.

The chief knight activated the sliding base to control the amount of contact between the cannon and the boring tool. When the head touched the barrel, the harsh noise suddenly overshadowed the roar of the steam engine. Lard was used as a lubricant and squeezed into the hole, before black foam and the metal curls gushed out. The witches there started to withdraw from the wooden shed, but only Lightning insisted on remaining. She felt that these swarthy machines were more beautiful than any scenery.

�Groundhog� Cole looked anxiously out the window.

Once it started snowing in this forsaken place, it would not stop. Though the sky looked like his grandmother�s unwashed bed sheets, both dirty and gray, he still had other ways to tell the hour.

It was the training of the Militia. As long as the weather allowed, they would run through the square in the town center every morning when the birds chirped (at 8 o�clock). This bunch of fools was doing so before the Months of Demons arrived, and continued to do so even now. Did not they know the most important thing in winter was to save their strength? When the time came for them to run for their dear life, they would probably have to ask gods to give them an extra pair of legs. But thanks to this gang of fools, he was able to estimate the time when he should depart.

Yes, he wanted to flee this devilish town! Although the orders of Prince Timothy were for him to keep lurking in Border Town, so as to observe the movements of Prince Roland Wimbledon and pass the information to Valencia, he did not want to stay any longer.

He was afraid that after half a month, he would join the residents here to become the demons� sacrifice.

This was not an exaggeration!

Since winter arrived, strange things kept happening, which the others might not have been aware of�it was not surprising as most of the town people were country bumpkins. Other than food, they did not care about anything, and they did not even care about the deities. But he was different. He was �Groundhog� Cole! Inquiring about the news and stealing intelligence was his special skill, so that was why His Highness Timothy hired him for such a job.

As for the city wall that came out of nowhere overnight, or the iron stick that made loud strange noises but could also defeat demonic beasts, of course, this was not the most amazing discovery he found.

Prince Roland was openly keeping witches!

Merciful God, was there anything more exaggerated than this? The prince had to be controlled by demons, otherwise, he could not think of any other explanation!

Even if the prince wanted to dally with the witches, he could lock them in the castle and have fun anytime. This was not the first time that Cole heard about the noble secretly hiding witches�those wanton sorceresses who nobody would care about if they died suited the strange tastes of some nobles. However, openly admitting it was another thing.

This was not his delusion, for he actually saw it with his own eyes!

Following the principle of �You worked for whoever gave you money�, if the snow was not too heavy, Cole would stroll around the city wall, where he could often see the figure of Prince Roland. Originally he was surprised, what made this incompetent prince have the courage to stay in Border Town, rather than rush back like a scaredy-cat to Longsong Stronghold. But now he fully understood, Roland Wimbledon had long been possessed by the demon.

He saw with his own eyes that the city wall was penetrated by huge demonic beasts, the demon used thunder to attack it, then the demonic beasts that flocked forward was engulfed by the hell flames summoned by a witch. Finally, this witch also fell into the prince�s arms, yet the entire Militia did not seem surprised!

He then heard the rumors of the neighborhood, saying that there was a witch with healing power. She cured someone�s injured son and also cured some old lady who broke her leg. What blasphemous words! How could they accept the treatment of a witch? How was that different from accepting the demon�s corrosion?

What made Cole determined to return was the incident that happened two days ago. He saw a witch fly out of the prince�s castle, flying around the castle twice and flying back. The priest of the church often said that after the witch was tempted by the demon, she could get only one power. He had already seen flame and flight. Coupled with the rumor about the witch that could heal, it meant that this small town actually had three witches!

There was no doubt that the demon had already turned the lord�s castle into the demon�s party nest, and the inhabitants of the land were gradually being controlled by him. Cole had to flee as soon as possible. Anyway, he knew the secret about the rapid construction of the city wall. As long as he passed this information and the stolen alchemy powder from the city wall to Prince Timothy, he would most likely not be punished, but would even be rewarded.

The more he thought about it, the more he regretted not evacuating with the nobles and returning to Longsong Stronghold at the start.

Now that he wanted to leave, road traffic would not work, as the snow throughout the winter would cover all the roads. His only chance was by the waterway and using the merchant ships of Willow Town.

According to Cole�s observation, on the first day of each month, ships from Willow Town would bring food over. After two to three hours of unloading and loading, it would sail away from the pier. He had to use this time to infiltrate the boat, or he would have to wait till the next month.

Today was exactly the first day of the month.

�One, two, three, four, one two three four.� Right at this time, Cole heard the familiar slogan. Outside the window, a platoon of young men dressed in brown leather vests was running. If he had not long seen through the demon�s plot, he would also be deceived by their youthful vigor.

[It�s time to go,] he thought.

He put on his fur coat, tightened his belt and walked out of the hut. Neighbors were outside collecting dried fish, and they even greeted him. �You�re going out so early?�

He had to say, although the Lord of Border Town was controlled by the demon, these fools� lives actually changed for the better indeed. They even dared to dry fish outdoors�if people were famished, even the dried fish that was frozen like stone, they would be able to swallow it whole.

Cole did not have time to reply. He looked at the disappearing Militia in the west and went straight towards the direction of the pier. Here the inhabitants took him for the brother of Iron Paddle, who came from Fallen Dragon Ridge to visit his loved ones�of course, that was all lies spun by him. Before he got rid of Iron Paddle, he asked for his name and address and pretended to be his brother to lurk in the town. As for his casually fabricated identity, he did not care if those fools believed him or not.

The snow on the slated road was swept a few days ago, and now it almost covered the top of the shoes. He kept a firm pace as much as possible to conserve energy�he did not worry about leaving his footprints, for it would take just one day that the snow would cover them again. Maybe after he reached Valencia, they would still be kept in the dark.

When he was approaching the pier, Cole saw the long-awaited sailing ship of Willow Town.

Bags of wheat were being moved out while cabin guards watched the area. He touched his pocket, and inside there were two gold royals and six silver royals, which was his entire belongings. There were six guards, who would not bother about the silver royals, and yet he did not have enough gold royals to share. So he had to target the porters. The stacked goods provided a blind spot; besides, he was good at knocking out and replacing a porter. If he could smuggle onto the boat, he believed that with the temptation of the gold royals, the captain would very likely be persuaded to harbor him and take him away.

Just as Cole was ready to act, uproar came behind him.

His heart secretly assumed the worst. When he turned back, he saw a few members of the militia team coming toward him while people around were moving towards him. Apparently, he had been surrounded.

Seeing that the attempt to escape was hopeless, Cole immediately held up his hands and knelt on the ground. In his line of work, it was important to not stubbornly resist. As long as he spilled the beans about his employer, he would generally be safe and sound, or� they would even pay a higher price to hire him instead.

�Do as much work as you�re paid for� was also �Groundhog� Cole�s principle.

But he did not understand how he was exposed?

In addition to the flame in the fireplace, there was also a mahogany candle holder on Barov�s table. The top was divided into four fork branches, with the one in the middle being the highest and the other three in a triangular shape. Each branch had a burning candle on it, with their quiet light like bright icy mountaintops.

The room was filled with the smell of pine oil. The scent of sweet and moist rotten wood made him sleepy. But in Border Town, he could not ask for more. Elegance had nothing to do with this poor land and having a house for shelter was already very good, not to mention that he now had a large group of houses.

His office was located in a compound not far from the castle, where the City Hall initially built by the former lord lay. Of course, the lord took all his men when he left, and now it was the assistant minister�s territory.

The continuous rustling sound of writing and the whistling winds outside the window constituted two different worlds. Barov was struggling to write on a wooden table fully covered with books and old scrolls. There were two lowlying long tables beside him, which were hardly used and just for placing manuscripts. When it was necessary, he would call his disciples to work at the low table to arrange information or compose drafts.

The candle on the mahogany holder had already been changed three times. Apart from getting up to replace them, Barov did not stop writing. Time was precious for him. There was a pile of documents waiting for him to deal with, and His Highness� financial expenditure also needed to be carefully reviewed.

Now Barov worked an average of 10 hours a day, but he did not feel tired at all. Instead, here he was able to work freely and had unending vigor. [This was the taste of power,] he thought. He no longer had to ape his tutor�s footsteps. All the disciples had to obey him. No one dared to hinder him or cause problems. As long as he completed the orders of His Royal Highness, the specific process of governance could be decided by him.

It would be perfect if the prince�s order could be slightly more normal. Barov pouted regretfully. For example, the document in front of him that had Roland�s personal seal had a request to send staff to Willow Town to recruit management personnel and also to purchase a double mast ship. The second article also specifically wrote: In view of the price, you can do without the captain, helmsmen, and sailors.

He did not know whether to laugh or cry after reading it. [Without these people, who will drive the ship back? Do you expect them to walk back after buying it? Why do you need to buy a boat? This is the most critical point. The trading between Border Town and Willow Town was very stable. If you want to expand the ore trade after winter, you can just ask them to increase the number of boats. Buying boats isn�t a wise choice, not to mention the town�s port can only be used for docking. Without any shipyard protection or sailors to manage them, it will be abandoned before long. Probably His Highness was up to his crazy ideas again, right?]

As for the first request, he could understand its motive.

Currently, everyone in the City Hall was busy. The dozen staff that Barov brought was responsible for the regulation of commerce, statistical reports and income and expenditure settlements. He himself handled the administrative and legislative services, which was obviously unreasonable. If His Highness wanted to separate these departments, he needed to increase the employees in the City Hall. This was a very normal reason, but yet Barov did not want to let go of his power so soon. Having all the power in his own hand was just too satisfying. He thought that even his teacher, the kingdom�s Treasurer, was only responsible for the finances of Graycastle. But he, Barov, was the Hand of the King.

[Ahem, well, only effective in Border Town,] he added in his heart. Although His Highness Roland had promised this, there was still a long way to go before he could ascend the throne. Barov found that he subconsciously included Prince Roland again as a contender for the throne. In the past, he would not have thought that this noble son with bad character and lack of any learning or skills could be crowned king.

Since coming to Border Town, he had no end of surprises. Up till now, Border Town was under the protection of the Militia. It was standing firmly in the Western Region and looked like it would persist for a long time. This was already good enough. Coupled with His Highness� new inventions, and a good understanding of the people�s hearts, he was completely different from Prince Roland back in the Kingdom of Graycastle. He resembled more a demon who had an insight into everything.

At this time, there was a sound of knocking at the door. Barov reluctantly stopped the business at hand, and said, �Come in.�

Coming through the door was one of his favorite disciples, �The Writer� Jaaro.

�Teacher, another �Rat� was caught.�

�Yeah? Did you manage to find out anything?�

�He said he was sent by the Second Prince. We found a package of cement powder on him, some coins and a letter.� Jaaro came forward, handed Barov a leather-wrapped envelope. �We�re still interrogating him to get more information. Teacher, how should we deal with him��

�Just like before. After interrogation, compile all the information into a book. Then sentence him as guilty and hang him,� Barov said nonchalantly.

�Yes,� said Jaaro with a bow, �In that case, I�ll take my leave.�

The door was closed again, but Barov did not go back to his work immediately. Instead, he went back to the table and used an envelope opener to take out the letter.

[The fourth one�] he thought.

Way before the Months of Demons arrived, Roland Wimbledon had called him to discuss this problem.

His Royal Highness believed that when the cement, new snow powder, and witches were disclosed, the spies sent by his siblings would not be able to retain their patience and would come out from hiding. This would be the best time to remove the Rats. Barov agreed with the first half of the statement but did not agree with the latter part. In his view, Border Town had more than 2,000 people, so it was impossible to monitor everyone. They did not have the manpower or time to prevent this sort of small offense.

His Highness refuted. �How could there be no one? Every subject of Border Town can be our eyes.�

At that time, Barov felt it was wishful thinking on the prince�s part. He wanted to let these ignorant and dull civilians monitor the possible emergence of Rats? It was completely impossible!

It turned out that he was wrong.

At the first census conducted in winter, Roland deliberately mentioned to all the indigenous people that stayed here for more than five years: Longsong Stronghold�s conspiracy to burn the grain failed, but they still did not give up. They already sent enemies to lurk among the people. Most of them were disguised as relatives of the town people or businessmen that did not evacuate in time. These spies would find any opportunity to scourge everyone. If anyone saw any suspicious characters, they should report it to the City Hall immediately. Once verified, they would receive a reward of 25 silver royals.

This trick turned out to be surprisingly effective.

Although there were some false reports, it was not long before that the first Rat got caught this way.

At that time, Barov also remembered that Roland proudly said something quite awkward.

What was it? He tried to think, that�s right� �Let the enemy get drowned in the sea of the civilian battles.�

Really weird wording and syntax. Barov shook his head and spread out the letter.

The guy, known as the �Groundhog�, repeatedly stressed in the letter that many factors proved that Prince Roland Wimbledon had been replaced by a demon. Barov could even read his fears through the lines. Associating this with His Highness� manipulation of human sentiments, Barov could not help but agree. He took a deep breath, moved the letter to the candle, and soon the paper was engulfed by the flame and turned into ash.

[Even it�s true, he�s a demon who was not afraid of God�s Stone of Retaliation and able to endow him with power, right?]

Timothy Wimbledon was sitting on the throne, with a red gemstone scepter in his hand, looking down at the ministers in the palace hall.

He thought this feeling was what he wanted, instead of staying in Valencia, entangled with businessmen for trivial matters.

When he knocked the tip of the pure gold scepter on the polished marble floor, a crisp sound reverberated. He nodded when the attention of the people was on him. �Let�s begin.�

�Your Majesty, I have something to report,� Knight Weimar spoke first. He was nicknamed �Steelheart Knight�, responsible for the defense of the king�s city.

�Go on.�

�Can we suspend the manhunt of witches? Your Majesty, the hunt is getting out of control. Yesterday, I heard that some girls from civilian families were arrested and interrogated in the dungeon. One of them actually died there. Later, it turned out that they weren�t witches. Now people in the outer city are panicking. If this continues, I�m afraid people will be fleeing in droves.�

Timothy frowned. It was him who had ordered the hunt of witches. King Wimbledon III�s true cause of death was still unascertained so far, but he did not think his father would commit suicide. In particular, the strange smile prior to his death gave Timothy the creeps. The church also confirmed that the God�s Stone of Retaliation on his father�s wrist was not switched, making it still effective. But these things alone could not completely exonerate the witches.

When it came to oddness, no one was better at it than the witches.

He shifted his gaze to Langley, the person leading the witchhunt and namely the minion trained by him. The latter stood up. �Your Majesty, it was just an accident. I�ve severely punished the personnel involved.� He counted with his fingers. �The warden, the castellan, and the guards have been sentenced to 10 lashings and fined 25 silver royals.�

�One person is dead and three cruelly tortured. But the villains are getting off with just a few whips and some fines?� Knight Weimar said coldly, �and who gave you the right to make that sentence? His Excellency Prime Minister Wyke, or Minister of Justice Lord Pilaw?�

�Your Majesty! At the unusual time, I have to act unusually.� Langley knelt down on his knees, crying out his grievances. �Despite some negligible setbacks, the witchhunt has been very successful. We�ve caught at least 15 witches lurking in the king�s city. The witches are being tortured. We�ll soon be able to know whether they have anything to do with your father�s� no, I mean, whether there�s a conspiracy.�

Timothy glared at him. The fool had almost exposed his own intentions. Although the ministers in the hall could guess his real purpose, the word to the public should be that the first Prince Gerald had killed the king. He would not allow this point to be overturned.

�15 witches?� Steelheart Knight scorned in a contemptuous tone. �Very well. Originally the king�s city had become the witches� battalion. A few years ago, the church captured only six members of the Witch Cooperation Association during the rounded-up hunt at the forest east of the king�s city. It seemed your minions are stronger than the Judgement Army of the church.�

�You�!�

�That�s enough!� Timothy said. He was annoyed with the fool Langley, who had equally foolish subordinates. If he did not lack talents at the start of his throne ascension, he would not have promoted this fool. Even if he had wanted the credit, he should not have faked the numbers. These 15 people were probably the same as those hapless civilian women. He did not want the church to intervene, but there was no other way. �Go to the church and ask Priest Ferry to confirm the identity of those 15 people. Stop all the inquisition and torture. Whenever you arrest anyone, a priest�s verification is required from now on. If I find out that you�ve failed to keep your subordinates in line again, I�ll throw you into the king�s city moat as fish feed.�

�Well, yes, Your Majesty.�

�Do it now!�

After asking Langley to leave the hall, Timothy turned to his treasurer. �If anyone of them is wronged, please compensate each with two gold royals, including the previous three persons. Compensate the family of the one who died in prison.� He paused and added, �Give one more gold royal.�

�As you wish.� The treasurer nodded.

�Your Majesty is merciful.� Knight Weimar also remarked, saluting.

�Let�s move on to the next item.� Breathing out turbid air, Timothy noticed his ministers were silent. �Since no one has anything to add, I�ll speak.� He turned towards to �Umbrella� Sir Bullet, Minister of Foreign Affairs, and said, �The recall has been issued for more than a month, but no one has returned to the king�s city. What�s going on?�

Sir Bullet was from the Flynn Family and had remained in his position for three decades. He was old with a head of gray hair, an age where one of his feet was in the coffin. He cleared his throat. �I�d like to report to Your Majesty. I�ve heard nothing about your third younger sister, Garcia Wimbledon. Your fourth younger brother, Roland Wimbledon, has replied with a letter. His letter said he�ll consider returning after the Months of Demons ended, when his subjects are safe and sound.� �But��

�But what?�

�He addressed you as His Highness on the envelope, not His Majesty or the king.�

Timothy could not help sneering. His hopeless brother was still as stupid as ever. If Roland would return and serve him as the king, he could give him a good fief, where Roland might enjoy wealth and honor as a prince. If he did not come back, he should prepare his deathbed as soon as possible. No matter what Roland did, he would be prepared. Roland wanted to return, but did not want to bow his head in submission. What was the use of having a silver tongue?

�Let him do as he likes.� Timothy waved. �How about my fifth sister?�

�Your Majesty, she�s� missing.�

�What? What do you mean?�

�She initially agreed to leave with the messenger I sent. But a week later, she�s gone missing along with her butler and two maids. I�ve ordered people to look for her. So far there�s no information on her whereabouts.�

[How did this happen? Why are they so unwilling to believe me!] Timothy felt like his heart was blocked. Originally, he had had great expectations of this sister, hoping that she would be able to assist him. After all, Tilly had performed extraordinarily smartness from her childhood, even more brilliant than him. Compared to him, she was at a disadvantage to him only in one aspect�she was a girl.

At first Timothy had been confident in her. From his father�s arrangements, he did not intend to involve Tilly in the succession turmoil. She was to be given the domain in Silver City, near the king�s city. The business and trade there were ordinary, without condition to keep soldiers. It was strange that his fifth sister would unexpectedly go missing.

Was this the choice of a smart person?

�Since she�s missing, let the former lord take charge of Silver City. Keep looking for her. I can�t let royal blood be stranded with ordinary folk.� Gritting his teeth, he tried to suppress his upset. �Then, is my third sister the only one left to refuse to obey me?�

�Yes, Your Majesty.�

�Since she�s so stubborn, then I�d to take some tough measures.� Timothy looked to Prime Minister Marquis Wyke. It required the agreement by both the king and prime minister to issue an order on the war. As the prime minister was his largest supporter, it should not be a problem. Timothy said, �I plan to ask Duke Joey in the Southern Territory to dispatch their troops, force Garcia to give up the Port of Clearwater, and escort her back to the king�s city.�

Sure enough, Marquis Wyke replied, �The matter shall not be delayed. Your Majesty, please issue your order as soon as possible. The minister for diplomacy will be responsible for executing it.�

Timothy nodded with satisfaction. He was about to call the clerk to draft the document, when they heard the sound of hooves outside the hall. After a burst of noise, a knight in a blue-stripe cloak pushed the door open and marched inside.

Timothy recognized him, Naim Moor, the famous �Frostwind Knight�. He went straight to the center of the Palace Hall, and knelt down on one knee. �Your Majesty, I�ve just received the news from the south.� He breathed a sigh of relief. �Garcia Wimbledon, your sister, defeated Duke Joe Kohl in the Southern Territory, and occupied Eagle City! And� she declared herself as Queen of Clearwater. All the lords have responded in support to her. The Southern Territory�s independent!�

On the bank of the Redwater River, the west of Border Town.

The snow made it difficult for the carriage to move a single step. They spent half a day hauling their first field artillery out of town.

�What�s it this time?� asked Carter, who had been accustomed to the new inventions of the prince. �A larger flintlock?�

�Kind of,� Roland answered, and then commanded his people to remove the hook. He adjusted the angle of the gun carriage in person to keep the cannon flat and put the pole in the snow.

The principles of the cannon and flintlock were exactly the same, so it was very appropriate to call it a larger flintlock. The cannon could load 12-pound, solid iron balls, with the shells and gunpowder put into the front chamber and ignited with fuses. Referring to the mature designs in history, Roland instructed the carpenters to build a wooden gun carriage for it. In order to improve the durability, they also wrapped the edges of the parts with iron sheet which bore more friction with the ground and more forces when launching.

To make the carriage and wheels, Roland spent almost the same time as drilling the cannon bore. It took three carpenters one full week to complete them. Especially to make the wheels, with a diameter of half the height of a man, the carpenters first shaved four square timbers of equal length, and then infiltrated them and baked them with fire to bend them. Next, they whittled the groove for joggle jointing at the ends. This entire procedure alone took four days.

Therefore, in Roland�s eyes, this handmade, 12-pound field artillery of a limited quantity was giving off a dazzling light. When the cannon was dragged out for a test, the prince made special arrangements. Besides Chief Knight Carter and Militia Commander Iron Axe, all the guards and knight apprentices also went along. 12 members of the Militia were sent to empty the venue and keep alert. In addition, he brought Nightingale and Lightning for the first time. Thanks to Nana, the prejudice towards the witches had reduced significantly and Nana herself became the person who was second only to the prince in stature.

�Do it according to the process, and clean the bore first.� Although Roland was quite clear about the structure of the cannon, he knew nothing about the operation. He was racking his brain trying to recall the scenes of operating the cannon in various medieval movies, trying to figure out a process. However, only God would know what the actual result would be.

Lightning was in high spirits. She pulled out a mop-like cleaning rod from underneath the gun carriage and poked it into the muzzle. Different from the other witches� contracts, Lightning proposed that as long as she was allowed to manipulate all kinds of novelty inventions, she would like to work for Roland with no salary. In the face of this money-saving condition, Roland naturally agreed. Anyway, when it came to a secret project, he would study it secretly. There were many ideas in his mind waiting to be realized, and there would be enough for Lightning to study for a long time if he casually tossed out a few ideas.

She fiddled a few times, but the mop did not bring out any debris. However, according to the process, she had to clean it a second time. She took another mop and fiddled a few times again. Then the bore cleaning was done.

�Do you see it clearly?� asked Roland, looking at the knights and the militias. The test was also an exercise. Since the production of the flintlock had increased significantly, the Militia was bound to evolve into a regular infantry while wooden spears would be replaced by flintlocks and cannons. This required a lot of shooting training, so they would skillfully operate these two hot weapons on the battlefield.

Seeing that everyone nodded, he let Lightning move on to the next step.

Lightning took out a package of gunpowder wrapped with paper, and stuffed it straight into the end of the cannon bore with a wooden pole. Then she put a shell into the end. After that, she took out a drill pipe and put it through the fuse hole in the rear of the cannon barrel, stabbed the gunpowder package and then inserted the fuse. Thus, the launch preparation was complete.

To prevent accidents, everyone withdrew 30 steps and hid behind the bunker. After Lightning put the torch close to the fuse, the spark shone immediately and soon drilled into the cannon barrel in a short time.

Then there was a loud noise�

The high-speed airflow from the muzzle brought up the snow and raised a snow fog above the ground. The 12-pound cannon had a valid range of more than 1,000 meters in theory. Even if there was no rifling, the front shell would go in a straight line. The armor target, placed about 100 meters away, clanged and flew up when it was hit by the 12-pound iron ball. The speed of the iron ball did not reduce and it bounced back immediately when falling on the ground, stirring up more snow.

When the smoke of gunpowder cleared, Carter and Iron Axe were the first to run to the target. They found that the front of the armor target completely sunk, and the front deck was attached to the rear deck, with a palm-sized hole in its center. Obviously, the shell continued to fly forward about 100 meters after penetrating the target. Even when it fell on the ground, it kept rolling forward, showing the amazing power it contained.

�What a terrible penetrating force!� Carter exclaimed. He could imagine the horrors of the enemies when they gathered together and then became broken down by several shells.

�By the name of Three Gods.� Iron Axe began to believe that Roland was the messenger of the Goddess. Except for the messenger of the Goddess, who else could play the power of the flame to such an extent? The gunpowder particle, which he had repeatedly studied, was a common flammable material as long as it was ground up into powder and ignited. The flame was the Goddess� surging anger, as well as her most powerful weapon. Thinking of the neverending, orange fire erupting from the hole of the Southernmost Land, he had an impulse to worship the prince.

Roland was not surprised at the results, for the 12-pound field artillery could be described as a classic cannon. Especially the famous Napoleon Cannon, which shone in the American Civil War, fully proved that the large caliber was the beautiful truth.

Next, he tested the cannon�s strength with different doses of gunpowder. Although he knew that it could cause damage to the cannon, it was necessary to do the tests.

When shooting with three parcels of gunpowder, the cannon muzzle rose and the carriage moved, but the barrel showed no obvious deformation. It seemed that the steel barrel was excellent in strength. Finally, Roland determined the standard amount of powder should be 1.2 times the amount used in the test. All that was left was to select the cannoneers and practice it over and over again.

�Your Highness, this weapon is powerful, but it�s too heavy. If it were to run into a pit, it could hardly move,� said Carter, who immediately found the shortcomings of the new weapon. �Moreover, the cannon barrel should be cleaned every time before loading. Since the cannons use more gunpowder and shells than the flintlocks, I�m afraid we need five or six people to operate one cannon.�

�Yes, but everything is worth it. As long as we�re equipped with two or three cannons, the duke� no, I mean the demonic beasts, like giant turtles, will be impossible to break through the city wall.� Roland coughed and felt that was close. As for the shortcomings of the 12-pound cannon, he intended to solve that by shipping. It would be a complex and huge mechanical system to apply steam engines to steam-powered boats, even to the most primitive paddle steamer.

Instead of transforming them by himself, it would be better to buy two-masted sailing ships, and then quickly transport the Militia and the cannons behind the duke�s troops with Wendy�s control of the wind. With this, he would attack from both sides and annihilate the duke�s forces.

�What? What do you mean we can�t afford it?� Roland sat in the office, looking at the request documents to recruit more administrators and purchase sailing ships.

Barov cleared his throat and answered, �No, Your Highness, we can�t. The price of a two-mast sailing ship is between 80 to 120 gold royals, but that�s just the cost of shipbuilding. The price may be higher with crew costs. The total price is estimated at over 200 gold royals.�

�Didn�t I say that we don�t need sailors or helmsmen? We also don�t need a captain. We just need a ship,� Roland said, hammering on the table. With Wendy onboard, he would not need so many people to operate the sailing ship. Most of the inland river boats sailed straight. It was as easy to operate as raising and lowering a flag. So the oarsmen and sailors were redundant, and any helmsman could handle that. Anyway, with the vector of wind, did he have to worry that the boat would not go forward?

�Your Highness, there�s no such business, at least not in Willow Town,� Barov explained carefully, �You may not know much about the industry. Generally speaking, the owner of the ship is also the captain, maybe a businessman, or a noble. The former will recruit the crew himself and do business or transport goods between the major towns and docks. The latter will normally recruit a deputy captain to live on the ship instead of himself. Employees aren�t paid on a monthly basis, but once every one to three years.�

�Most of the time, the ship and the crew are tied together. If you purchase the ship from the captain without the crew he hired, then he loses the hiring salary. Even for the great nobles, 80 gold royals isn�t a paltry sum that can be freely shed. Including the rough gemstone trading with Willow Town from the beginning of this month, City Hall now has a total of 315 gold royals. If you spend most of it purchasing the ship, you won�t be able to pay the Militia next month.� The assistant minister said this without pausing, and then lifted his cup to drink his ale.

�You said most of the time��

�Yes.� he nodded. �There are two cases when the ships will be sold without the crew. The first case is that the merchant is in desperate need of money so that he�ll sell his property. He�ll also dismiss all the crew and then sell the ship as soon as possible. The other case is that the owner wants to buy a new ship. It�s easy to understand. But I have to say that both cases are very rare.�

�Wait.� Roland frowned. �You said to buy a new ship. Where do these ships come from?�

�Port of Clearwater, Seawindshire, and Farsight Point. Only seaports have shipyards and can produce new ships.�

So, this was what he had meant when he said there was no such business, at least not in Willow Town. Roland was silent for a moment. It was too far away to go to seaports to buy ships. And if he did not hire a crew, who would help him to get the ships back? �In that case, l� will think it over.�

When the assistant minister left, the prince was lost in thought.

Shipping was an irreplaceable part of his strategic plan. Without fast and convenient shipping, he would not be able to use cannons in the battle. The Duke of Longsong Stronghold usually recruited farmers, knights and mercenaries and the marching speed would be slow. However, their speed was slower. As Carter had said, by land, a mud pit could make the cannons difficult to move, even one step. There were no asphalt roads in this era, not even any stone roads. There were so many people walking that they formed trails. The road was fine during sunny weather, but it got muddy on rainy days.

Would he have to build the ship himself?

Roland spread out a piece of paper and wrote down the specifications he needed.

Firstly, the ship would need to transport one or two cannons as well as about 30 people. Ships in this era were driven by sails and not equipped with a power system. Secondly, the ship would only be sailing on inland rivers. It would need to be stable and reliable. With a shallow draught, it would not be easy for it to capsize or sink. Thirdly, it would need to be easy to operate so that the Militia could handle it quickly after minimal training.

Considering all these points, there was only one solution�a barge.

In the world where Roland used to live, this kind of ship, with its extremely shallow draught and low center of gravity, could be seen everywhere along almost all the river routes. In the old days, the ships stacked with sand or gravel, almost flat with the surface of the water, were all barges. As long as there was a tugboat, it could pull several barges forward like a train.

After the ship type was determined, the next key point was to determine which material should be used to build the ship.

Roland wrote down three options: wood, iron, and concrete.

Men first made ships with wood. From rafts to the Ship of the Line, from sailing in the rivers to sailing in the seas, wooden ships could always be a good choice. It was a pity that Roland did not know how to make a flat boat with logs, and there were no craftsmen. If he relied on the few carpenters, he could only make a large raft which could fall apart at any moment.

Iron ships were built similarly to houses. The keel was made up of the primary and secondary beams put in a crisscross and covered with iron sheets. If Anna could do the welding, then the overall stiffness would be guaranteed. However, it would deplete the reserves of the iron ore which were already small. It was clearly a better choice to use these iron ores to produce steam engines and barrels.

The concrete boat became the final option. The construction of the city wall had been finished, and there were still some raw materials left. As long as Anna calcinated them once or twice, they would have enough concrete. The construction of the concrete boat was much easier than that of the iron boat. They only needed to make a wooden template reinforced with iron bars, and then fill it with the concrete. Even in his rural village, people could build several concrete boats for fishing. The iron boat would need regular rust cleaning and painting, while the concrete boat would not require much maintenance. It could be built at a low cost, but still be strong and durable. Even if he had not learned how to build an ocean ship, building an inland concrete barge with a relatively low level of technology would not be too hard, would it?

Roland picked up a quill and quickly drew the draft of the barge.

�

A shed with walls was put up along Redwater River.

In order to facilitate the launching of the ship, Roland located the shipbuilding site as close as possible to the river bank.

Sheds could keep out the wind and snow. At the same time, two pots of charcoal were put in the room to avoid the impact that low-temperature had on the hardening effect of the concrete.

The carpenters created the basic template of the hull. The round bow would reduce the forward resistance, and the square stern would increase the loading area. The width of the boat was about 8 meters and its aspect ratio was 3:1. Compared with the conventional ships whose ratio was 8:1, it was quite bulky. In the center, they set up two masts. The masts were inserted into the bottom of the ship and connected to the iron beams passing through the centerline of the ship. At the stern, they set up a stake reserved for the rudder. Other places were crisscrossed with iron bars.

It did not matter that there were no iron wires for banding. All the intersections of the iron bars were personally welded firmly by Anna, forming an iron net over the bottom of the ship.

Once the template and rebar were ready, Roland ordered the workers to start the pouring operation.

The well-mixed concrete was poured into a template. The middle of the template was flat, and the walls were one and a half meters high, forming the cabin walls. At first sight, it looked like a very large bathtub.

Everyone involved in the construction, including Anna, had never thought that this strange thing made out of the same material as the city wall would eventually be a ship.

Cara noticed that the witch who was carrying her was breathing rapidly.

�Get someone else to carry me,� said Cara loudly, �Leaf, you carry me instead.�

Walking in the cold of the Impassable Mountain Range was very exhausting, especially in the snowy winter. Every day, the 42 witches had to find a suitable camp after walking a short distance and re-energize their medallions to withstand the sudden drop in temperature at night.

�Yes, Respected Mentor.� A witch squatted down in front of Cara. Cara summoned the demonic snake and made it wrap around the witch�s arms and pull herself up. Cara observed that the witch could not help trembling slightly.

�Damn Nightingale!� Cara thought bitterly. If Nightingale had not repeatedly refused her kindness, she would not have been cruel to her sister. At this crucial time in their search for Holy Mountain, Cara could not afford to take any risks.

And what was the result? After the damn traitor escaped, she was ready to stab her to death without hesitation. This was the result of her kindness! Cara�s thoughts were filled with anger. Nightingale had damaged her spine. Although Leaf quickly healed her wounds with herbs, Cara�s lower body was already paralyzed, and her feet had completely lost consciousness.

�Wait until I reach the Holy Mountain. I will call up more witches and cut you into pieces one day!� Cara thought.

�Respected Mentor, there are demonic beasts ahead of us.�

Scarlett, who was in charge of investigating, reported. She could see through obstacles, shelters, and all traps. Nothing could be hidden from her. At the same time, she even had the ability to see fast moving objects clearly. She had been able to knock off the Judgement Army�s bolts once, during a confrontation with the church.

�Put me down. Leaf, you go to help them.�

The witch nodded as she squatted and placed her on a stone. Her hands supported her body as she fell into the snow. She felt the cold come through her palm. Cara thought unpleasantly, �Couldn�t you at least wipe the snow away before letting me down?�

But she did not say it. Leaf was an irreplaceable member of the association. If it was because of Wendy and her good temperament that the witches had gathered and established the Witch Cooperation Association, then it was because of Leaf that everyone had the courage to follow her. Without her ability, most witches would have died along the way, hunted by the church.

Thinking of Wendy, Cara could not help feeling hurt. She had never expected that Wendy, who had established the Witch Cooperation Association with her, could betray her for Nightingale.

Even when Wendy blew her away, she had not wanted to kill Wendy. The venom secreted by the Snake of Magic �Suffering� would be painful and take effect slowly, but not lead to death immediately. The toxin could only be removed quickly if �Nothingness� bit her. She just wanted to give Wendy a lesson. If left alone, the toxin would invade her head and could not be cured. It was the wrong decision for Nightingale to take her away. Without the antidote to �Nothingness�, Wendy would not survive for more than a day.

Could it be that she, as a church nun, had no chance to go to the end with her sisters?

As for the other betrayer, Lightning, Cara did not care too much. She had joined the Witch Cooperation Association recently, and her ability seemed to be flying. She always put forward different views in the search for Holy Mountain and even openly questioned the Holy Book. If it had not been for the ideals of the Witch Cooperation Association, she would have killed the talkative little girl and tossed her aside in the snow.

Two wolf-shaped demonic beasts emerged from behind the hillside. The sisters of the Witch Cooperation Association were skilled at dealing with them. The sisters who were not able to fight moved backward. Leaf drove her magic first, causing weeds to grow rapidly. The green leaves suddenly broke through the snow and entangled the demonic beasts� feet. Another witch, Windseeker, dried up the air around the demonic beasts. The two monsters suffocated quickly. Foaming at the mouth, they fell to the ground in convulsions.

�This was the power of the witches,� Cara thought. Common people who relied on swords alone would easily lose their lives in the face of two demonic wolves. Only the witches with magical powers were the darling of the deities. If there was no God�s Stone of Retaliation� bah, it should be called the hell stone, how dare the church ride on their heads? She spat on the ground.

�Respected Mentor, please come up.� Leaf came back to Cara and bent down.

�Get someone else.� Cara sighed. �You�re tired.�

They continued on the road. By noon, the snow was falling less. Stone, who was responsible for the camp layout, found a leeward place. They decided to take a break here and eat something to renew their strength.

Stone quickly transformed the land. The snow transformed into fresh soil. The ground seemed to come alive, weaved and wriggled, and soon became smooth and dry. All the witches performed their duties and soon set up the pot to make porridge. The snow was boiled in a cup, mixed with some herbs strengthened by Leaf, and immediately sent out strong fragrance.

�Give your badges to Shino,� cried the little girl with extraordinary red hair like a leaping fire. Her ability was also related to fire. She could inject temperature into an object and make it glow for a long time. The badges of the Witch Cooperation Association, the Coin of Holy Mountain, were made by her alone.

The ability seemed insignificant, but it was helpful to the Witch Cooperation Association, especially in the march through the Impassable Mountain Range. If there was nothing to hold heat, it would be easy to lose temperature and fall into a coma in the cold wind and heavy snow.

After eating the oatmeal, the witches packed up and continued on their way. According to Cara�s conjecture, the so-called Gates of Hell, was actually the key to Holy Mountain. The church deliberately called it the land of evil, hoping to prevent witches from reaching Holy Mountain. According to the records in ancient books, they needed to go through three Stone Gates, and the last one was in the Barbarian Region. The Stone Gates were usually hidden under the ground, and would only rise to the surface when the Bloody Moon appeared in the sky.

They had set out from the camp and been walking in the Impassable Mountain Range for about half a month. Soon they would leave the range and enter Wild Places. Recently, the demonic beasts had been appearing more frequently.

�Quick! Quick! Look! What�s that!?� Suddenly someone shouted in horror.

Cara raised her head and was dumbfounded.

There was a city in the sky!

It was still snowing in the dusky sky, and the clouds were low. The silhouette of a city loomed through the clouds.

She had never seen buildings like this before. They looked like spires standing side by side. If the black dots above were the windows, then these spires were about 333 meters high! This was definitely not something human beings could create! Even the church�s proudest cathedral, the Hermes Cathedral, was only 50 meters high!

Since it was not built by humans, then there was only one answer: the city was built by the deities!

Cara was so excited, a voice pounding in her heart relentlessly�

She had found Holy Mountain!

�Sisters, that�s the Holy Mountain! We�ve found it!�

Cara screamed to let out her overwhelming joy. Many of the witches stayed in place, frozen in wonder. Others embraced their companions around them.

However, Scarlett wrinkled her eyebrows. �Is that really Holy Mountain?�

�What�s the matter? Is there anything wrong?� Asked Leaf, whispering. The same question echoed in her mind. The city in the sky looked unlike those in the ancient texts, which were glittering and magnificent. Although the spires were spectacular, the whole of it was gray and black, and even in the day, it was dull. Not to mention the city was filled with a thick red mist akin to blood.

�There is something� crowding in those caves.� Scarlett�s voice was a bit dry. �I can�t see it clearly, but those things don�t resemble gods��

A layer of goose bumps rose all over Leaf. Scarlett could see the farthest out of the members of the Witch Cooperation Association, and the way that she spoke made Leaf uneasy. Unfortunately, Lightning had left with Nightingale, or else she could have flown closer to look.

�Sisters! Holy Mountain lies before us.� The mentor waved her hands as she shouted. �Just a bit further, and we�ll find our eternity!�

She immediately urged Stone to move her forward. Leaf wanted to step forward to stop them but her feet stopped her. She remembered what happened to Wendy two weeks ago. She was afraid that if she discouraged them, it would not make sense to the Respected Mentor, and she would not stop.

The walking women began to speed up. After leaving the foot of the mountain, the snow seemed to get lower and the surrounding temperature also raised. �This is what was forbidden in legend, a place where humans can�t step,� Leaf thought, �but there�re footprints in this no-man�s land. If Lightning was here, would she be joyful?�

Looking back, the towering mountains behind her rose and fell, like a barrier that could not be crossed. Leaf could not help but guess that it was precisely because of the Impassable Mountain Range that the demonic beasts could not directly attack the hinterland, but rather must pass through the northernmost regions.

If they could somehow find Holy Mountain, no matter the method, they would not have to wonder any longer and could have peace� She gently sighed. To tell the truth, she was moved when Nightingale spoke to the cooperation about all that she had seen and heard in Border Town. When Wendy asked who wanted to leave with Nightingale, she could not help but try to move forward and tell her name. But until the end, she still failed to cross the heart of the threshold, and she was left as a shadow of the past.

Leaf shook her head, she did not want to think about things that had already passed. She moved to keep up with the group and crossed the yellow and white line into the wilderness.

However, it was not long before strange things began to happen. No matter how they sped up, the city retreated at the same speed. After two hours, the �Holy Mountain� was still in the clouds, neither smaller nor bigger. It was as if� they had not moved at all.

�Respected mentor, let us rest, our sisters are tired,� said Stone. Over this period, a number of women had carried the mentor, but Stone had kept it up the longest.

�No, how could we stop now!?� Cara refused the suggestion without hesitating. �This is the test from the deities, sisters. If there�s no firm will, we can never reach Holy Mountain! We can�t stop. We must continue until the gates of Holy Mountain appear before us!�

Seeing that persuasion was futile, the women marched forward.

However the situation did not change, and while wandering the witches also encountered two waves of demonic beasts. The second wave consisted of two deformed beasts. Leaf created long weeds to trap the beast, but it could not stop one of her sisters from being hurt and bleed.

The monsters were finally killed and the crowd found that the sky was gradually darkening. Twilight had approached. The city remained in front of them, but the silhouette seemed to fade, like the city itself was disappearing.

According to their past experience, they must find suitable camping place to set up a camp. However this area was completely different from the Impassable Mountain Range, which seemed to be almost flat and was littered with the occasional demonic beasts. They simply could not stay there overnight.

�Respected mentor, we must return to the foot of the mountain! Let Scarlett lead the way, with Red Light lighting the path. Then maybe we can make it back by midnight.�

�No!� Cara shouted, �We�ve spent all the afternoon coming here without stopping. At this point, we�ve spent more than half of our strength and it�d be impossible to return at the same speed. Sisters, let us move on. We�ll rest once we�ve reached Holy Mountain.�

�How about Sherry?� People asked, pointing to a witch who had collapsed lifeless on the ground.

�We�ve no time to bury her,� the instructor shook her head and said, �Leave her here. The earth will take her.�

Leaf closed her eyes in sadness. A sister had left them. If she had had more strength, then she would not have needed to die in this desolate land where even a tombstone could not be left.

As the crowd sat there undecided as to whether they should move on or retreat, Stone suddenly exclaimed, �Look at the sky, the city is gone!�

Leaf opened her eyes, looked up, and saw that the sky had become gray-black. The clouds had hidden in the night, and with them, the city had disappeared without a trace. It was as if it had never existed.

Everyone stood still, and for a while, there was a terrible silence.

There was the city you could never get, for it was an image floating in the air, and when the sun fell the illusion vanished� Leaf suddenly remembered a story from Lightning�s adventures about those at sea who saw bizarre fantasies. She shivered. �We were cheated�� she whispered before shouting, �We were cheated, it was not Holy Mountain! What we saw was a mirage!�

�A mirage?� Cara looked back, her face terrifyingly ferocious. �What�s that?�

�Lightning mentioned in a story that this phenomenon often occurs on voyages, but on the land is much rarer. All we saw was a phantom. The real city may be far away from us if it�s not even there at all!�

�Does that mean that it does exist and just teleported?�

�I�� Leaf was stifled. �I don�t know.�

At this point, Scarlett suddenly called out, warning them, �Be careful! Something is coming!� She stared at something moving on the left, and her face was disgusted.

�Are they demonic beasts?� Windseeker crouched, ready to fight. �How many are there?�

�No�� Scarlett took two steps back, �I don�t know what it is��

As she spoke, a shadow closed in at lightning speed directly towards Scarlett. Although she saw the light enclosed by shadow, she could not dodge the bolt. It was just too fast.

In the blink of an eye, the shadow pierced through Scarlett�s chest, making her fly backward. She was nailed to the trunk.

It was a spear.

Leaf felt her whole body was frozen.

On her left two shadows came out from the night, bulky and peculiar, different than the normal visage of a demonic beast. And then Leaf saw that there were two figures riding on the backs of the mixed species. They were tall, twice the size of a normal person. They wore no armor but the clothes of some indescribable material. No, one would be reluctant to call it clothes. It was as if they were wrapped from head to toe in a swollen animal skin, bulging in many places.

And yet the most striking thing about the two figures was the two masks they were wearing�they were obviously transformed heads of demonic beasts, ferocious and terrible. Their eyes with reddish brown crystals dug into their skulls. A full patch of leather on their heads seemed to be peeled back, running down their back in shells. One man was equipped with a few spears on their mount, another with strangely shaped iron gloves. From the look of it, the iron glove only had three fingers.

Only one word hung in Leaf�s head, �Demon�.

�Enemies!�

Cara�s harsh screaming pulled all the attention back to the enemy. Stone placed her hand on the ground, turning the snowy land in front of them into a large swamp. This was the correct response. The mounts were hybrid wolf beasts with wings. They were not only fast but could fly for short distances. However, these two obviously could not, their wings had been cut off, hemp rope was tied onto their bare bones, which were held but the demons riding them. Therefore they could not fly over the swamp but would have to cross over it. This would give the sisters time.

However, the enemy did not act as expected. Rather, they drove the mounts forward, entering the swamp. Then, by the impulse, the demonic beast leaped into the sky, jumping across the remaining distance, right to the place where the non-combat type witches were gathered.

�Spread out, quick!� Leaf�s voice had not fallen before the ironhanded demon wearing the three-fingered iron gloves was already killing the witches in the crowd. His degree of agility did not match his body at all. The witch close to him did not have time to react and was punched in the head. Then there were another two sisters that the ironhanded demon pinched on the neck. The others were alerted and ran about in panic. It was only Shino that stood still. Even though her ability was not suitable for fighting, she did not turn away, but rather drew the crossbow from her back and took aim at the creature. The ironhanded demon dodged to the side lifted its feet to send her flying. Along with the rush of power came a muffled sound. The little girl was sprawled on the ground and clotted blood flowed through her mouth.

The spear-wielding demon turned around, walking towards the terrified Stone. Right when he was about to pierce the witch through the chest, flames erupted in front of him. Red Light rolled between his legs, grabbing Stone�s hands and running. Their opponent attempted to catch up but was stopped by a black wall of gas.

Leaf poured all of her power into the earth causing all sorts of plants to appear out of it. Thorny vines wrapped around, climbing the ironhanded demon. Cara summoned the demonic snake �pain� that bit into the ironhanded demon�s arm. When he waved his hands to get rid of the snake, the vines fluttered and captured his feet, tugging them backward and causing the heavy body to crash to the ground.

�Run, sisters, run!� Shouted Leaf, her voice shaking in fear. �Escape, fast! Hurry away from these terrible monsters! They are recorded in the ancient texts as sources of evil, demons that have appeared out of the Gates of Hell!�

The poison from the demonic snake seemed to be ineffective. The ironhanded demon fell to the ground, who seemed to want to grab the vines that had scratched at him. The spear-wielding demon saw his companion�s difficulty and was soon focused on Leaf, who was controlling the vines. He lifted a spear, getting into position to throw it, his arms quickly swelling. The original bulging skin was stretched to a thin layer, and even through it, one could see blood vessels and dark bones.

�Leaf, watch out!� Stone once again turned the ground into a quagmire, this time directly casting herself at her opponent. The spear-wielding demon suddenly sank down, and the spear he had thrown instantly changed direction, inserting diagonally into the ground in front of Leaf. A section of the spear as tall as a person was submerged into the ground. Leaf burst out in a cold sweat.

After throwing the spear, the swollen arm shrunk rapidly, quickly becoming something similar to a dry wood.

The spear-wielding demon could not throw spears now! She immediately realized that it was a good time to escape. She was not alone in this. Stone, Red Light, and Windseeker, who had been struggling with the ironhanded demon, ran to the careless Cara. They wished to bring Mentor Cara to leave with them. Only Leaf saw the ironhanded demon pull at the vines to reach out to the three women.

�What is he trying to do? Wait!�

�No�� But she was too late to warn them, as a line of blue light came from the ironhanded demon�s hands. It was like a bolt of lightning piercing the sky and twisted to hit the three sisters. The blue bolt jumped between the three women, crackling. Their bodies went up in white smoke, and they fell to the ground, with their robes burning behind them.

The attack seemed to consume the great effort of the enemy, and with heavy breathing, he stopped moving. At this time, Leaf�s magic power had hit its limit. The vines disintegrated and changed, turning quickly into withering weeds.

�Everything is over,� she thought. The mentor�s desperate shouting faded as if she had grown far away as the strength of her body faded like a tide. She fell to the ground helplessly.

After resting for a mere moment, the ironhanded demon slowly climbed up from the snow. No one could stop him this time as he went to stand in front of the horrified Cara. The demon stretched out his hand to choke the throat of the mentor, who wanted desperately to break free from the creature�s fingers, but it was meaningless in this desperate state. Struggling, she sent the demonic snake out and it bit the enemy�s arm and neck, but the ironhanded demon was unmoved but continued to grip tighter.

As this was happening, one demonic snake bit the ironhanded demon�s leather hose under its head. Red mist sprayed from the fissure, revealing tendons and bones. The ironhanded demon issued a terrible scream, the skin quickly fouling under the red fog, revealing tendons and bones. Even though he released his iron hand after this and tried to block the tube in panic, the fog quickly dissipated and his body began to tremble. He fell to the ground, motionless.

The spear-wielding demon with half its body buried in the swamp shouted. Leaf had never heard such a voice. It was like a sharp scream and a low roar together, and it hurt her ears.

But the enemy�s roar did not make Leaf flee, rather it gave her the will to win.

Biting her lips, she struggled to stand up and picked up the crossbow that Shino fell. Reloading it, she went in front of the spear-wielding demon. The spear-wielding demon obviously understood what she wanted to do, its two arms desperately waving. But in the swamp, the more you struggled, the faster you would sink. He tried to block it from entering his lungs, but the part of his windpipe that extended into his shell was exposed.

�This is for my lost sisters,� Leaf thought, aiming at the tube she pulled the trigger.

The crossbow bolt hit its mark, and red mist spurted out where she had hit. When it sprayed, the opponent�s head fell.

She had killed the demon.

Leaving the crossbow, Leaf looked back at the more than a dozen of her sisters that had lost their lives. She fell to the ground and burst into tears.

Wendy opened her eyes and saw an unfamiliar ceiling above her. There were cobwebs draping from the wooden beams. The ceiling was made up of gray bricks and had an unlit, circular chandelier. Slowly, the image turned from cloudy to clear until she could see every detail.

[It�s not a cold rocky roof or narrow tent. Oh right, I�ve left the Witch Cooperation Association for more than half a month. I wonder if Mentor had successfully led the sisters to the discovery of Holy Mountain.] Wendy thought.

She took a deep breath. Although the air in the room was not as clean and fresh as that in a cave, its dullness and warmth made her comfortable. Her body was wrapped in a soft velvet quilt, and the layers of cotton blankets under her sank slightly every time she lay on them. Even if she stretched her body fully, her toes wouldn�t be exposed.

She felt a little guilty at the thought of lazing on the bed. Even though she had only arrived for half a month, she felt a sense of peace. It was something that she had not experienced in a long time.

In the castle, no one would disturb her no matter how late she got up. Just like today. Wendy turned to look out of the window and noticed that the gray sky was a little glaring. It seemed over 10 a.m. In her past wandering life, she did not have such a comfortable sleep before. She would be woken by the faintest sounds and had to prepare food before dawn. During that time, the witches had lived in the fear of being discovered by the church or dying in the next Demonic Torture.

Even while hiding in the Impassable Mountain Range, Wendy was always busy with the many chores. She had to help with seasoning the dried food and herbs, drying her sisters� laundry, or cleaning the camp and so on.

Wendy did not mind doing these works and felt happy when seeing the smile on everyone�s faces. Yet, she could not resist the lazy life now. Unexpectedly, she was enjoying it.

[No, I shouldn�t be lazy anymore.] Clapping her face, Wendy pushed herself up and tried her best to get out of the bed. When she was in the convent, mother superior had always warned that God would never bless those who were lazy.

[In a while, I�ll go to the castle backyard to practice controlling the wind and I�ll clear the snow along the way.] Wendy could not hold back her smiles whenever she thought of His Highness� requirements for her training. These were odd and eccentric requirements, such as asking her to control the wind 10 meters above her head after he had seen her performance. However, a witch could never extend the power as far as he required. Nevertheless, the prince wasn�t angry when she had admitted that it was beyond her abilities. Instead, he had come up with a strange idea�standing on a stool and blowing the wind from the top and the bottom at the same time. After trying, Wendy found this a practical solution. The test result pleased His Highness very much. In addition to asking Wendy to practice more, he also asked her if she was afraid of heights.

Just as Nightingale described, Roland Wimbledon was indeed an unpredictable person. Yet, he was also a prince who cared about witches.

Wendy sighed softly at the thought.

[Mentor, you�re wrong. There exists a prince who doesn�t hate witches.]

After she put on the new robe, she felt that it was a little tight at the chest�Wendy had been accustomed to it. When she was looking for the sewing kit to mend the cloth, there was a knock at the door.

�Come in.�

It was Nightingale. Wendy was somewhat amazed and laughed. �Is His Highness still in bed? It�s surprising that you have time to see me.�

�What�re you talking about? I don�t have time to follow him all day.� Nightingale lifted the basket in her hand. �I�ve brought you some breakfast.�

Usually, it was the maid who served the breakfast to her room. Wendy had barely seen and talked to Nightingale except when the prince was asleep. She smiled in her heart. Wendy knew that Nightingale must have sneaked in to check if she had woken up and came in as soon as she was out of bed.

�Go ahead, what�s up?� She took over the basket and put a piece of bread filled with cheese into her mouth.

�Hmm�� Nightingale walked to the bedside and sat down. �Today is� the day for Nana.�

Wendy was speechless. She knew that although the first bite of magic power was not as fierce and long as the one in the Day of Adulthood, the witch was not completely safe. The younger a witch was, the less the pain she could endure. Wendy placed the basket on the bedside cabinet and walked to Nightingale. She clapped her shoulder and comforted her. �Didn�t His Highness say that as long as the witch released her power every day, the torture would minimize?�

�It was just a hypothesis.�

�At least it sounds reasonable.� Wendy went on. �Anna has been through it this way, hasn�t she?� �She was safe even on the deadliest Day of Adulthood, and you�ve seen it with your own eyes,� she paused and continued, �Where is Nana?�

�She is at the hospital.� As she was talked, Nightingale could not hold back her smile. �I heard that her father, Baron Pine, has bought a lot of hares from hunters and send them to the Medical Centre. Nana will get to practice with them until tomorrow.�

�It�s nice to have such a father,� Wendy said enviously. �I don�t remember anything about my childhood� which is very strange. It was like a memory gap. I don�t have father or mother, and all the memories begin with the time when I was in the convent.�

�Looks like I�m a little more fortunate than you.�

�Yeah, much more fortunate.� Wendy sat close beside her. �Are you nervous?�

��� Nightingale remained silent for a while and nodded.

Of course, Wendy knew what she was nervous about. Today was not only of paramount importance to Nana but also a vital turning point for the fate of all witches. If she could get through the bite safely, it meant that all witches would be free from being called the devil�s minions, and Border Town undoubtedly would be their Holy Mountain. A day would come where all witches would gather here, living a life just like ordinary people without a need to move around to hide from the church.

�There�s no use worrying. Let�s take a day off to stay with Nana.�

�A day� off?� Nightingale looked at Wendy with wide eyes.

�Yes, telling me the news so early is making me as nervous as you,� Wendy said bluntly. �Since we�re not in the mood for training, let�s go and see Nana. Isn�t that written in the contract? It�s called a paid leave.�

�

After dinner, Nana�s chamber was crowded with people�Anna, Lightning, Nightingale, Wendy, Tigui, and Roland. Seeing all these people, the young girl looked bewildered. �Er� am I going to die?�

�Of course not!� All of them shook their heads.

�The intensity of bite at the first time will be not very strong.� Wendy held Nana�s right hand and said, �Stay focus, you can manage it.�

�Grasp my hands when it hurts.� Tigui shook her daughter�s left hand and said, �You�ve grown much stronger at the hospital. I�m so proud of you.�

The young girl nodded. She looked through the crowd until her eyes fell on Anna.

Anna walked over and kissed her forehead. �Stay alive, okay?�

�� Yeah.�

All the curtains were drawn, and the fire blazed in the hearth, keeping the temperature in the chamber warm.

Unlike Anna, Nana was awake on her Day of Adulthood. To help her focus more quickly before the pain fell on her, everyone stayed with her, telling stories or playing simple games, to keep her awake.

Roland showed off some coin magic tricks, surprising everyone, especially Nana who stared at his hands without blinking. On a normal day, she would have asked him to teach her.

The magic of this age was vaudeville. Roland had watched it in the palace. It included the snake dancing to the flute, fire-breathing, crushing a stone plate on one�s chest and so on. It seemed less appealing compared to the elaborate modern magic that focused on camouflage and tricks of the fingers.

Lightning shared her adventurous sailing stories. She talked about sailing with her father, Thunder, through isles and fjords, crossing vortexes and reefs and hunting deep water sharks and octopuses. Everyone was charmed by the stories, despite knowing that a large part of it was made-up. Roland could not help dreaming of it. In his imagination, the sailing ship turned into an ironclad battleship that sailed through the open sea and approached new land.

In fact, he lacked in understanding the history of this world where the clear record only went back to four hundred and fifty years ago. He had never caught any reason for this from the knowledge that the prince had learned from his court mentor. Maybe he had not paid any attention to it during class, Roland thought. Moreover, there was no archive or library in Border Town. He decided he would ask some maesters once he had taken Longsong Stronghold.

When Lightning�s story was finished, Roland could not help yawning. He turned his eyes to Nightingale who shook her head, meaning the magic power had not changed. The lack of timepieces made it incredibly inconvenient to track time. Roland poured himself some warm water, sat down and continued to wait.

But as time went on, all of them sensed something unusual. The process was taking too long. Nana had been yawning all night, too tired to keep awake. Anxiety grew in Nightingale who touched the young girl�s forehead, as she watched the flow of magic power in her body.

..

To his surprise, a glimmer had emerged on the horizon of the dark sky.

�Look!� Roland drew back the curtain, everyone turned at his shout. Looking at the dim light far on the horizon, they all realized that a new day had come.

Nana had passed her day of the bite of magic power safely.

*******************

Roland stretched himself and headed back to his chamber where he found two unexpected visitors.

It was Nightingale and Wendy.

Their faces were not sleepy at all but filled with excitement.

�Are you really sure that today, no, last night was the �day� for Nana?� Roland asked.

�Yes, but the change was too small for me to confirm the vital moment of the bite,� Nightingale said firmly, �your Highness, you�re right! By regularly releasing power, the gross power will increase, but the pain we suffer will be less. If we keep training for a specific number of hours every day, all witches will stand a chance to survive their Day of Adulthood.�

�In the entire Kingdom of Graycastle, your land is the only place where witches can use their powers freely. This means, in a sense, that this is Holy Mountain we�ve been pursuing.� Wendy went on. �I want to beg you to inform more witches of the news and bring them to this holy land. I�m sure they�ll be glad to serve you.�

�This is what I intend to do.� Roland nodded. �My subjects will partially understand and have contact with witches after the Months of Demons. That�ll be the right time to spread the news�by way of spreading rumors. You should know that I can�t publicly recruit witches in an open and expansive way. It would provoke a great disturbance in the realm.� He paused for a moment. �Unless the church becomes extinct or I take the throne.�

�Then I�ll assist you to take the throne.� It seemed that Wendy had been waiting for those words, and she kneeled to pledge her fealty. Roland could tell from her unskilled movements that maybe she had just learned the curtsey. Yet none of the details mattered, he accepted her fealty in the same way that he had accepted Nightingale�s.

Wendy stood up and smiled at Nightingale. �How am I doing?�

Nightingale curled her lips. �After a fashion.�

Roland could not help but shake his head. �You should go to bed. You�ve been up all night.� �

�Your Highness, I want to ask for one more thing.� Wendy who had just stood up and kneeled again.

�Go on,� Roland said seriously, his smile fading. He could tell from her stance that it would be a difficult promise for him to make.

�I want to go back to the camp again.�

�Wendy!� Astonished, Nightingale stared at Wendy, whose eyes were filled with determination.

�I don�t know whether they�ve found Holy Mountain. Maybe they have, maybe they haven�t. I hope to leave for the Impassable Mountain Range after the Months of Demons. If Cara can�t find Holy Mountain, they should be back in the mountains by then.�

�That would be most perilous.� Roland frowned. �Your respected mentor attacked you with no mercy.�

�If she had really wanted to kill me, I would be dead,� Wendy said, �she summoned the demonic snake of �Suffering�, not that of �Death�. Maybe few or even none will come back here with me, but at least I can bring the news to my sisters that releasing power every day will save them from the dreadful pain.� Her voice softened at this point. �Your Highness, as long as you treat witches well as always, my life belongs to you. I�ll never treat my life lightly. I�ll keep safe. Please promise me.�

Roland remained silent. He should turn down Wendy�s request for her safety. But he knew what the request meant to her. She would risk anything to save more witches. If Roland turned her down, she may still obey his command, but yet the death of her sisters, caused by his refuse, would scar her.

�I promise you.� Roland nodded at last. �Go with Lightning two months after the Months of Demons has passed. Just in case, I�ll offer you the flintlock and God�s Stone of Retaliation. Promise me that you�ll wear it when negotiating with Cara or other witches. And Lightning will stand by too so that they can�t hurt you with their power.�

�Your Highness, please let me go with her!� Nightingale said.

�No, Veronica. His Highness� safety is far more important. All witches� hopes now lie with him.� Wendy smiled. �Take good care of him.�

A week after the concrete ship was placed in the curing room, the day to launch the vessel finally arrived.

All the workers were left stunned when the prince ordered to put this oversized bathtub that had taken them a lot of work into the water, making everyone wonder whether they had misheard him.

However, that was indeed Roland�s order.

He had people temporarily dismantle the shed and had them dug a slope below the concrete boat, leading into the river. This part had to be handled with great caution because of the weak tensile strength of the cement products. A few cracks would not cause a problem, but in case it hit the ground that would be enough to destroy the whole vessel.

The ship was placed on top of logs and the speed at which it slid would be controlled by ropes. When everything was prepared, the workers let the wrist-thick rope slowly slide through their hands, making sure that it would always point in a straight line. While the workers were shouting their slogan in sync, the vessel slowly slid over the logs, creating an intense sound of friction.

Fortunately, everything went well, and Roland could see the boat slowly slipping into the river. The boat sank nearly half a meter into the water, with more than one meter staying above the surface. The workers were extremely surprised to see that this massive stone and metal made construction would not directly sink into the riverbed with a loud noise, but instead it floated on the surface like a leaf.

�Hurry, take the ropes and tie them tight around the bollards!� Roland ordered. If the ship was not tied to the bollards, the current of the river would carry the concrete boat southwards.

Although Nightingale did not show herself, she still was not able to stop herself from asking in a voice full of surprise, �Why does the boat float?�

�Well� it�s quite simple. The boat�s average density is lower than that of the water, and this is the reason it can float on water,� explained Roland and after a moment of thinking, and he added, �The fact that the boat is built out of iron and concrete doesn�t matter. In fact, you must have understood it from the sailing ship that was huge and weighed much more than a stone.�

Since he did not hear her voice again, Roland assumed that she was still comprehending what he had said. Even Anna was not able to immediately understand the concept he had just explained. Roland smiled and continued to direct the workers to move on.

The subsequent hardening of the concrete took a lot of time, and by the time it began to snow heavily, the work had to be stopped. Only when the snowfall was minimum, were they able to continue their work. The most time-consuming task was the construction of the deck, which was built out of many wooden planks, and supported by many small stakes which were placed between the bottom and the deck. Although this was a waste of space, taking into account the primary purpose of the concrete boat, it did not matter much.

Next, it was time for the corrosion proofing. The carpenters knew very well how to do this. First they brushed a layer of oil with a pungent smell onto the deck. When the oil had dried, they repeated this procedure with red oil several times until it was finally coated with a red paint. Once the deck construction was completed, the installation phase of the upper building began.

As for the so-called upper part, it was just a wooden shed which was placed between the two masts, and which later would be used to store cannons and ammunition. In case of a rainy day, the shed could also be utilized by the crew as a shelter. A platform was added at the top of the roof where a person could stand, obviously created for Wendy. As long as she stood on the roof, the range of her magic ability would be enough to cover the entire sail.

The stern rudder was made of pig iron, and its installation was a bit troublesome. The tiller had to go through a reserved hole under the water, and then appear again on the deck, where an iron ring would be put on it. The buckle was a right-angled triangle plate, with the long side welded on the tiller, and the short side could freely rotate in the groove of the iron ring.

The welding was naturally done by Anna, who was also astonished and puzzled by the fact that a stone bathtub could float on the water. Thus, she also asked the same questions as Nightingale.

So Roland repeated his answer and watched Anna went aside and sat down to think about it.

Well� The task of universal education still had a long way to go.

*******************

On the other side, Van�er was still trying to decide whether to join the Artillery Squad or to stay with the Flintlock Squad.

Everything started with that order three days ago.

His Highness decided to transfer out some members of the first and second militia team, who performed exceptionally, to build a new elite force. When Van�er�s name was called, he felt very pleased. But when Iron Axe asked him if he wanted to join the Flintlock Squad or the new Artillery Squad, he felt confused. He was aware of the new flintlock, which was effective in the fight against the demonic beasts, with its penetrating power much stronger than that of a hand crossbow. Currently, only Iron Axe, the Chief Knight and a number of senior hunters were allowed to use this deadly weapon. Van�er was supposed to join the Flintlock Squad without any hesitation, but instead, he could not help himself asking, �What�s a cannon?�

When he found out that a cannon was ten times larger than a flintlock and that its power was a hundred times stronger than the strength of a flintlock, he fell into a dilemma.

Apparently, the ability to use a more powerful weapon could prove one�s own value for His Highness. So joining the artillery seemed to be the better option of the two, however, the advantage of carrying a flintlock was that it was possible to carry it while walking through the town, attracting the eyes of the people, which was always Van�er�s dream. Even though the cannon�s power was ten times that of a flintlock, surely it would not be possible to carry such a powerful weapon while walking through the streets, right?

By the last day of the deadline, he finally decided to join the Artillery Squad. The last point that affected his decision was that the salary of an artillery soldier was five silver royals higher.

Afterwards, began the rigorous training.

The operation of a cannon requires five people, and Jop, Cat�s Claw, Nelson and Rodney were assigned to Van�er�s team. Since Van�er was previously a vice-captain within the Spear Squad, he was now appointed as the artillery captain.

Compared to flintlocks, the cannon was ten times more troublesome! For almost a month, Van�er had secretly observed how Iron Axe operated his flintlock, he was sure he was able to memorize the operation of a flintlock without mistake. As for the cannon, a series of complicated operations were required in order to switch it from transportation mode to firing mode.

Stopping the horse, pulling out the pin, pulling the hook, moving the cannon cart, pushing it towards the shooting spot, putting down the crutch, all these processes required five people to cooperate in tandem. For example, when pulling the hook, the other ones had to push the support cart right away from the cannon, turning it from a four-wheel vehicle into a two-wheel vehicle, so that the cannon�s crutch would drop to the ground. During the process the cooperation should be perfect or else it would be hard to separate the heavy cannon from the cart.

After settling the position came the load of ammunition, and ready to fire. The firing process was quite similar to the flintlock, but the cleanup of the cannon after its usage requires two different mops. The ammunition would also be packaged properly and could be inserted directly in the cannon. The firing method was done though gunpowder line ignition. It would be hard to display its power when it rained, Van�er thought.

Fortunately, as an artillery captain, most of the time he just stood aside and ordered the others to do the job, which saved him a lot of energy.

For the first three days, the four newly selected artillery teams had only one cannon to train with. So under the command of Iron Axe, all the groups had to go through the process of stopping the mount, unloading the cannon, preparing it to shoot, loading the cannon on the cart and then restart the whole process. These steps were always repeated, and Van�er even suspected, that with the continuous cleaning of the cannon, the cannon would be even cleaner than his own face.

Every day Van�er�s group had to train for two to three hours with the new weapon, and even after the training was finished, Van�er had to return to the city wall to continue his old, boring job. One of the men from Van�er�s dormitory had signed up for the Flintlock Squad, and now he had a brand-new flintlock and stood behind him to show off the weapon. If it was not for the rules that forbid infighting, Van�er would have already made him shut up.

But he also noticed something was not right.

[Didn�t my compatriots join the Flintlock Squad only a few days ago? Yet, they were allowed to directly start their shooting training through fighting against the demonic beasts, but what about our Artillery Squad? We aren�t even authorized to shoot a shell. Moreover, the cannons are so heavy that it�s actually impossible to transport them onto the city wall,] thought Van�er.

When he looked at the top of the wall, he could see that the wall-walk was almost full with people standing side by side in pairs. Usually, everyone was used to running on the inside of the wall-walk. Even if it was steep, it was still better than interfering with teammates� fighting movements. As for the cannons� the two wheels alone were wider than the whole wall-walk, and using a cannon to shoot downwards did not seem very practical.

Could it be� that the cannon would not be used to fight against the demonic beasts?

The next exercise further confirmed his suspicions.

Iron Axe brought the four artillery teams to the river. There, Van�er discovered that, without realizing when it had happened, a huge �boat� appeared in the Redwater River. No� he was not even sure if it was correct to call it a boat. The shell seemed to be made out of the same gray stone that was used to build the wall, and its dimension was very wide but short. Other than two bare masts, there was actually no other similarity with a boat. This even caused a heated argument between his team.

�This is clearly a floating bridge.� The first one who came up with a conclusion was Jop, who previously belonged to the team with the sailing ships transporting the ore to Longsong Stronghold, and he always thought of himself very well-informed. �They built the deck so wide to make it more stable! During my traveling all over the realm, I�ve seen many of them, and if this is a boat, then how can it be moved without the wind? After the former wooden bridge of over decade old in Longsong Stronghold was washed away by a flood, people in Longsong Stronghold replaced it with a floating bridge. They just placed several of broad planks side by side on a boat and connected them with an iron chain to make it more stable!�

�The furthest place you have traveled to is Longsong Stronghold, and yet you call yourself knowledgeable.� Rodney sneered. �If this is a floating bridge, why would it have two sticks? Wouldn�t they be blown away by the wind?�

�And look towards the end, don�t you see the steering wheel? Floating bridges don�t need this.� Nelson directly broke in to help Rodney. These two brothers were always at the same side. �In addition, looking at the construction between the two sticks, it looks like a cabin, and it�s just not finished yet. This is a boat, no doubt.�

Van�er was not interested in the boat, he was only concerned about the next training�s content. Luckily, he soon found out. Iron Axe asked them to drive the horses that dragged the cannon towards the Littletown�yes, that was the boat�s name, personally named by His Highness the prince. After listening to Iron Axe�s introduction, Jop�s face suddenly became stiff, while the two brothers showed a triumphant expression instead, and then they began to tie the wheels of the cannon cart onto the deck of the boat.

On the deck, there were two groups of stopping poles, each group consisting of four poles. They were located in the middle of the deck, one behind the other. This apparently indicated that the deck could fit two cannons.

Well, with this, Van�er could confirm that they would not be dealing with the demonic beasts�the Redwater River flowed from the north to the south, and there was no large river in the Misty Forest.

When they embarked for the first time, Van�er immediately felt the outstanding stability of the boat. As the river was flowing beneath it, the boat remained motionless; it felt just like standing on solid ground. Only when the horses came on the deck did they feel a little swing.

He also noted that every time a team finished their firing practice, Iron Axe would count the time and note it down. Considering that there were only two spots for cannons, it was clear that only the two fastest teams would get a place on the ship. Van�er secretly told his discovery to the rest of his team who were immediately inspired and were bursting with energy, and each of them put as much effort as possible into the training. If they were not chosen for the artillery team they would be sent back to the Spear Squad. Losing their face was a small matter, and the most important matter was that they would not get a pay rise!

Van�er had to wait until the seventh day to finally receive his first live firing training.

On that day, His Highness also came to visit the scene, watching the artillery exercise. Everyone in the four groups walked with a broad chest and was full of enthusiasm.

Because of their training, everyone was quite familiar with the loading of the ammunition, so it did not take long until the first shot was fired by Van�er�s team.

It was the first time he saw the power of a cannon. With a deafening roar, the cannonball was shot and landed around 500 meters away in the snow, blasting a lot of snow and mud into the air, and then bounced even further. It was impossible for Van�er�s bare eyes to track the iron ball.

The scene made Van�er both excited and a bit frightened, wondering how His Highness had managed to make such a terrible weapon. If he had to face an artillery attack, even with a full body armor, it would be to no avail.

After a round of firing, His Highness the prince would order someone to mark the landing position with a flag. And at the same time, he let someone measure the distance between the muzzle and the flag. After four rounds came the turn of Van�er�s team again, he heard the command to change the cannon� angle.

A scale, marked with 0, 5, 10, 25, and 30, was placed on the joint of the two ends of the cannon and the cannon mount. Although he did not understand what this meant, as long as they just followed the instructions, everything would be alright. Iron Axe shouted, �Shoot at the angle of 5!� Jop, who was the strongest, took the ramrod, inserted it into the muzzle, waiting for Van�er to tight the screws, and pressed it upwards until the white line was inserted in the hole and then he let it go.

Compared with the angle of the barrel at the beginning, the angle now was a bit lower, and when the cannon was raised, it showed exactly 5 on the scale.

What followed next was again four rounds of firings, putting flags, measuring the distance, adjusting the angle.

Van�er slowly started to understand the reason behind His Highness the prince�s actions.

He was recording the distance of every shot, and the higher the angle of the cannon, the further the iron ball would fly.

This was something that Van�er could understand from his experience of using a bow, the higher up the aim, the further the arrow would fly. If the arrow was shot horizontally, it would hit the ground very fast. He never thought that this was the case with the cannon too. The flying distance would be so much further because of its bigger velocity. Suddenly, he got this crazy idea�what if the iron ball got faster and faster, would it be possible that it would never land?

*******************

At the Redwater River, the testing of the Littletown was also underway.

Considering that Wendy would act as the boat�s driving force, the boat�s crew needed to be absolutely reliable. So, Roland picked some people who already knew about the witches as the first crew of the Littletown. Chief Knight Carter became the captain; the helmsman was Brian; the sailors who had to set the sails were Carter�s men, and the task of communication was left to Tigui Pine, Nana�s father. These people often came into contact with the witches, so coupled with their ideological transformation with which they got rid of their prejudice against the witches, there should not be any problem. In the case of Tigui Pine, it was even less the case, since his own beloved daughter was a witch.

As the only one professional with sailing experience, Lightning was honored to be the navigator.

In fact, she was also very interested in the weirdly-shaped, peculiar barge. Although it looked very ugly, it had all of the basic parts that a ship should have. However, she was unsure about whether it would sail. After all, she was mostly just a bystander on the sea as her father always refused her requests of steering or hoisting the sail.

In accordance with the tradition, Lightning smashed a bottle of ale on the bow and ordered to raise the sail for the barge�s maiden voyage. Carter, as the commander, surely did not want the little girl to take over the position and thus, the knight always followed with the same command after her.

The sail of the Littletown was made of animal skin. It was mostly calf leather and sheepskin with a mix of some Border Town�s specialties, such as wolf skin and bear skin. It looked like a rag, patches mixed with different colors and shading, with brown, white and gray colors. The sail was leader-shaped and was separated by four sticks of beams in which the cable passed through the iron ring on the top and fell onto the deck. The entire sail could be raised by simply pulling the cable.

Both the sails at the front and the back of the Littletown were single sail that ran parallel to each other and perpendicular to the center line for easy operation. If the normal brigantine was set in the same way, it would cause one sail very little wind consumption and would almost make it useless. However, the design would enable the power to be evenly distributed on both sides of the central line with Wendy�s ability to control the wind, and would be more convenient for the helmsman to operate a direct.

Lightning commanded the men on the shore to untie the rope once the sail had completely risen up. The weather was still fine at the time with occasionally falling snow. The boat was slowly leaving the shore, driven by the breeze and water flow.

The little girl landed beside Brian and shouted, �Full rudder towards the right!�

Carter also shouted, �Full rudder towards the right!�

�Uh, what do you mean by full rudder to the right?� Brian scratched his head and asked, �How many circles should I steer towards the right?�

�No, turn it all the way to the left,� Lightning hit her forehead with her hand and said, �Forget it, I�ll do it.�

She forgot that it was the first time for the crew to operate a two-masted sailing ship, they did not even understand basic commands. The sails of a standard brigantine would not have unfurled so quickly. The design of the Littletown was indeed so unique that the cement boat had smoothly left the shore with less than a 10 man crew.

She held onto the steering wheel which was taller than she was, and lifting her feet off of the floor, she rotated it towards the left. The huge steering wheel was very heavy for an ordinary woman. It was hard overcoming the water resistance in order to direct the iron rudder at the bottom of the boat in the absence of mechanical assistance. However, all these were not a problem at all for Lightning who could fly. She noticed the block that was set to prevent the turnaround at the bottom of the steering and wondered, [I heard that this ship was designed by His Highness, Prince Roland himself. How come he could be so clear about all these little details? Even experienced sailors who were out on the sea all the time may not how to design a ship.]

�Sister Wendy, the wind.�

Wendy was amused, standing on top of the roof. [This is the reason His Highness asked whether I have acrophobia� to let me activate the sailing ship?] She suddenly felt a subtle sense of contrast, thinking of her usual chores like drying the meat and clothes, she opened her arms to get into the state of her usual practice. She let the wind evenly blow beneath her feet and over her head in order to make sure both sails received equal wind resistance.

Honestly, Wendy did not expect the seemingly simple request to be so difficult.

Although she had awakened as a witch 15 years ago, she had never tried to understand and control her strength thoroughly. Both summoning a swift current that wrapped around the rocks to attack the enemy or summoning a storm to wipe out the enemy required her to release a huge amount of magic power at once. While dealing with the chores in the campsite did not require the wind power to be constant as long as it achieved the purpose. Wendy suddenly felt ashamed of herself while thinking back to Anna�s serious look during the practice.

�The first thing you have to do is to practice your ability repeatedly until you can completely master it� just like Anna.�

It turned out that the prince meant it when he said so.

[In this case, let me start from now�] She took a deep breath and concentrated all of her attention on sensing the wind.

Although the wind was not completely balanced, the sail was still bulging up and the continuous thrust had caused the mast to make a squeaking noise. The bow started to swing rightwards.

�It�s really moving.� Carter exclaimed.

�His Highness made a cement boat that floats on above the water,� Tigui smiled and said while touching his stubble. �Is there anything he can�t do?�

The Littletown was going further and further away from the shore and gradually moving into the center of the river.

Wendy could create wind from nothingness, but she could not make the existing north wind disappear. The ship was not sailing forward in a straight line due to the effect of both winds, it needed to rely on the steering wheel to adjust accordingly. Brian could only experience it personally as Lightning was not able to clearly state the point. In order to let Brian master this feeling as soon as possible, the little girl had commanded him to implement a few big changes of steering direction to feel the relationship between the turning angle of the steering wheel and the swinging amplitude of the bow before making further little adjustments.

Wendy was the first to be worn out after sailing on the Redwater River for over an hour.

It was not because of the exhaustion of magic power but that her body had hit the limit.

Although her body was wrapped up like a dumpling, she still could not resist the cold wind. There was a thin layer of snow gathered on top of her cotton-padded cap, and her frozen hands and feet were almost numb, her body was shaking unsteadily on the platform. She would probably persist until she passed out if Lightning did not notice anything unusual when she was patrolling in the air.

Lightning quickly flew beside Wendy and tightly held onto her body while shouting for Brian to pull in to shore.

Brian steered the helm to the right and the bow deviated to the left. Lightning flew down with Wendy, although she could only stir a sail from the deck, at least she could temporarily avoid the cold and prevent the excessive loss of body temperature. As pulling into the shore required fine controlling, Lightning did not dare to entrust it to be operated by someone who just learned to steer, although she was not very experienced herself either.

The Littletown finally landed after tossing around for a while. Everyone�s heart was raised when it collided with the river bank. The hull made a dull noise when hitting the land, but fortunately, it looked just fine. The men quickly gathered the sail and put the springboard up to the shore.

Luckily they did not choose a straight path for the trial but instead chose to practice, sailing back and forth in the spacious area of the river way. Thus, the Littletown was not too far off from the dock of departure.

Lightning flew straight towards the castle with Wendy at her back. Carter looked at the stone boat and sighed as it was not possible to sail the boat back to the dock themselves without the witches help.

Winter was not a harvesting season for most people in the Northern Region, especially in the town around Hermes highlands. The Months of Demons did not only bring the nonstop rain and snow but also severe cold, hunger, and death. However, it was different for �False Leg� White. The emissary of the church would look for him every winter and get him to drive up to the Kingdom of Wolfheart for a trip to fetch the suffering orphans to Holy City with his carriage.

It was a good deal for him, for he could make around 20 silver royals per trip and it was a good deed. The Months of Demons this year was almost ending and this trip should be his last one for the year.

�My lord, why don�t you stay in the carriage? The snow out here will continue for a while. We�re accustomed to the wind and the snow, but you�ll be freezing.�

�This is nothing to me.� The emissary took a gulp of wine from his flagon and said, �It�s much colder in New Holy City than here. The leather clothing and armor won�t keep out the cold on the highlands. They�re like a pervasive demon, piercing through each part of the body. Normal human beings may not survive that place without the Cold Expelling Pill.�

�That�s true.� White continuously nodded. He had not been to New Holy City, nor did he want to. [Why should I go such a place where there�s only frozen ice and demonic beasts?] However, as an experienced cart driver, he could always find a new topic to talk about. Plus, the current emissary was friendlier than the previous emissary. �Your gloves are specially made with the wolf skin from the Kingdom of Graycastle in the Western Region, I suppose?�

�Oh? How do you know that?�

�Hey, I�ve been working as a cart driver for almost 30 years, my lord,� White proudly said, �I started driving for the Baron, followed by the countess, and even the little princess of Kingdom of Wolfheart. If I did not break my leg in an accident, I would probably still be staying in the house of the earl. They have nothing more than the gold royals. The leather and silverware of the Kingdom of Graycastle, the jewelry of the Kingdom of Everwinter, the artwork of the Fjords were the topics they couldn�t stop talking about once they were aboard, and I almost get sick of them.�

�I see,� the emissary nodded and said, �Was that where your nickname came from? What kind of accident was it?�

�Aye, it was the riot of refugees. The bullies would do anything for a living,� White spat and said, �They had surrounded the carriage at that time, and I had to urge the horse to escape in order to protect the countess. As a result, the startled horse threw me off and the carriage was overturned.�

�So, you broke your leg?� the emissary curiously asked, �What about the countess?�

�She was much better than I was. There were cushions and thick quilts in the carriage, so she was just badly bruised,� White angrily said, �She climbed out from the carriage and ran away, leaving me alone on the road. I crawled home with my broken leg and spent all my savings on a fake leg,� he knocked on the copper stick that was sticking out of one of his trousers and said, �However the house of the earl kicked me out with the excuse that I wouldn�t be able to drive a cart anymore. The damn nobles!�

�What a pity,� the emissary paused and said, �However, Gods didn�t abandon you, and you�re now driving for the church. Praise God.�

�Indeed, my lord. Praise God.� While saying so, White thought to himself, [No. If God is really kind, I shouldn�t have experienced such a tragedy. God didn�t save me when I needed him the most.]

Right then, they heard a girl crying inside the carriage.

�Stop for a moment,� the emissary ordered.

White pulled the rein tightly to make both of the horses stopped gradually. The emissary hopped off the carriage and walked around to the back of the carriage. Soon, the sound of whipping was heard from the carriage.

�Poor child.� He sighed. �Just bear it, he�s your savior. You won�t even survive the winter and probably become an unattended dead body along the street without Lord Emissary.�

The emissary returned and climbed back up to the shafts after a while and said, �Let�s go�

�Sit tight. Drive!� White shook the reins and the cart started moving again. �They�re all from the Kingdom of Wolfheart?�

�More or less. The churches from each of the town in the kingdom would take in some orphans. The number of people we take in will increase by a few times especially during the winter when there�s a shortage of food and clothing. It would not be sufficient depending only the friars from the churches, so they have entrusted the cart dealer to hire some trustworthy driver to assist in delivery. You�ve done a very good job, White. My previous colleague has highly recommended you.�

�It�s my pleasure to be able to participate in such good deeds,� White said with a grin, �My lord, are they all being sent to the cloister? Forgive me, although they�re all orphans, they have very different characteristics. Even though some of them are still young, they would have done almost anything. Won�t they stain Holy Land?�

�God will judge them, although they�re guilty, they�ll be given a chance to redeem themselves.�

�Is that so? That�s a good thing.� White looked up to the sky. �It�s late, my lord. Do we need to spend the night in the next town? If the weather is good tomorrow, we�ll arrive the old Holy City by noon.�

The emissary yawned and said, �Let�s find a hotel with a yard to park the carriage. You may go to prepare food for them.�

�Okay!� White answered.

The town was the only way to the old Holy City from the Kingdom of Wolfheart, and it was not his first time here. He was so familiar with the places here that he quickly found the hotel which he used to stay. After he parked the horse cart at the yard, he went to buy some food for the orphans with the money the emissary had handed to him. As usual, sweet potato porridge was the most suitable choice as it was cheap and delicious. After he watched them distributing the porridge, he limped back to the hotel, ordered himself a loaf of butter bun, and started eating while sitting at the bar. As for the emissary, he must have gone to a better place.

If it was 10 years ago when his leg was good, he would have gone to the tavern to drink some wine and find someone to play a few dices with�he was pretty lucky back then. As for now� he thought it was better for him to go back to his room and have an early rest when he touched his purse in his clothes.

In the evening, he heard some noises in the yard. He woke up and opened the curtain to take a look, White saw the drunk emissary unlocked the carriage and went in. After a while, he came out with two orphans, and there were two men standing behind him, who looked like the nobles from the way they dressed.

White drew the curtain and went back to his warm bed.

This was not the first time he witnessed it, and the previous emissary always did the same. [Surviving is the greatest luck,] he thought, [Comparing to the temporary pain, tolerating is the only way. When you arrive in Holy City, you�ll have a brand new life. At least, there won�t be worries of starvation and cold in the cloister.] White yawned and fell asleep.

As soon as the sun rose, he was moving forward with the emissary. It was a smooth journey and they had reached the old Holy City an hour earlier than the time they predicted. There was already a church carriage waiting for them, and it looked like the poor kids still had a long journey to go. But it had nothing to do with White.

�This is your payment.� The emissary threw him a sack.

White poured the money out onto his palm after he caught the sack and counted them twice, and it was indeed 20 silver royals. He nodded and said while bowing, �I�ll see you next year.�

The emissary did not answer but waved him away.

White noticed that there were a few other carriages that did the same job. [Perhaps they�re coming from another kingdom?] He thought, [However, something is strange. They�re all little girls who came out from the carriage. The church only adopts girls?]

He shook his head and left behind these questions, and drove back home.

Archbishop Mayne stepped across the annular stairs and walked down towards the underground.

The staircase, with a depth of at least of four times that of the cathedral�s highest tower and a diameter of about 20 feet, was built in a natural doline and led directly into a strategically-positioned and spacious castle. The beginning of the staircase was well lit by skylight pathing through the windows of the high dome above, giving the twisting and turning stone walls an icy color.

As the archbishop descended, the speckles darkened and merged with the stone surface. Yet the center of the sinkhole reflected a faint blue light. The deeper it went, the brighter the light grew. Even if one was without a torch, there would be no difficulty in seeing things.

The stairs were like a little snake that wound around the sinkhole and snuggled up to the stone surface.

The stair pavements were granite and were cut rectangular in shape and were around four centimeters thick. The width was enough for three people to walk on side by side. One side of a stair was deeply embedded into the stone surface, while the other side stretched into the thin air. For safety, there were wooden handrails that were connected with cords on the other side.

He had not counted how many stairs there were, but he knew for certain that every slate was laid with tremendous effort. The masons in the church were suspended on ropes so that they could chisel deep enough grooves and embed the slates in them one by one. Every movement had to be made with care. More than 300 people had died from merely their ropes breaking or slipping.

If the Hermes Cathedral above symbolized the unyielding spirit of the church, then the underground castle deeply hidden in the sinkhole served as the real core of the church.

On the stone surface directly above the stairs, God�s Stone of Retaliation glistened. Every hundred stairs there was a guard from the Judgement Army. Within the castle, a platoon of God�s Punishment Army was ready to meet the invaders head-on. In the mezzanine between the dome of the castle and the floor of the cathedral, there were numberless sandbags and crushed stones. In the case that Holy City was lost and everyone had to leave, the pope would start the trap and bury this place in gravel and crushed stones.

It was not the first time for Mayne to go to the Hermes� underground castle, but walking in the thin air still made him dizzy, especially when he looked out from the handrail. He felt as if he were falling.

He only calmed down a little when his feet were on the solid ground again.

At the bottom of the sinkhole there lay a gigantic round white whet slate whose surface was as smooth as a glass. One could easily see their own reflections in it. With the genius design of the craftsmen, this whet slate could reflect the light from the dome that converged on it from the surface. The bottom of the sinkhole was not pitch dark even if there was no torch.

At the bottom of the sinkhole one could find that the sunlight was not colorless. The whet slate reflected faint blue light which illuminated the whole sinkhole in a cool shade. With a closer look one could notice that there was an infinite number of dust particles swirling in the brighter spots, as if they were the tiny beings recorded in ancient books.

The church used the natural openings at the bottom of the sinkhole along with the rock surfaces and connected them further to create Hermes� underground castle. And thanks to the openings that led in all directions, the air was never stale.

As soon as Mayne stepped into the gate of the castle, the guardian force became intense. A group of five Judgement Army soldiers guarded every barrier. They were all the most loyal warriors of the church. As long as they accepted this duty, each one of them would spend the rest of their life in the castle, not being able to return to above ground anymore.

In fact, only he and the pope could enter and leave the castle freely. Archbishop Heather and Archbishop Tayfun were not even able to step into this place.

But Mayne did not know how many forks of a road there were in the castle himself. Except for this main road on the south, there were many narrower roads on the sides. If one walked along one, there would be more forks in the road afterwards. Some of the roads were used by the church, while the others were sealed up. He had heard that when the castle was built, a few craftsmen lost their way in the unmarked forks and never found their way back.

The straight main road led to the depths of the mountain. There was a barrier every 100 meters. Mayne knew that every district between two barriers served a different function. The outermost district was a living quarter for the warriors who guarded the underground. The second district was the home of the archive for documents, manuscripts, and where the surviving volumes of ancient books were located. The third district was the prison, which kept prisoners who could not be seen and� the innocent.

When he walked past the third barrier, Mayne stopped. If he walked further, he would reach the Pivotal Secret Area of the castle, from which all the discoveries and inventions of the church originated. He had only been there once since he became the archbishop three years ago and he could not take the liberty to go there without the permission of the pope.

Mayne turned left from the main road into a narrow lane.

The lane was short. Before soon he reached its end. The guard at the door soon saluted him saying, �My lord.�

Mayne nodded. �Open the door.�

There was a corridor inside the door. On the walls, burning rosin torches were hung like infinite leaping light spots in the dark that stretched to the end of the corridor. At the sides there were numerous thick wooden doors with a number plate hung on each door.

The Judgement Warrior held up the torch and led the way, while Mayne paid his attention to the change of numbers. When he saw the number plate with 35 on it, he stopped and opened the door with a key. The door emitted a piercing sound in the silent hole bottom and the sound continued to echo in the empty corridor. Behind many doors came the cries for help, from both men and women. If one listened more closely, the content was mostly bitter entreaties like, �Let me out!� �Save me� or �Please kill me!�

Mayne was not moved at all. He ordered the warrior to guard the door, walked into the room and closed the door himself, shutting out the noise.

Behind the bars, the archbishop saw an old man sitting on his bed. Maybe he was not so advanced in age, but his hair was grizzled and his forehead was covered with wrinkles. He might not have shaven for a long time for his beard was long enough to reach his neck. His skin was astoundingly white and his limbs were thin and shriveled like dried branches.

Mayne took a look at the food box beside the bars, in which the food remained untouched. He sighed and said, �You should have been kinder to yourself. The church isn�t short of food. Your meals are prepared according to the standard of a king, except that there�s no wine. Even the fish is the best cod from the Port of Clearwater. You should be familiar with its taste, shouldn�t you, Your Majesty Wimbledon?�

The old man did not react until a few moments later. He lifted his quilt slowly, moved to the edge of the bed, and looked the archbishop in the eye.

�If you were locked up in this goddamned place, could you eat anything?� When he spoke, his voice was obscured, as if his throat was tight. �Half a year has passed, and I�ve been locked here for half a year. Without a word from the outside. How�re my sons? What about my daughters?�

Mayne noticed that there were dints all over the wall, which seemed to have been scratched with nails. Did the old man count the days this way?

He pulled a chair in front of the king. �Do you have to ask about these unpleasant things?�

The other party remained silent for a moment before he spoke again. �I�m of no use anymore. Are you coming to finish me off?�

�Yes.�

�Then as a dying man, I care nothing about my pleasure or displeasure! I only want to know how they�re before I die!� As Wimbledon was finishing this last phrase, his words almost transformed into a wail.

[He can�t take it anymore,] Mayne thought. The old man had shown his dignity and honor as a king. He had tried many times to escape on the way to Hermes after he had been replaced by the believer. He had not gone insane, and instead, he had tried to free himself by negotiating. He did not curse or howl hysterically, which was rare in the castle prison. If it were not for the unchangeable plan, Mayne would not have wanted to end such a life in this way.

He came up with the idea in the back of his mind that he could tell the old man what he wanted to know. Otherwise, an order for a soldier in Judgement Army to end the king�s life for him would suffice.

�Your oldest son, Gerald Wimbledon, has died,� Mayne said slowly. �He was sentenced to beheading by your second son Timothy Wimbledon in the name of treason and murder of the king. Your daughter Garcia Wimbledon has declared independence in the Southern Territory and given herself the title, Queen of Clearwater. A war between her and Timothy is unavoidable. As for your youngest son and daughter, we have no news. Maybe they�re still alive.�

�What did you say? Treason? Independence? What have you done?�

�Royal Decree on the Selection of Crown Prince,� he pronounced every single word of the phrase clearly, �we assigned your children to different places and declared that the one who ruled best would be the next king or queen.�

Wimbledon closed his eyes in pain. After a long pause, he asked in a low voice, �Why? You grabbed the chance on the Day of Prayer, taking me into a chamber and stripping off my clothes and God�s Stone of Retaliation. You made a witch replace me with some other person. You could have taken charge of this kingdom slowly and built a church in every town. Why did you have to issue something like the so-called Royal Decree on the Selection of Crown Prince? I, I couldn�t have� Achem.� Wimbledon had stirred himself up so much that he curled into a ball, coughing violently.

[I�d never have issued such an order to set my children against each other.] Mayne complemented the sentence in his mind for the king. �Maybe you would not, but your children may not act as you wish. As they�re getting older, they each have their own mind. For example, your oldest daughter, Garcia, seized Port of Clearwater five years ago. Even without the Royal Decree, or if you were to die a natural death, would she watch Gerald ascend the throne without doing anything? The most important fact is we don�t have time to do it slowly. You may have noticed a witch�s power can�t last forever.�

�Damn. What�s the benefit for the church if they fight each other? The church will also be engulfed in the flames of war while the believers will die in battles. The whole kingdom will be in chaos�� Wimbledon suddenly paused and raised his head in disbelief. �Do you intend to�� A more violent cough interrupted the king�s words. When he recovered his voice, the voice became so soft, as if the fit of coughing had drained all the energy from him. �you want to eliminate the royal family.�

�Exactly. But to put it more precisely, it�s the kingship that we�d like to eliminate.� Mayne could not help but be amazed by the acute judgement of the king. The number of people who had stayed in a dark cell for almost half a year and retained their clarity of mind could be counted on a single hand. �Kingship hinders the development of the church. No matter how weak the kingship is, it�ll grow like a sapling. The only way to get the kingdom for real is to root it out.

Wimbledon�s face looked much older now. He may have seemed aged before, but now his spirit was broken too. His eyes were dimmed.

�The Kingdom of Graycastle is the largest kingdom and has the strongest army on the continent. A war against it would be unfavorable for the church. We�ve planned so long for this. Your kingdom will lose countless soldiers and mercenaries in the civil war. In two or three years, our Judgement Army will be able to take over the whole territory of Graycastle easily. You don�t have to grieve so much, for you�ll not be the only king who loses his kingdom. It�ll be the same for the other three kingdoms. After that, there�ll be no difference between the four kingdoms. Kingdom of Dawn, Kingdom of Wolfheart, Kingdom of Everwinter, as well as Kingdom of Graycastle will all vanish. There�ll be only one sovereign in the vast land. That�s to say, the church.�

Wimbledon was silent. The man who had taken the crown from his brother by force had lost his spirit. Mayne even felt a little sympathy for him, though he did not feel the slightest regret in his heart. The church had paid a great price for this. Countless remarkable believers had been willing to sacrifice and serve as pawns in this carefully-schemed chess game.

The man who had played King Wimbledon III was actually a pious chief justice in the Judgement Army. His faith and loyalty to the church were undisputable. He could have gone through the incarnation ceremony of God�s Punishment Army. But for the sake of the mission, he was given the king�s image by the witch and died an honor-less death in the chamber room in the king�s city of Graycastle. He could have had his name carved out on the monuments of Hermes Cathedral. Yet now the church could only bury his name forever.

Mayne did not expect Wimbledon would speak and took out a small porcelain bottle to make the old man drink its contents, but the king suddenly spoke, �Curse!�

�Huh?�

�I curse you. I�ll wait for you in the abyss of hell.� His voice grew weaker and weaker. Mayne could only hear what the king said when he concentrated.

�Sorry. There�s no hell in this world. If there�s one, it doesn�t belong to us. What we�ve done is for survival only. Only by uniting the forces of all the four kingdoms can the church generate the utmost power to defeat the real enemy. Otherwise�� The archbishop stopped because he had seen Wimbledon�s hands fall down powerlessly. His head turned to one side, and the movements of his chest died down.

[This is the end of a king, and yet at the same time, a brand new beginning for us,] he thought.

Mayne put the porcelain bottle back into his pocket and left. When he pushed the wooden door open, the corridor was quiet, as if the wailing had never been there. He said a few things about the ensuing arrangements to the warrior of the Judgement Army at the door and walked out of the castle with determination.

Leaf did not know how she managed to get through these days.

It took her nearly half a month to return to the camp in the Impassable Mountain Range from the Barbarian Region. In order to avoid the demonic beasts, she had to carefully hide between sturdy tree trunks and confirm there were no demonic beasts before running to the next hiding place. Though her heart was burning with anxiety, she had no other choice but to march slowly in this way. Once she was detected by the demonic hybrids, she would not be able to escape by herself.

More than a dozen sisters had been ruthlessly killed by the demon. The other sisters, who belonged to non-combat type, fled in all directions when the demon Ironhand jumped into the crowd and began his massacre. But Leaf did not know how many of them were able to survive and return to the camp. She dared not to even think about it at all.

As she always had to hide herself during her journey, she consumed her magic power quite quickly and was only able to walk about a dozen miles every day. In addition, she had to save some magic power to survive the night. Since she ate up all the food she brought, she had to transform some wild fruits to make them edible. The emblem of Witch Cooperation Association had run out of power and stopped to give warmth, so she had to wrap herself up with barks. Thinking of young Shino who died before her maturity, Leaf could not stop her tears from falling.

What�s worse, on the evening of the fourth night, she suffered the Demonic Torture in a trunk. She completely forgot about it after the continuous attacks these days. A terrible pain quickly spread from her chest to her whole body, as if she were being torn apart. For an instant, she nearly became unconscious, and she had to bite her tongue hard to resist the pain. Under the constant torture, Leaf thought of giving up several times. However, she thought about the 20 sisters who might still be alive, or be waiting for her at the camp. She also thought about those that were seriously wounded and could only be cured by her. All of these made her grit her teeth and persevere on.

Luckily the Demonic Torture did not last long this time. When she finally struggled from the torture, she found there were bleeding cracks all over her body, and her blood had wetted the trunk. Afraid that the smell of blood would attract the demonic beasts, she had to take off her clothes and rush to hide in another tree despite the pain and fatigue. At the same time, she made green leaves grow on a bare branch with her magic power and made clothes out of leaves to keep warm. With the magic power, the branch became her needle while the leaf veins were her threads.

On her way back to the camp, she did not get to eat any cooked food or drink any warm water. When she entered the Impassable Mountain Range, even though she added two more layers of green-leaf clothes and tightly wrapped her hands and feet up, her toes still suffered frostbite. This was due to the rapidly falling temperature and the heavy snow that went up to her ankles. She walked and paused all the way, dragging her feet which could not feel anything, and finally arrived at the camp.

When she saw the familiar figures of the sisters, she fell head down and fainted.

When she woke up, it was already two days later. Having been exposed to low temperature for a long time, her feet were too severely injured to be healed by herbal medicine. The sisters had no choice but to cut off two necrotic toes from each of her feet to stop the spreading of gangrene.

Leaf did not care much about it. She was lucky enough to be alive, compared with those sisters who could never return. But seeing the white bandages on the arms of those wounded sisters, she could not help but feel extremely sorrowful.

When they started off, there were 42 sisters; but now, only six of them survived.

The sisters tried to comfort her, and then Scroll, the oldest witch, told her what happened to them after they had fled.

When Leaf was fighting the demon, the non-combat type of witches seized the opportunity to escape toward the camp. On that night, they were attacked by the demonic beasts�a group of demonic boars. Unable to resist, they had to flee again. Those sisters chased by the demonic beasts had little chance of survival, but they could do nothing about it. The next morning, under the attack of another demonic hybrid wolf, only eight witches escaped successfully. Fortunately, when they entered the Impassable Mountain, the beast finally left.

A few days after they returned to the camp, two sisters began to suffer the bite of the magic power. Maybe because of the terrible experience and the bleak future, neither of them were able to survive. Since none of the combat witches came back, everyone thought that they must have died in the hands of the demon, so no one expected that Leaf would come back.

�So� where are the other sisters? Red Light, Windseeker, and Respected Mentor, what happened to them?�

Leaf shook her head, �I�m the only one who survived.�

�Is that so�� Scroll replied softly, having already guessed the answer. �Have a good rest, and�� she hesitated for a moment, and then she said, �Leaf��

�What?�

�Before you woke up, we had a discussion. In case Cara won�t come back, I hope you can take the position of our mentor.�

Leaf was stunned for a moment and closed her eyes to consider. Well, after these heavy blows, the Witch Cooperation Association would probably fall apart immediately if there was no new mentor. The dream of the association was to seek the Holy Mountain, a place of freedom and peace. But now the dream was broken. No, even �Holy Mountain� was a lie, as it did not exist in the Impassable Mountain Range, or in the Wild Places. In this case, should the association still exist?

Those thoughts were getting on her nerves. Even without looking at the sisters, she could feel the expectations in their eyes. They needed someone to tell them what to do and to lead them on their journey.

�Let�s� go and look for Nightingale,� said Leaf, after a long silence.

�What? Nightingale?�

�You mean we are going to Border Town?�

�What if she lied to us?�

�Wendy is also there.�

�Maybe she�s been dead for ages.�

Hearing what Leaf said, the sisters raised questions eagerly. Scroll clapped her hands to calm them, and then asked Leaf, �What if Nightingale also lied?�

�You can wait outside the town, in some safe place.� Leaf opened her eyes, �Let me go first to find out whether Nightingale was telling the truth. If she lied, I will take over the position of the mentor. But if� I die in the town, Scroll, please lead the sisters to seek freedom.�

�But, I��

Leaf forced a smile, �I know your ability is unsuitable for fighting, and not very helpful for the daily operation of the camp. But now I understand that the strength of the ability is not the most important standard for the position of the mentor.� The mentor should be a guide, instead of being the strongest one. Unfortunately, it was too late for her to understand it. If Wendy, who was patient and cautious, was their mentor, would the result be different? �You, as well as Wendy, were the first witches to join the association, and also the elder sisters. When we came to the Impassable Mountain Range from the eastern part of the kingdom, you behaved in an experienced manner and were cautious. No one is more qualified than you to become our mentor.�

Scroll fell into silence for a while, and then said, �What if Nightingale was telling the truth?�

�Then the Witch Cooperation Association should not exist anymore.� Leaf slowly said, �Border Town will be our new �Holy Mountain�.�

�Ready�! Stab!�

Van�er exerted himself to stab forward with his spear. Holding it with both hands, he could feel the violent tremble and hear the crackling of the spear. At the end of the spear was a demonic wolf. That beast had fluffy fur and bloodred eyes bulging like bells. In its wide-open mouth were two rows of fangs, and the largest one was as big as his thumb. This was his first time to face a demonic beast so closely. It was trying to attack him with its claws and the snowflakes were spattered all over on his face.

Van�er felt his mind was a blank. He was only driven by his instincts learned during the training, while subconsciously holding tightly the shaft of his spear and continuing to attack. Time seemed to flow slowly, and the shaft was bent to its maximum. The spear was stabbed deeply into the belly of the wolf, and he even thought that the sharp claws would tear his cheeks open in the next moment.

�Bang!� Unable to withstand the force of the wolf any longer, the shaft finally broke into two pieces. The sound also made time flow normally again, as he could saw the wolf falling down, just like it jumped on the wall earlier on. Its claws failed to clutch the city wall, scraping flakes along the wall, and then smashed on the ground, with half of his spear still in its belly.

�Flintlock Squad, finish loading!�

�Fire!�

Two gun barrels immediately stretched out beside Van�er. He hurried to take a half step back and raised his head to avoid the scattered fragments and the smoke of the gunpowder. As for his ears, he had no time to cover them.

Soon after the guns fired, Van�er stepped back to the front, where he discovered a variety of demonic beasts dead at the base of the wall. Someone poked him in his back. He turned around and saw his roommate grinning proudly at him.

Van�er thought, �You have just got the opportunity to touch the gun for a week. You have nothing to be proud of.� He cast a stern glance at him and turned back to look at the battlefield. �When His Highness�s cannon platoon is ready, you�ll know the gun in your hand is just like a stick.�

�Gunner, here is your spear.� Cat�s Claw handed Van�er a new wooden spear. �Are these demonic beasts crazy? They�ve been attacking us for nearly two or three hours, right?�

�They were already crazy,� answered Van�er. He took the spear and placed it properly, waiting for the next attack. �What time is it?�

�It was almost noon.� Cat�s Claw sighed. When the hunter was not looking at him, he took a quick glance at each side and asked,� Where is Jop? And the Rodney Brothers?�

�Don�t turn around. Do you want to be torn in two by the demonic wolves?� Van�er snapped, �They were assigned to the other section of the city walls, maybe in the third or the fourth group. By the way, why are you in group one?�

�I belong to the auxiliary force.� Cat�s Claw laughed and said, � Wherever there is a need, I�ll come to help. Just now an older soldier was wounded, so it was my turn to��

�Ready�!� The order of the hunter observer interrupted Cat�s Claw�s words. Van�er saw a dozen of demonic beasts rapidly approaching. Now he could also quickly distinguish the types of demonic beasts. He discovered there were only two demonic wolves, while the rest were demonic boars, demonic foxes, and a demonic bear, which were no big threat to the city wall.

�Stab!� In spite of that, he still obeyed the order and stabbed forward in unified action with his group members. As expected, his spear stabbed into nothing but thin air. After withdrawing his spear, he saw from the corner of his eyes that the demonic wolves were killed by other soldiers from group one. When the slower demonic beasts gathered around the city wall, the Flintlock Squad squeezed by his side again, shooting downwards.

They had repeated these fixed actions from daybreak until the present. When the horn was first sounded, most people were still sleeping. Van�er yawned. This time, the attack of demonic beasts was more intense than ever before. Usually, they just needed to resist one or two waves of demonic beasts, but today, the corpses of beasts were almost piling up along the wall. They had been replaced by the second Militia halfway so that they could have a short rest and a bit to eat, after which they returned to the city wall.

Surprisingly, Van�er found that he behaved more calmly than he had imagined. He would withdraw his spear when he heard the order, leaving the rest to the Flintlock Squad, just as he had practiced in peacetime. Those regulations and actions, which originally seemed to be strange, came in handy and were incredibly effective.

Other soldiers behaved just like Van�er, firmly grasping the spear and having a serious look on their faces. Some auxiliary soldiers were very nervous, but still stood upright and no one stepped back.

Van�er knew that the daily repetitive training gave them confidence, but the morale was boosted mainly by His Highness. Only after the Flintlock Squad fired, Van�er would steal a glance at the lookout tower in the middle of the city wall�that was where the prince stood.

Since the horn sounded, His Highness immediately came to the city wall and stood there to overlook the battle without any rest. Even when Van�er was replaced to have his meal, he found that the prince remained on top of the lookout tower. Even his breakfast was sent there by the chief knight.

Van�er recalled that the last lord would always withdraw by ship as quickly as possible before the beginning of the Months of Demons. Then the other nobles would also go on board. The civilians would be the last ones to leave. If they could afford some silver royals, they could leave with the ships. But if they had no money, they had to walk to Longsong Stronghold by themselves. Thinking about that, Van�er felt that he was full of energy again.

Yes, they belonged to the Graycastle prince�s Militia, totally different from the patrol team of Border Town in the past. With armors and weapons, those members of patrol team often bullied civilians in the New and Old District and blackmailed the foreign businessmen. In Van�er�s view, except the two captains, the rest of the patrol team were nothing different from rogues. But the Militia, led by His Highness, was a strong team, which was able to block the terrifying demonic beasts outside of Border Town, making it impossible for them to advance. In the past, only Longsong Stronghold was able to do this.

Just look at Fish Ball, the famous coward in the Old District, who used to be ridiculed by others. Since he joined the second Militia, he was brave enough to fight the demonic beast with his spear. And Fermi, tall in stature but slow in action, was often teased by the people of the Old District. But now he was able to fight with his spear in a quick and firm way, and he was even more skilled than the others. Van�er knew that Fermi would always thrust out another one hundred slashes after the others had finished their training, just because His Highness once said to him, �Clumsy birds have to start flying early. To be successful, you have to keep one step ahead of everyone else to be able to surpass them.�

Originally Van�er came here for the two eggs, but now he felt lucky that he had joined the Militia. Every day there was some subtle change, and every day he made progress. Van�er believed that he was definitely not the only soldier who felt it. He did not know how to describe his feelings. Maybe he could use the words which were often said by His Highness during the training��You�re a team that�s out of this world�.

�Hoot� Hoot�� Van�er suddenly heard two short horn blows, which was the warning sign for the demonic hybrid. He looked into the distance and discovered a demonic hybrid with a lion�s head and two wings, which was similar to that beast which broke into the town last time. �This was the second one,� he thought. But this time was different. Besides the Flintlock Squad, we had more help.

Van�er turned around slightly, and from the corner of his eyes, he saw a girl with short blonde hair floating beside the prince.

�Take it easy. It hasn�t come yet.� Roland sighed as he watched the eager Lightning.

God only knew why she was so interested in challenging demonic beasts. Obviously, she was not cut out for battle, but yet she was hardly frightened of the demonic beasts that scared most people. �Do it the same way you dealt with the first one. Leave your bravado behind. Your job is to draw the beast�s attention and lure it here. Watch the height you fly at in case the beasts pounces up to strike you.�

�I know. I know,� Lightning said, brimming with confidence, �I�ve learned all the details from the fight against the first beast. Give me some credit. I won�t let this one touch me at all.�

While they were talking, the demonic hybrid beast was approaching the wall. It crossed the obstacle belt and sprung over the city wall towards the unguarded area. This time, the Militia members did not respond but stayed where they were deployed, waiting for the instruction from the hunter observers.

�Now the fight begins against the demonic hybrid beast!� Roland said in a deep voice.

Lightning, who was already on her way, stopped and looked back at Roland.

�What�s the matter?� Roland asked.

�What you just said was�� Lightning thought for a while and shook her head, �A little strange� Anyway, forget it. I�m leaving.�

Watching her fly away, Roland laughed awkwardly and asked Anna and Nightingale behind him, �Did it sound strange to you both?�

�Yeah.� Both of them nodded.

[Well then� It seems that the bumptious line will keep its feature wherever they are,] thought Roland. �Off you go, and keep safe,� Roland said.

�Same to you, Your Highness.� Nightingale bowed and took Anna�s hand before walking into the Mist.

The wind blowing against him, Roland stood with his hands behind his back, endeavoring to cast an impression of a big boss. Knowing that a lot of men watched him secretly during the break of the war, he kept standing firmly on top of the wall, letting everyone see the sign at any time that their prince would always stand with them. Since he could not fight in the war personally, this was the best he could do to inspire his men.

The attack of the demonic beasts this year was the strongest on record. According to Iron Axe, in previous years, there had been only one or two demonic hybrid beasts during the Months of Demons. This year seemed very unusual as the number of the intruding demonic hybrid beasts was up to four, and the war lasted longer. The demonic beasts constantly emerged from the Misty Forest and marched unceasingly towards the town in a pack of ten or so.

Fortunately, last month they had prepared enough flintlocks to arm the Flintlock Squad of 100 men, otherwise they would not be able to guarantee such an efficient killing speed. If they used crossbow bolts, it would be very hard to keep up the loading speed by now. In a protracted battle, the advantage of the flintlock that cost less labor was standing out. Of course, the high consumption of gunpowder did bother Roland, hence he was planning to unpack all the gunpowder reserves in the warehouse, more than 20 packs of them, to supply the Flintlock Squad.

On the other side, Lightning had approached the place above the demonic hybrid beast. She took a stone out of her pocket and cast it to the beast. The stone hit right on its head. The unexpected attack made the beast step back immediately before it saw that the attack was from the sky.

Lightning lowered her flying height to challenge the beast and flew by it, keeping close to the ground as she began heading to the center of the town. Though the beast could think, it seemed to the beast that the little flying girl was weak and non-threatening. So it pounced on her immediately, its wings spreading open to strike the air, and with only a few bounces, it glided forward almost 100 meters. Lightning flew higher at once and turned around in the sky, passing by some houses and turning in to another street.

Through the perplexing paths, she lured the enemy to the square in the center of the town where she would launch an attack on the beast with Nightingale and Anna as they had planned. Since the beast was sensitive enough to discover Nightingale even when she was hiding in the Mist, it was critical for Lightning to catch the beast�s attention before Nightingale and Anna launched their attack.

The trick worked perfectly. Now the beast was clearly furious and mad, and its nature got the better of it. With mouth wide open, it kept leaping up to catch Lightning who, without any burdens, was far agiler. She went up and down to fool the beast and made it miss the target every time it attacked.

From the other direction, Nightingale had arrived the square, and unlike Lightning, she walked straight here in the Mist where no obstacles like houses and barriers would stand in her way. Anna�s fire could reach as far as five meters, and in order to lower the chance of the beast cottoning on, they had to be as close as possible.

Having learned a lot from the mistake of dealing with the first demonic hybrid beast, now Nightingale was familiar with how Anna attacked. When they were 30 steps away from the beast, she sped up to the limit. Within a split second, the distance seemed to be cut down to one step and then they strode over it. It happened so fast that when Anna came to her mind, she found that their face was right by the beast�s tail.

�Now!� Nightingale shouted.

As the white and black world faded away in the blink of an eye, Anna came back to the familiar square. A green fire burst out on her fingertip and enlarged into a fire cage that trapped the entire beast.

Nightingale retreated quickly to dodge the heat wave that made her painful.

Before the demonic beast could react, the fire that had reached a temperature high enough to melt steel, became a fireball, and finally, the beast crushed.

�Looks like they�ve made it,� Wendy who worked as a guard in Nightingale�s absence curled her lip and said when she saw the green flame far away. �It seems that I didn�t have to do much work��

�I�d hope that none of you step foot onto the battlefield if possible,� said Roland in a faux-sprightly voice, keeping his posture with his hands behind his back. But he knew in his heart that without the help of the witches, the Militia would definitely reel from the demonic hybrid beasts, which were able to fly over the city wall.

Even Nana, protected by Baron Tigui, had come to the city wall and was busy healing the wounded soldiers. Roland was very gratified that the first time demonstrating the power of witches in front of the Militia had turned out so well. Nana, who was nicknamed �Healing Angel�, apparently boosted the reputation of the witches to a new level. Moreover, the victory Anna and Nightingale had achieved in the battle against the demonic hybrid beast also earned them cheers among the crowds.

He certainly understood that it was impossible for everyone to accept the witches, but as far as he was concerned, the current situation was already an improvement. After the initial interaction between the Militia and the witches, his following plan would be carried out more smoothly.

All of a sudden, the sound of gunfire became sporadic, and Roland noticed that the beasts were abandoning the city wall. [The enemies are in retreat?] Roland could not believe his eyes. At that moment, a shaft of sunlight burst through the thick clouds, shining on the battlefield, and then the second shaft, the third� soon the gray sky was riddled with thousands of shafts of light which bled one another to become a single most dazzling one. Suddenly, the land was brightened up.

�When the sun finally rose up again, it signaled the end of the Months of Demons�

After a short moment of silence on the city wall, the wave of cheers swept across the border defense line. One after another, the townspeople came out of their houses, and following the wave of cheers, they sang and shouted. Cheers for the long-awaited sunshine, cheers for surviving the winter, and cheers for their prince. All the cheers came together, echoing throughout the small Border Town.

For Border Town, this year was different from previous years.

In the past, after the Months of Demons ended, the refugees had to wait in the slum of Longsong Stronghold for one more month, until the snow had melted completely, before they could return to their home. What awaited them in Border Town was a mess. The houses that had been unattended for months would be in ruins. Sometimes fragile cabins would collapse from heavy snow. Demonic beasts often lingered in houses. Cabinets and tables had been bitten and broken into parts, and the pallets and rags had been moved to fill in the corners. Apparently, they used these shelters as their lairs. House owners had to spend a week repairing their houses and changing their mildewed furniture. And the rotten stench always lingered in the air. The residents had grown accustomed to it.

This year, however, Border Town was renewed. After quickly cleaning the snow, people started to hang colorful paper flags on their doors. These had been granted by His Highness. From afar, with the flags of various colors mixed together, the dull and shabby, little town became vibrant, like a sea of flowers. All the people went around spreading the news that on the first day after the end of the Months of Demons, His Highness would hold a grand celebration party in the square! Everyone was allowed to attend it for free! It was told that there would also be a free meal!

A party? In the past, these were only for the noble to attend. Most people simply heard about them from the knowledgeable businessmen who came from big cities. But even the experienced businessmen were not allowed to attend a party, and money could not buy them a ticket. Yet, to everyone�s surprise, His Highness was allowing all of them to attend.

�Your Highness, I�m afraid this is not a good idea.� Chief Knight Carter tried to change his mind. �Without a band or a lead dancer, who�ll control the pace of the party? Besides, in a remote place like this, the noble won�t even dance. Your subjects will ruin everything.�

Carter had only been to one party in the capital, which had been held by a marquis for his daughter�s birthday. The sounds of elegant strings and passionate drums had interlaced. Ladies had danced to melodious music while men drums, their steps fast and vigorous, and with rotating and tapping they combined the movements and the rhythm of drums. During the break, attendants would serve drinks and desserts among the people. Men looked for lovers and when the last song was played, they plucked up the courage to ask the object of their admiration for a dance. The one who won a lady�s heart would continue his romantic night.

Carter sighed. Though he had not won over the admired girl at the time, the elegant, romantic atmosphere of the party still left an impression on his mind. Now the prince intended to replace the graceful noble with peasants who dealt with stones and beasts every day? Goodness, he dared not imagine it.

�The lead dancers? We have them.� Roland had commanded the Militia to remove the stone sculpture and gallows in the square. �They�re Iron Axe and the Militia.�

�The man from Sand Nation?� Carter asked in shock. He had accepted Iron Axe, who as the Captain of the Flintlock Squad, had performed very well during the Months of Demons, and did not call Iron Axe�s foreign title anymore. Yet this did not change what Iron Axe was. How could a man from the Mojin Clan understand the manners of the kingdom?

Roland laughed secretly. �This is not a usual party. You�ll understand when you see it.�

There was not much preparation needed, except removing the obstacles in the square and piling up the firewood in the center for a barbecue. Yes, this was Roland�s idea of a celebration party, a bonfire party and outdoor barbecue.

Roland had been thinking about how to improve his people�s identification with the place they lived. For the uneducated peasants who had spent their whole life serving their lords, the concept of nationalism was too deep to understand. What they really cared about was their properties and families. The further they fell behind, the more shortsighted they were. This was the law of developing civilization. It was written, �Civilization will eventually become as big as its mind.� And Roland could not agree more.

However, it did not mean that he should ignore constructing community spirit, and a victory celebration was the best way. He did not understand why there was currently no celebratory party after the end of the Months of Demons. The invasion of demonic beasts was like an annual natural disaster. There was no doubt that defeating the demons deserved to be written a great deal about.

Therefore, he decided to name the first day after the Months of Demons Victory Day. On that day, all the people in his land would rest, and all kinds of celebrations would be held. Once this celebration was held for three or four years, it would become a tradition and pass on to future generations. As time went on, his subjects would recognize the difference between themselves and those people who were under other lords� governance.

Though it was not yet noon, the square was filled with people. The members of the Militia stood in a circle keeping everyone away from the pile of firewood.

It seemed to Roland that free food had a strong appeal to the residents. At least half of the town had attended the party. Everything was perfect, except that the square was a little too small. Apart from the clearing for the firewood, the rest of the square was barely enough to include a thousand people, who stood nearly shoulder to shoulder and had difficulty moving around. He noticed some children had climbed up to the nearest roof to have a better view of the center of the square.

To Roland, it was acceptable for his first celebration party to have some defects. When the time came, he walked on stage to give his speech.

This was his second speech in the square, and he was much more composed this time.

�Good afternoon, my people. I�m Prince Roland Wimbledon of Kingdom of Graycastle.� He started the same as he had with his last speech, but this time it produced a totally different result. People greeted his opening with enthusiastic cheers. �Long live Prince Roland!� �Long live Your Highness!�

Roland was touched by the cheers. The spontaneous cheers were from the Militia and the crowds, not from the plants like he had arranged during the first speech. A sense of achievement and contentment filled his heart.

When the cheers faded, he pressed his hands down to silence the audience. �The Months of Demons have ended. The Militia fought hard and bravely to keep the demonic beasts away from the city wall. We�ve achieved victory in the battle against the fearful enemies at a very low price. It proves that if only we pull together, we could live well, independent from Longsong Stronghold, who intended to threaten us with food and force us to yield to hunger and cold. The victory of today has told them that their schemes have failed and all that they�ve planned is a futile effort.

�Exactly. I don�t want to go back there anymore!�

�We�ll never suffer hunger again if we follow our prince.�

�His Highness has mercy! Finally, we don�t have to put up with their extortion.�

While everyone was in an ebullient mood, Roland continued his speech. �Let us celebrate this glorious and honorable triumph. This is a day to remember! I hereby proclaim that from this day forward, the first day after the end of the Months of Demons will be named �Victory Day�! This is the reason for our celebration! Enjoy it, my people! Now, let the party begin!

A torch was tossed into the pile of firewood that had already been daubed with oil. The fire boomed and soared high, lighting the atmosphere of the whole square instantly.

Six marinated cattle were transported next to the bonfire by carts�if they weren�t escorted by the Militia, Roland suspected that on their way through the crowd, the cattle would have already been cleared by the overzealous masses.

This was all of the food reserves the castle had left in the basement. So he would not eat any meat until the arrival of the next merchant ship. The thought of this made Roland cry silently. To organize this celebration successfully, he had used up everything he had.

The royal chefs brought over from King�s City were only responsible for brushing the meat and controlling the heat. The task of barbecuing was handed over to six strong members from the Militia. An iron bar was inserted into the cattle�s body through its mouth and then placed next to the fire on a brick hearth. The flames were so hot that the heat waves could be felt even at two to three meters away. Soon the cattle�s skin generated a sizzling sound, oil emerged out of its pores, emitting a succulent scent.

Of course, the crowd couldn�t be left waiting during the barbecue, so on Roland�s signal, Iron Axe led a team of militia to the stage.

The extravagant and complicated court dances weren�t appropriate for an occasion like this, for there was no time for practice, and they wouldn�t even be able to remember all the essentials steps, not to mention displaying a perfect dance move. To display a dance that was both enjoyable and easy to understand, the dance of Sand Nation was clearly a better option for the taste of the civilians.

The dance started with Iron Axe and the others placing both of their hands on their waist, and they interlocked each other�s arms, creating a chain-like formation, forming two rings around the bonfire. Accompanied by the sounds of horns, they began to move clockwise, and with each step, they would kick in the air while shouting �Ha hey�!

�Is this the lead dance you talked about?� Carter asked in a startle. �Is this even considered as a dance?�

�Of course, it is, and it�s very easy to remember. The militia members only needed to practice fifteen minutes last night to master the steps,� Roland answered laughingly, �Would you like to have a try?�

Carter shook his head and refused the offer. He felt as if something in his heart broke with a bang�goodbye, the beautiful girl that melted his heart. Goodbye, the sad memory of youth.

The other militia members were clapping with their hands in the rhythm of the dancer�s footsteps, accompanied each time with an applause. The extremely dynamic rhythm moved the masses, who, one after another, followed them. As the clapping got faster, the circling speed of Iron Axe and his men became faster as well. Soon the ring began to show signs of coming apart, and it did not take long until one of the dancers accidentally fell, taking down more dancers with him. The crowd was left startled, but the militia members did not stop the clapping, but instead, they clapped more wildly like a rainstorm.

Iron Axe helped the men that had fallen down, and asked the crowd loudly, �Do you understand the dance? Anyone wants to try? Every dance will end with members falling down! If you join the dance, you�ll get a piece of sweet and delicious honey meat. The longer you dance, the more meat you get!�

If the noble or the rich families were to invite them, the normal townspeople would never have been involved�subconsciously, they gave them a feeling that they were superior to them. It was also common for them to go back on their promises. But seeing the militia members, who were their familiar townspeople, waving at them, they were unable to hold themselves back.

After the first person soon followed a second and then a third one. A new round of dance started, but this time most of the dancers came from the crowd. Although the dance was simple, everyone was very happy, and plus the reward of the honey meat, the participants tried their hardest to show the best possible performance.

This was exactly what Roland wanted to see.

Apart from the barbecue, there were also bread, fishcakes, and ale that was distributed to the crowd. The celebration would last until the night, but Roland did not plan to stay all night. He arranged for Carter to be in charge of the security of the town square and the assistant minister to be responsible for the closing speech before he left.

He also had a private party to attend at the castle backyard.

The backyard was still brightly lit when the night fell.

Just like in the town�s square, there was also a bonfire here. The difference was that the chicken used for the barbeque was cut into pieces. The seasoning and the oil were done by themselves, completely imitating the atmosphere of an outdoor barbeque. The witches fell in love with this kind of novelty of self-service. Of course in Roland�s eyes, this was also a rare spectacle�for example, Anna directly wrapped the chicken into her green flame after seasoning it, which would soon give off a delicious scent. As for Nightingale, she showed off her incredible knife skills. The knife in her hand was flying and dancing on the chicken causing all of its bones being completely cut off.

And of course, there was red wine, brought from Willow Town, and it was much more suitable for the tastes of women than ale. Before Roland could say that minors were prohibited from drinking, Lightning had already emptied half a bottle by herself, and since she was holding the bottle and floating in mid-air, it would be difficult to stop her, so he gave up the thought.

At the halfway through the barbecue, Roland started to feel slightly tipsy. He leaned against the chair, and while watching the group of happy laughing girls, Roland felt very pleased. This was the perfect life for a prince, he thought, and also for the witches. With their extraordinary abilities and appearance, they should not be the object of hunting. If they lived in the world of his previous life, they would have become the dazzling focus where they were. The only thing he could do now was to let them live a normal life here in his territory.

At this moment, Lightning flew down, directly landing on Roland�s lap, and before he could react, she planted a kiss on his cheek.

Although this action was done very quickly, it was still captured by other witches.

As Lightning grinningly flew away and saw Anna, Nightingale, and Wendy looked at her in surprise, she waved her hand, explaining, �According to the rules of the Fjords, during a victory celebration, women can take the initiative to kiss the leader. Dad would always let me kiss him. Is it the same in Graycastle?�

�Of course not.� Roland instantly woke up from his half-drunken state. �Uh� ahem, Lightning, you�re drunk, go back to the castle and sleep now!�

�How could I be drunk.� Lightning protested. �When I was sailing, I often had drinking battles with the crew and I never lost one.�

Roland could only ask the witches for help, and he turned to Wendy, who nodded and then used her power to softly blow Lightning down. As she was landing, Wendy stepped forward and caught the girl in her arms. Disregarding her struggling, Wendy walked straight to the castle.

�Don�t worry about her, she just drinks too much. Please continue, and soon the dessert will be served.� Roland suddenly felt that the atmosphere had turned a little awkward, especially the way Anna was looking at him, which made him feel a chill starting from his feet. The only one who was completely unaffected by what had happened was Nana, and she was still concentrating on her chicken wings like nothing had happened at all.

After the bonfire was gradually extinguished, Roland asked Nightingale to escort Nana home. Then he went to the well and washed his face with the cold water, getting ready to go to bed. Roland did not take the former episode seriously. In his view, Lightning was still a little child.

But when he arrived at the third floor�s bedroom, the prince�s heart suddenly leaped.

He saw Anna leaning against his door.

The moonlight was coming in from the corridor�s window, shining on half of the girl�s face. Her eyes reflected a faint blue light, looking like two stars in the dark. Anna�s body was leaning against the door, with most of her body hidden in the dark, but her silhouette was still visible�good nutrition had completely changed her previous thin and skinny body, and as a woman who recently became adult, her body was just perfect, containing the right curves of her age and the unique charm of youth.

Roland put on a calm face and walked slowly towards her until he was spotted by her. She stood straight and they looked each other right into the eyes.

�It was just an accident, and I didn�t know she would�� Roland said.

�I understand.�

�She�s still a child, so I didn�t take it serious��

�I got it too�

Anna reacted completely differently than Roland had expected. It did not seem like Anna wanted to argue, and he could not detect any trace of displeasure on her face but only a serious look. There was no motion within her lake-like blue eyes. Roland realized that she was a straightforward woman, and she neither liked to hide nor she had to hide anything. As expected, she took the initiative and said, �I dare not do such a bold thing� in front of so many people, like what Lightning had done, so I have to wait for you here.�

Upon finishing, her cheeks clearly showed a sign of blush, but even so, she did not shrink back and her eyes remained focused on Roland�s. Her expression could not be more serious.

Roland�s heartbeat gradually slowed down, wanting to say something, but he felt that saying anything right now would be meaningless. Maybe she did mind Lightning�s behavior, but complaining was not her style, and she would simply express her own feelings.

Honest and hardworking children should not be rejected, he thought. Roland bent down, leant towards Anna�s cheek. He could even feel her breath on his face, like a spring breath fiddling his heartstrings. It was so quiet that they could clearly hear each other�s nervous breathing in the quiet corridor, and then, a pair of soft lips slightly touched Roland�s cheeks.

�Good night, Your Highness,� Anna whispered.

*******************

Wendy was sitting on the bed and reading some books.

For her, times like this were very rare. During her time in the Witch Cooperation Association, she would have never dared to think of having such a life.

Not long after she came to town, she developed such a habit: Before going to sleep, she would clean her body, put on a silk gown, which was not fastened around the waist or was it buttoned up, sit cross-legged in the bed, with a soft pillow between her back and the wall, and read the books she had borrowed from His Highness.

It had taken her a lot of time until she got Lightning to rest, so she did not plan to return to the castle backyard, and instead, she washed up and went straight to bed.

She was now reading a history book about the origin of the church.

Although she grew up in a cloister, yet she did not know much about this subject. The nuns had always warned them to obey the teaching of God, but they never mentioned God�s name�during her childhood this discrepancy had always puzzled her. Everyone had a name, so why the highest deities did not have one?

What was recorded in the history book was mostly the same with the rumors she had heard. At the beginning, there were three major churches, which thought of each other as heretics and believed that their own God was the true one. This battle of faiths lasted for nearly a hundred years, and in the end, the church nowadays claimed the final victory. They declared that the heretics had been destroyed, and God has only one name that was the word of God itself.

The following pages described the glory and immortality of the church, including the construction of Old Holy City and New Holy City and their victory over the evil witches. This left Wendy very puzzled. She had previously borrowed the books, �The History of the Kingdom of Graycastle� and �A Brief History of the Mainland� from His Highness. The first one almost unequivocally recorded the kingdom�s establishment, development, and major events. For example, names of each king, their marital status, and information about their children. The family with all their branches were described in such detail that it almost represented a detailed genealogy.

�The Brief History of the Mainland� focused more on the evolution of the Four Kingdoms, their alternations in handling their powers, and their political struggles. However, the content still focused a lot on the ruling families.

Yet within the history book of the church, there was no mention of any of the popes� names, or could it be that it was the same case with God�s name. They just replaced their former names with the title pope. By the first look, it seemed like there was only one pope during all of the hundreds of years of history. This was not logical, and instead of calling it a record, it would be better to call it deliberate delusion.

At this moment, Nightingale suddenly appeared within the room. Wendy put down her book and looked at her with interest. �It�s been late. You still have time to come here?�

Nightingale rubbed her neck and sat beside the bed. �I just finished escorting Nana home. How is Lightning?�

�She immediately fell asleep once I put her in bed, and she wouldn�t stop murmuring about her father.� Wendy shrugged. �She always acts like she is already a brave big girl, but in truth, she�s still a little child.�

�In your eyes, everyone is still a child,� Nightingale replied and took the book from Wendy�s hand. �His Highness had said that you shouldn�t read at night, especially while sitting in bed. You�ll hurt your eyes if the lighting isn�t strong enough.�

�Yes, His Highness did say that.�

The two of them chatted for a while. They talked about their travel from Silver City to the Impassable Mountain Range, about the time they heard the news that a witch was soon to be killed in town and how the prince fought off the Months of Demons. Nightingale had a lot to say and Wendy would also occasionally throw in one or two sentences. During the past five years, these two had developed such a great chemistry and understanding between each other. The time passed slowly until finally, the candles were about to extinguish. At that time Wendy began to smile and asked, �So? You can�t sleep because of Lightning�s actions today?�

�What�re you talking about��

�What else can it be.� Wendy smiled and shook her head. �Veronica, we�re witches. You should know better.�

��� Nightingale remained silent, and after a long time she replied, �Well.�

This was fate that no witch could escape from it. Wendy sighed and then said, �Roland Wimbledon is the kingdom�s fourth Prince, and we have to do everything necessary to ensure that he�ll take over the throne of Kingdom of Graycastle. He�ll rule the kingdom well and he�ll be able to create a place for us sisters to live in.�

�But at that time, he must do what a king needed to do, and when the time comes, he�ll have to marry a duke�s daughter or the princess of another kingdom in order to give birth to one or many heirs. If it�s a boy, he�ll inherit the throne, and if it�s a girl she�ll be married to another noble family.�

Here, Wendy paused for a moment, and then spoke aloud what Nightingale, or actually what all witches did not want to hear. �Veronica, we�re witches, who can�t give birth to children.�

�Even by thinking most optimistically, after His Highness has ruled for many years, and our sisters can finally walk in the streets of the kingdom freely. On some occasions, outstanding witches would be able to join the upper ranks of society, and maybe even get canonized as nobles. But the fact that witches can�t give birth will never change. And without the ability to bear any descendants, we�ll be unable to continue the family�s glory. Thus, the nobles would never consider marrying a witch. We have been given a gift, but at the same time, something was also been taken from us. This is our fate.� Then she whispered, �May God be merciful.�

�I see,� she whispered.

�

After Nightingale had finally left, Wendy felt upset. But she was confident that Nightingale would be able to overcome this, after all, she had already overcome so many hardships, and she surely would not stumble on this one.

She was sure about it.

�This is the end of our task, right?� In the square, Cat�s Claw cleaned up the burned debris from the bonfire and regretfully said, �I really don�t want to go back to the mine to work. To be honest, I kind of miss the Months of Demons.�

�Yeah, I don�t want to deal with those stones,� Jop replied. �The most important thing is the pay is too different from the previous one. Where else can we get work like this in the Artillery Squad? Where can we get to eat meat every day and have a monthly salary of 15 silver royals.�

�What a silly thing to say,� said Van�er, who was holding a torch on the side. �This time His Royal Highness distributed a lot of grain, so no one starved to death during the Months of Demons. Do you remember two years ago in the Old District, half of the people did not survive the winter! Do you miss that? Anyway, the platoon won�t be disbanded. Do you think His Royal Highness recruited us into the Artillery Squad and burned so much gunpowder, just to hear the �bang� of the explosion?�

�But there are no more demonic beasts. Why would His Royal Highness still need the Artillery Squad?� Rodney asked, clutching the broom.

�The Artillery Squad isn�t prepared just for the demonic beasts.� Van�er pondered but ultimately did not say it. �Anyway, we�ll know the answer tomorrow.� He yawned and waved his hand impatiently. �Clean this up quickly, I�d like to go back to sleep early.�

The next day early in the morning, there was an order to gather at the battalion camp, thus confirming Van�er�s saying.

After all the people were gathered, Iron Axe stood before them and announced, �You have completed the first stage of the task�to protect Border Town against the invasion of the demonic beasts. After three months and six days of fighting, you�ve received the acknowledgment of His Royal Highness! The Militia will be regrouped to form the regular corps of His Royal Highness. If you do not want to continue fighting, you can step out now. His Royal Highness also said, those who decide to leave the Militia now, will get the full salary and an additional 25 silver royals as�� He thought about the words of His Royal Highness. �Well, the retirement pension.�

None of the three hundred people moved, only Cat�s Claw raised his hand. �Report.�

This was also one of the weird rules developed by His Royal Highness during the training. The platoon members were not allowed to whisper in private. If they wanted to inquire about something, they had to first shout �report�.

Iron Axe nodded. �Speak up.�

�What is the meaning of the regular corps, does that mean we become knights?�

Van�er could not help but laugh, but he soon returned to his serious demeanor.

Knights? But that would already be considered as the nobility. Not only would that include property and squire, but would also include the conferral of land. Asking this type of question was really an embarrassment to the Artillery Squad.

�No,� Iron Axe patiently explained. Apparently, he had also asked his Royal Highness before. �The regular corps is a full-time platoon, used to protect His Royal Highness and his domain. In other words, while the workers are mining, you�re training. When the farmers are harvesting the wheat, you�re still training. When the merchants are selling the goods, you would still be training. All the training is in preparation for future victories, just as you did during the Months of Demons.�

�So how is that different from the Militia?� Cat�s Claw continued asking.

�More frequent training, a more rigorous system, and a more lucrative return.�

�Report!� This time it was Rodney. As soon as Iron Axe nodded, he asked eagerly, �What�s the more lucrative return?�

Van�er sighed. Why was each of the young men in their team so impetuous? In fact, he would also like to know the answer to this question.

�The regular corps follow the army system. They complete designated missions during combat and for those with excellent performance, they can be promoted to officer,� Iron Axe said loudly, �For example, be promoted to my position.�

�Was this what His Royal Highness said�� Van�er secretly thought. �If this was really carried out, wouldn�t this be encouraging everyone to go against their superiors?� He quietly looked around, but it seemed others were unaware of this problem and were still listening with relish.

�Officers can get higher pay, and� own land.�

The last sentence resulted with a burst of voices. Van�er was no exception, he even doubted whether he heard the wrong thing. If they could get land as well, then how was that different from a knight?

�But remember that once you choose to become part of the regular corps, you need to follow a system that�s completely different from the Militia. Failure to complete tasks, fleeing, mutiny and other violations of discipline, would be severely dealt with. I�m not talking about eating one egg less. The punishments include hard labor and even imprisonment. The positions and rewards that were received would also be withdrawn.� Iron Axe paused. �It�s still not too late now to quit.�

The crowd was dead quiet and after Iron Axe silently counted to ten, still no one moved. He could not help but grin. �Well then, from today onwards, you have become a regular corps of His Highness Prince Roland Wimbledon!�

Van�er himself thought that was incredible. If it were three months ago, hearing about those terrible punishments he would have slipped away long ago. What was the use of promotion, of land, compared to keeping their own lives? But now, he chose to stay without hesitating much. Compared to breaking North Slope Mine�s stones, or living aimlessly in the Old District, Van�er preferred to stay here.

�You have good powers of observation. What�s your name?�

�Mr. Van�er, keep up the good work.�

Thinking about the encouragement from His Highness, he once again confirmed his plan�he belonged to the Militia. In the future, he would also be a member of the regular corps, and continue to fight for His Highness.

�

Iron Axe soon announced today�s first training: field training.

At the beginning, Van�er disapproved of running as a training method. Even during the Months of Demons, the training was rarely interrupted. After eating breakfast, depending on the weather conditions, they had to run two laps in the town unless it was snowing heavily. According to His Highness, this was conducive to exercising the bones. When defending the city wall, they would be agile and not have stiff hands and feet or be unable to stab the spears.

But when the platoon ran out of Border Town, he immediately felt the difference between the two.

At this time the wild snow was still far from melting. Three months of on-and-off snow now covered the knees. Rather than running, they might as well be climbing. The platoon suddenly became scattered. Once a foot sunk in, it took a lot of effort to pull out.

There was no doubt that this type of special training to torment them was His Highness�s idea. Van�er had already figured out His Highness�s ideas. At this point, protesting was basically futile, and the only thing that could be done was to persist until the end.

A back-and-forth trip took the whole morning. When the platoon returned to the town, Van�er could hardly feel his legs.

The snow that seeped into the boots turned into water. Even if standing under the sun, most people would still be trembling from the cold. A huge physical exertion exacerbated this chill, and even Iron Axe felt it was too much. He announced the dissolution of the platoon for noon and postponed lunchtime to one hour later. This gave everyone time to change out of their wet shoes and pants.

Everyone was pleased that the afternoon training was canceled.

Of course, they did not know that Lightning had been tracking their field training, and this was also the little girl�s daily training content�precise control of the magic power of uniform flight. When she reported the information to Roland, the latter did not know whether to cry or to laugh.

The total mileage of the platoon in the morning was four kilometers.

A few days after the victory celebration, Roland continued to devote his energy into the great farming project.

Sitting in the office, there was a nonstop ticking sound outside the window as if it were raining. It was the sound of melting snow. When he was in the countryside during New Year, he loved crouching on the window and looking at the long ice icicles melting into transparent water droplets and slowly dripping down. At the moment, he did not have time for such leisure. But it was still enjoyable to listen to the voice of the earth recovering while writing a plan.

According to previous years of experience, the snow took about a week or so to melt. But a month would still be needed before it was possible to pass through the road between the town and Longsong Stronghold. It was not hard for Roland to imagine what the muddy road would look like without the surface hardening or proper drainage measures. If he could successfully take over Longsong Stronghold, his first action would be to build a hardened road suitable for horse carriages to pass through.

But now the priority was to solve the problem of building the corps. Without a reliable and powerful army, it would not be possible to defeat Longsong Stronghold corps if they had fewer soldiers. Converting the Militia into a regular corps was only the first step. The specific preparation, discipline, punishment and reward system was a real headache.

Although he played military chess as a child, at this moment he had long forgotten everything. After some deliberation on his part, Roland simply decided to create his own system. Anyway, he was the creator of the new corps, and no one would notice even if he set up an unreasonable system.

So the First Army of Border Town was created: consisting of corps, division, battalion, platoon and team as the framework; 5 people formed a team (considering a cannon required at least five people to operate), 10 teams a platoon, and 10 platoons a battalion. As for the number of the division and the corps, he would deal with that later. In view of the overall level of combat in this era, as long as there were two or three battalion forces, it would be enough to defeat the vast majority of opponents in the field.

After setting out the most basic framework, Roland let out a long breath.

The next rules and regulations would be much simpler. These included obeying the military order, obeying the superior, no escaping, betrayal and other similar cliches. But Roland�s first set of discipline was the prohibition of looting and disturbing the peace.

Allowing the military to loot as they wished had too many cons, and it would take several years to reverse the damage it would cause for the local people. This was why he insisted on using civilians as military personnel.

When the noble responded to the lord�s recruitment, choosing not to loot after defeating the enemy was simply a fairy tale. It would be more appropriate to say the main reason they were willing to follow the lord was that they could wantonly plunder the opponent�s wealth and territory, including the innocent civilians on the domain.

As for mercenaries and bandits, that was better left unsaid. They looked sturdy and vicious, but in fact, they were useless at a real battle. Stealing was a big source of their income, so military discipline for this group of people was meaningless.

Only an army formed by civilians would not see other civilians as slaves to be slaughtered. Of course, just depending on discipline and punishment was not enough. As time went by, greed would increase with every winning victory. So the reward system had to keep up with the pace, in order to fundamentally eliminate looting and other disciplinary behavior.

In order to make the reward tempting enough for the people, Roland decided to release the ultimate weapon�military land as a reward. Whoever made great achievements during battle, could be granted a piece of land. Roland had already thought of the source of land. That would be the reclaimed land between Border Town and Longsong Stronghold.

In this era when 90% of the land belonged to the noble, it was considered a generous prize. Once they had titled land, these people would be closely attached to his side. Any person who wanted to overthrow him would meet the most intense resistance from his army.

Motivating the people did not rely on words or whips, but real measurable interests. In other words, as long as he could always represent the fundamental interests of the people, his rule would be stable.

Unlike traditional fiefs, Roland limited the land from several acres to about a dozen acres. It could be used for self-built residences, to purchase slaves or hired farmers to take care of the land, but not to build industry. In contrast, a knight�s domain was close to two thousand acres, equivalent to a small village. The industrial income of the above operation could provide the necessary operations for knights and attendants, such as the purchase of weapons, armor, and horses.

Such a small area of land reward, would not cause a strong conflict between the noble interest groups, and yet it weakened the independence of the recipients. In Roland�s opinion, it was similar to a retirement pension, and you could ensure that soldiers still had a stable income after retirement.

At the same time, in order to strengthen the centralization of authority, and to avoid the situation that �the servant�s servant was not my servant�, the person who was conferred the land had ownership but no autonomy. In other words, this land was still under the lord�s laws, regulations, and systems. In a sense, they were more like the future generations of farm owners.

After transcribing these preliminary ideas, Roland stretched out. Next, he could finally devote himself to his field of expertise�R & D weapons.

Since the speed of flintlock manufacturing was increasing, continuing to equip the riflemen to protect the flintlock shooters would be a waste of manpower. The latter needed to have the ability to fight independently in close combat.

The solution was simple, that was to install bayonets on the guns. Roland did not expect his troops to take the initiative to start a hand-to-hand combat, but just as the opponents were trying to escape and the cannon could not completely destroy the enemy�s courage, they would at least have the strength for battle.

A bayonet was not difficult to manufacture. It was simply a sharp cone. The key was the connection between the bayonet and the gun: the original bayonet was the knife handle wrapped around thin wood. The wood could be directly inserted into the barrel. The advantage was it was simple to create, while the disadvantage was also pretty obvious. During the hand-to-hand combat, the barrels would be unavailable, and pulling the bayonet out after the fighting was also particularly laborious.

Roland was planning to produce the second-generation bayonet�the casing bayonet. The end of the shank had a corner and was connected to a casing. The casing diameter, which was slightly larger than the barrel, was attached to the Z-shape tongue and groove joint. The barrel only needed to be welded with a small iron bar, so that the tongue and groove joint could be embedded in to fix the blade. The blade was a triangular iron, its cross-section similar to a V-shape. With all three sides of the blade piercing the body, this did not affect the pulling out, yet leaving a wound that was difficult to heal.

The casing bayonet after installation was slightly higher than the gun, and this had a certain impact on filling the ammunition. But compared to the folding bayonet, it was easier to facilitate mass production. All it needed was a sample that could be replicated by the blacksmith.

To make the bayonet play a role in combat, the key was to train the soldiers on how to use it.

Roland knew nothing about it. Fortunately, he remembered Chief Knight used to boast that he could use any military weapon. He might as well be in charge of teaching the Flintlock Squad on how to fight with a bayonet.

The production of cannon was steadily progressing. The second cannon was undergoing a period of chamber expansion, while the third cannon was stockpiling the materials.

They would have four twelve-pound cannons a month later if they were lucky enough. It was without question that they held an unprecedented superiority in firepower. But, what Roland concerned about that was how to ensure that the advantage would turn into a victory.

As a mechanical engineer, before finding himself in this era, his understandings of war, like most people, was from history, movies, and games. If it was just hand-to-hand combat, he would give Carter and Iron Axe free reign to command. However, this was a totally different war and none were more familiar than him with the combat mode of the hot weapon war.

In this case, all he could do was to use all of his knowledge to make a detailed plan of action.

In order to ensure that his forces would be winning the war, Roland ordered Lightning to shuttle between Longsong Stronghold and Border Town every day. Her purpose was to observe the road situation and calculate the accurate distance. As for Roland, he firmly believed that the prerequisites for winning the war were plenty of calculations and reconnaissance. No matter whether tactical decision or game deduction, both were heavily dependent on these two points.

Using the size he had set when casting the cannon last time, several sticks of gavelocks and poles of hemp ropes were made, which were one meter and one hundred meters long respectively. Then, about one-thousand-meter long runway was marked out on the cannon test field in the west of Border Town according to the shadows of the hemp ropes and gavelocks. Lightning, at the same time, was herself practicing on controlling the consumption of magic power so as to pass through this 1,000-meter distance between Longsong Stronghold and Border Town at a fixed speed.

After she had a good command of magic power output on such a level, Roland set about measuring the distance between Longsong Stronghold and the small town. He figured out that the distance between the two places was approximate 54 kilometers by using a sundial to calculate the round-trip duration.

Of course, that was only in a straight-line distance. In reality, they would need to pass through two sharp bends to avoid the stretched foothill from the Impassable Mountain Range. Anyhow, it would take at least three days to arrive at Border Town if the duke chose a land march.

The strategic location and the tactical operations of the enemy would be clearly assessed by Roland when Lightning acted as an investigator.

The signifiers with distance marks were bestrewed everywhere within two kilometers in the west of the small town. As long as the enemies came into sight, the Artillery Squad could quickly adjust the corresponding angle of the muzzle.

He was now concerned about what to do if the enemies did not come.

Right at this moment, he heard someone knocking on the bedroom door.

Nightingale, who was lying on the sofa chair and eating dried fish, went invisible instantly. Roland coughed twice and said, �Come in.�

It was Assistant Minister Barov, who opened the door and said, �Your Highness, a noble from Longsong Stronghold wants to meet you.�

�Who? Did they send a messenger again?� Roland asked, seeming a little confused.

�No, not a messenger. It�s Baron Cornelius who left before the Months of Demons and has come back now,� Barov shook his head and answered.

Roland remembered after a moment that there were indeed some nobles of Longsong Stronghold who lived in Border Town. �Did they dare to come back? It was just the beginning of the spring. Didn�t they experience the strong hand of the royal dictatorship?� Roland thought. �Why does he want to meet me?� he asked.

�His house, which hindered the defending of the city wall, was demolished. If you�re reluctant to meet him, I shall let him go,� The assistant minister threw up his hands and said.

�Usher him into the reception room,� Roland said, who would have wanted to reject him but suddenly changed his mind.

�It was possible to put some pressures on Longsong Stronghold through him,� the prince thought.

Roland came to the reception room after a moment of delay, while the man with a chubby belly was walking back and forth impatiently by the long table, and the flesh on his face was trembling with his steps. Seeing Roland walk in, the baron stopped to reluctantly give a bow toward Roland.

�Sit down,� Roland said, and then went to the seat of honor. Usually, even though it was not the time for a meal, he would let the cooks offer some dessert. But not even a cup of tea was prepared today.

�Respectful Highness,� Baron Cornelius said hurriedly without sitting on the table. �How could you let those foolish stonemasons tear my house apart? It was a superior residence with the brickwork parapet wall as the foundation. The beam column and the roof were built in logs of the best quality. I remembered it took me 100� Oh no, 150 gold royals when I built it!� he said and gesticulated with fingers.

�150 gold royals! When Roland first got to Border Town, he probably would have believed these words if he was reliant on the prince�s memory. So�� Roland thought and smiled. �You mean the residence in the westernmost part of town?� he asked.

Cornelius nodded and said, �Yes! Yes! It was that house which was only inferior to the residence of Baron Simon.�

�What a pity! The house was too close to the city wall and was in the way of my soldiers. �But City Hall has made compensation to it,� Roland paused a moment and said.

�So� how much?� Cornelius asked.

�20 gold royals,� Roland said and gestured with two fingers.

Your Highness� It�s too little!� Cornelius opened his mouth and seemed to say something, but nothing came out. He took his handkerchief out, wiped the sweat from his forehead, and then said, �Okay, 20 is okay! Where should I go to get the money?�

�Get the money? The money had been granted to the owner of the house long ago,� Roland said, pretending to be confused by the baron�s words.

�What? Wai-wait� I�m the owner of the house!�

�No! It�s not you! The owner of the house is Brian, the Captain of the Second Militia Squadron.�

�Who�s he? Your Highness, you�ve got it wrong! I�m the owner of that house!� The Baron yelled.

�Uh? But I didn�t see you in the winter. How could you say that house was yours?� Roland frowned and asked.

�I most certainly went to Longsong Stronghold. Who would stay in this damnable place? It was possible to be killed by the demonic beasts at any time?� said the baron.

�Idoit!� Roland thought, but he still said calmly, �So, what you want to say was that you were frightened by the demonic beasts and left your lord to escape by yourself, right?�

�Uh, I�� The baron was speechless suddenly.

�Come in, guards,� Roland clapped his hands and said. Two guards came in immediately from the outside of the reception room and caught Cornelius in the center.

�Your High-High-High-Highness, what� does that mean?�

�It�s easy. Now you have two choices. The first one is that you admit that you got it wrong and the house was not yours. I could just take it as a joke and let you go. The second one is that you admit that you betrayed your lord and left your domain to flee to Longsong Stronghold without permission. I would put you in jail and you�d be sentenced to the crime of defection, to be hanged,� said Roland, who stood up and looked at the baron contemptuously.

The sweat dripped continuously from Cornelius�s forehead, he swallowed and said after a moment of hesitation, �Your Highness, I, I got confused. It�s not my house.�

�So, you mean it�s a misunderstanding. Send the baron out.� Roland shrugged his shoulders and instructed the guards.

The prince called Cornelius out when he walked to the door and then said, �Oh, yes, I have a message for you to take with you when you return to Longsong Stronghold by boat, tell those� eh, those nobles who have the same misunderstandings as you, that if they won�t admit that they�ve betrayed their lord and fled to other places without permission, they don�t have to come back here again. It�s a waste of time.�

�As� you wish,� Cornelius said, smiling reluctantly. But having turned back, Roland saw Cornelius gnashing his teeth.

�By delivering my message� The chaos, presumably, would be inevitable in Longsong Stronghold,� he thought.

�Damn it! Damn it! What a f*cking prince! A poor fish that deserved to be exiled in such a barren wasteland!� Cornelius thought angrily. But the guards with swords in their hands frightened him and he could only swallow his hatred.

Walking out from the gate of the castle, the baron sighed in relief as he saw the guards turned to leave.

He took the wet handkerchief in order to wipe his forehead, spat on the ground and imagined that he had spat on the face of the prince. It seemed that spitting was not enough to comfort him and he trod on his spit as if he were treading on the prince.

�Even though you warded off the demonic beasts, do you think you could gain a firm foothold in the Western Region? I�ll let you have your moment. Let�s see for how long it�ll last! If I were not receiving reliable information, I wouldn�t have come to Border Town so early,� Cornelius thought to himself. Generally speaking, the nobles would come back to the town later than the civilians. After all, the strenuous work of mining and hunting were not their responsibilities. All they needed to do was to monitor the production progress every now and then, and wait for the date of the ore delivery. In their spare time, they would also go to the hunter�s family to purchase some furs of superior quality.

But something changed this year. Cornelius heard from the financial director Sir Reynolds that Duke Ryan prepared to expel Prince Roland from the Western Region. It was not in betrayal of the Kingdom of Graycastle but in obedience to the will of the new king, Timothy Wimbledon. �Roland Wimbledon would no longer be the Lord of Border Town, and the new fief would be conferred upon after he returned to the king�s city to report his work.�

As the superstar of the duke, Sir Reynolds spent only five years to be promoted from the municipal administrative governor to the financial director. Had he not relied on his connections with distant relatives and bribed them with furs, he would not have known the intention of the hierarchy of the Western Region.

It was just an excuse going under the name of �conferring with new a fief after returning to the king�s city to report his work�. Even Cornelius knew that the prince would be guillotined without opportunities to explain his behavior. If Prince Roland went back, he would be at the mercy of the new king, Timothy Wimbledon.

Without any doubt, the Western Region would still be under the jurisdiction of the duke. If it was only His Majesty Timothy who gave the order, the matter may be under debate. If Duke Ryan handled the matter in person, Roland Wimbledon would not be any different from a stray cur.

That was why Cornelius came to Border Town in haste. On the one hand, he wanted to purchase some furs of superior quality, on the other hand, he planned to sell his house. Over the past years, the common people would take refuge in Longsong Stronghold. It was understandable that there would be no furs in stock. But it was totally different this year because they did not leave here. Anyhow, they would stock some good furs. He could not only make some money by reselling the furs but also choose some superior furs to please Sir Reynolds.

The second reason was to thank Sir Reynolds for helping Cornelius arrange a job in the City Hall. Even a sinecure would be better off than staying in this poor area. The house was useless to him and therefore he wanted to sell it as soon as possible. No one knew when the duke would take action to deal with Roland. If these lowlifes made a last-ditch struggle and burned his house into ashes, it would be not a good deal.

But what he did not think of was that his house was torn apart by Prince Roland instead of being burned down by those lowlifes. Cornelius would be mad as a wet hen with the thought of this. What a good house! Although one hundred and fifty gold royals was a little expensive, it valued at least 30 gold royals.

In order to get the compensation of the house as soon as possible, he had made the compromise to receive only 20 gold royals. How could His Highness treat him like this? He paid nothing for it but also threatened that he had committed a crime of defection. Did not he know all the nobles would withdraw from here every Month of Demons?

Hold on� Cornelius slowed down and suddenly felt there was something different with the prince. He had heard that Prince Roland was of evil nature and was whimsical. His behavior of deliberately molesting Mrs. Simon when he first arrived at Border Town was regarded as a joke among the nobles. His impression, however, was that the prince was not as he had heard before. The prince did not fly into a rage or reject to the value of the house but used another seemingly reasonable excuse. He spoke in a calm voice all the way, but Cornelius was so scared that he obediently gave up his ownership to the house. Would the prince have killed him if he insisted that he was the owner of the house?

At the thought of his talk with the prince, Cornelius could not help but shiver. He had a feeling like he was talking with the duke.

Cornelius shook his head and put this unhappy memory behind him. Anyhow, Prince Roland would be in trouble soon. He would absolutely laugh at him when Duke Ryan took over Border Town and remanded him to the king�s city. Perhaps he could turn to the duke for justice at the cost of 20 gold royals.

He felt relieved at the thought of this. Now that he had collected several furs of superior quality, and his house had been occupied by others, he thought that he would better go to Longsong Stronghold. �It was really a brazen to say �tell those nobles who had the same misunderstanding as you�. When I go back to Longsong Stronghold, I�ll be certain to tell others how pretentious Roland was!�

Cornelius brushed against a lady in a hood when he left the castle district and walked down the long slope.

He should not have felt so surprised. The women were all dressed in this way among the townspeople in the town. It was in the king�s city that he could see beautiful girls or ladies. Cornelius was really stunned when he saw the wind blowing a corner of the hood as if the air around had frozen.

Oh my god! What a beautiful lady she was! She had aquamarine eyes and long hair. Her beauty was incomparable, even if he just had a glance at her. She would take the shine off from those princesses and debutantes. Why would she be in Border Town?

He looked back and wanted to catch up to her, only to find that she was walking towards the castle district.

Was she the girl of His Highness? After a moment of hesitation, the baron finally gave up on catching up with her. He did not want to have to be connected with Prince Roland anymore. The duke would punish the prince, and instead, he was more concerned that he should return to Longsong Stronghold.

He went on board to a single-mast boat berthing in the wharf. The boatman pulled the sail, and the boat undocked from the wharf. Soon, he was underway towards Longsong Stronghold.

Another extraordinary view came into the eyes of Cornelius, who was enjoying the sunshine at that moment.

About five meters away from Border Town, he saw a crowd of people who wore the same dark brown leather armor with long wooden guns on their backs. They were standing in rows and moving forwards on the snowy ground. He could not see the overall picture of the entire line because the trees blocked his sight, but he guessed there were at least more than a hundred of them.

Could it be� farmers that Prince Roland used for fighting against the demonic beasts?

Cornelius could imagine how cold they were, even though he had never experienced it. However, they did not stop but continuously moved forward, as if the snow, at a thickness of one foot deep, had no influence on them�

He really wanted to laugh at them but he failed. A question, unwittingly, came to his mind. �Could the knights in charge by Duke Ryan make it?�

Leaf would have never thought that she would have the opportunity to set foot in this real-world town. She could see many people hustling and bustling about.

The cluster of brick bungalows unlocked old memories that came to her as she neared the boundary of Border Town. She had fled to the Impassable Mountain Range less than half a year ago, but the scene in front of her made her feel as if she were in a strange new world.

The Months of Demons had just ended. The people had just lived through the winter lacking in food and clothes, and they should have been in bad mental and physical shape. Leaf remembered that the Witch Cooperation Association had once passed by the slum of Silver City, and it had been awash with dead bodies. Those who were still alive appeared to be like the dead, with numb faces and awkward movements.

To her surprise, the people she saw here were full of energy. Some were airing dried fish in front of their doors, and some were repairing damaged tiles on their roofs. Many virile men were talking happily and moving towards the north of the town with hoes and hammers on their backs. Under such circumstances, Leaf would pull her cap brim down over her eyes and try not to look them.

As the castle was located on the hillside in the southwest corner of the town, it was very easy to find. There were no plants camouflaging it, so it would be difficult to sneak into the castle. She considered hiding in a tree trunk to avoid her enemies. However, it would draw attention if the trees were to suddenly grow and send her in.

She was not skilled at the art of invisibility. After thinking it over, Leaf decided to walk into the castle above rather than hiding herself from place to place.

If she were to walk directly into the castle, she would still be safe as long as Nightingale had told the truth.

Even if Nightingale had lied to her and the other witches in the Witch Cooperation Association, she felt confident that she could escape the chase of the two guards defending the gate.

Of course, it would be worse because that would mean that Nightingale had betrayed all the witches, and worked for the prince by capturing her partners. If this was the case, it was likely that she would die here. As one of the most excellent combat witches, few people could escape from Nightingale. Even the formidable Cara had no confidence to defeat Nightingale.

Anyhow, Leaf had prepared for the worst. Scroll would take over her position as supervisor and lead the rest of the witches to move on. No one knew where they would go or where their homes would be.

She walked slowly to the hillside and got close to the gate of the castle. The guards soon noticed her. �This is the palace of the prince. Don�t approach. Stand back!� They shouted. After pausing a moment, they added, �If you have something urgent to report, please walk along the road and turn left at the City Hall. You�ll be received by the people there.�

Leaf took a deep breath and took off her cap. As expected, she saw a look of surprise on their faces. �I�m a witch,� she said bluntly, without waiting for them to realize this.

She was prepared to fight against the guards the moment she revealed her identity. However, the guards just looked at each other, and no disgust, which was commonly seen in the common people�s eyes at the hearing of witches, was on their faces. One of the guards even asked Leaf with great interest, �Can I help you, witch?�

Such reaction really shocked Leaf. She repressed the outburst of excitement and said as calmly as she could, �I want to meet with Nightingale. Or, Anna and Nana would be okay too.�

In Nightingale�s tales, witches were regulars in the castle. His Highness did not restrain the freedom of the witches, and the guards defending the castle did not discourage them from entry at the behest of Prince Roland. If what Nightingale said was true, it would be impossible that the guards did not know about them.

The guard, who had queried Leaf, clapped the shoulder of his partner and said, �You keep an eye on her, and I�ll go to inform His Highness.�

Leaf saw him walk into the gate and vanish from sight.

She wondered what would be waiting for her. Her sisters� greeting? Besieging from the guards? Or a backstage fight?

She fell into self-contradiction. She wanted to believe Nightingale, but the closer she came to the truth, the more she was afraid that Nightingale would disappoint her. �Is it possible that Nightingale has changed her name here? Or Anna and Nana are just concocted names? Or��

She waited for her fate quietly. She had never felt time go by so slowly. It felt as if she were waiting for centuries.

She was not sure how much time had passed when she heard Nightingale�s voice. She thought there was something wrong with her ears.

A familiar figure appeared from the doorway. It was Nightingale who rushed to embrace her and then took her into her warm arms.

�Welcome home, Leaf!� said Nightingale.

*******************

�These�re my spare clothes, and you can wear them,� Nightingale said, rummaging through her closet. �Here�s a coat, shoes� Yes, you also need a night-robe and bath towel,� she added.

�Don�t get so excited. She�ll get settled when His Highness wakes up,� Wendy said with a smile and shook her head.

Leaf was deeply touched at the sight of Nightingale helping her to settle in. She sniffed and wiped at the tears that flowed out. She was afraid that she could not help crying once she spoke.

Nightingale had not lied to her. There really was a prince who was kind to witches.

�How about taking a hot shower? You must feel tired. It�s a really long distance from the camp to the castle. His Highness is taking a nap. He�ll be glad to see you when he wakes up. Have you found Holy Mountain? How about the other sisters?� Nightingale asked. She put the bath towel and other clothes around Leaf.

Tears blurred Leaves� vision after this battery of questions. She could not help sobbing in Nightingale�s arms to release the sadness burning deep within her heart.

Leaf did not calm down until her tears had soaked Nightingale�s clothes.

Then, she told of their experiences after the three witches had left the Witch Cooperation Association. She could feel Nightingale clenching her fists when she heard about many witches dying in Barbarian Land.

�I didn�t expect Cara to bring the Witch Cooperation Association into an impasse. Only seven sisters survived among the 42 witches? I�m to blame for the matter. If I had stood firmly at Nightingale�s side, they might still be�� said Wendy after Leaf told the whole experiences of the witches, with an extremely sad and serious look.

�You�re not to blame. No one could foresee the future, what�s important now is what to do next,� said Nightingale sadly. She looked at Leaves and asked, �Six sisters survived? Where are they?�

�They�re waiting for my message at the entrance to the canyon. We�ve made a plan that Scroll would lead them to leave for the southern horn or go across the straits if I weren�t be able to return.�

�We should take them back right now. I�m on my way. Wendy, please, take care of Leaf,� said Nightingale.

�But, what�ll you do if they don�t believe you? You should go with Leaf and Lightning, she�s practicing flying in the western part of the town. You can ride on horses, so the sisters walk less.� Wendy suggested carefully.

�But isn�t the prince sleeping? Shouldn�t you ask him?� Leaf asked with confusion.

�Take it easy! His Highness will be happier if he knows.� Nightingale assured her.

Roland walked into the office and was surprised to find that Wendy, instead of Nightingale, was waiting for him.

�What happened?� He poured himself a cup of warm water and said, �Where is Nightingale?�

�She went to meet our sisters.�

�I see,� said Roland, about to drink, but suddenly he felt something was wrong. �Wait a minute, what sisters?�

�The sisters of the Witch Cooperation Association. They are coming to Border Town.� Wendy replied.

�Weren�t they going to look for the Holy Mountain?� He stood up abruptly, �How many of them are coming? And what about that witch who wanted to hurt Nightingale� I remember she was called Cara �The Snake Witch�. Is she also coming?�

�No, Your Highness� They failed to find the Holy Mountain. In the Barbarian Region, they were attacked by terrible monsters, and only seven of them survived.� Wendy reported Leaf�s words and bowed to apologize. �You were taking a nap at that time. Please forgive me for taking the liberty and deciding that Nightingale and Lightning should go to greet them.�

�That�s all right.� Roland waved his hand to signal that it did not matter. �You know I won�t blame you for such a thing. What are their abilities?�

�I don�t know yet, but Leaf told me that they are non-combat witches. Maybe�� Wendy hesitated and said, �They�re not very useful for you.�

�Non-combat witches?� Roland was immediately full of expectations. Due to the restraint of the God�s Stone of Retaliation and the short range of magic power, the fighting abilities of witches were actually limited. So productivity should be their strongest ability. If there was a witch who specialized in shaping objects, then he could make more sophisticated parts of machines, thus leading the town into the era of massive mechanical production. If there was a witch who was able to generate electricity, the evenings in Border Town would be as bright as daytime. Then he would become the king, marry with a witch, and attain the peak of his career. He would lead people to realize the modernization of agriculture, industry, national defense, science, and technology. How exciting that was!

�Your Highness, if you don�t need them�� Wendy whispered, as Roland�s long silence made her feel nervous.

�No, of course not,� Roland came back from his thoughts, and said, �All witches are welcome in Border Town.�

At sunset, Nightingale returned to the castle with the sisters of the Witch Cooperation Association. And then they enjoyed a sumptuous feast prepared by Roland in the hall.

Though obviously hungry, they were acting very reserved, since it was their first time dining in such a grand environment. Most of them had never met a lord before, let alone the lord here was a prince.

Fortunately, besides Roland, there were also two local witches, Anna and Nana, who were demonstrating how to act properly. Lightning, the lively girl, also helped to break the ice. In the end, they were finally able to relax a little, and the conversation started to flow at dinner.

Chewing a piece of toast, Roland observed the witches with interest. They were all beautiful girls with different styles, which was a gift of the magic power. Even if they were unable to contribute to the development of technology and science in the future, their beauty would be a never-fading scenery.

Since Karl had not finished the construction of the houses for them yet, they had to live temporarily in the castle. There were four unoccupied rooms on the second floor, so Roland arranged for two of them to share a room. After all, the large beds, which were originally prepared for the visiting nobility, were wide enough for them.

After dinner, Roland finally asked the long awaited question�what were their abilities.

With the company of Nightingale, the witches walked into Roland�s office one by one. Roland asked and recorded their abilities, and also tested the effect of their abilities by using the God�s Stone of Retaliation, which was just like a modern interview. When the interview with the last witch was finally completed, he took a deep breath and stretched out. He was afraid that Nightingale would secretly stay in the office, otherwise, he would have liked to hum the song �SuperStar�.

These witches could not shape objects or generate electricity, so they could not help speed up his plan of modernization. However, they still gave him lots of pleasant surprises.

The first and most important witch was Leaf.

From the parchments of records on the desk, Roland picked up hers.

Before adulthood, Leaf�s ability was limited to speeding up the growth of plants and fruits. After she came into adult life, her ability had greatly improved, and she also attained a derivative skill: She could manipulate the plants.

Her main ability could be used to improve the yield of the fruits and seeds and enhance herbal effects. Her derivative skill enabled her to change the shapes and traits of the plants. According to her description, if she poured her magic power into the plants, she could make green leaves grow on the withered branch, manipulate the weeds to bind up the enemy, and also integrate herself into a tree.

The larger the plant was, the more magic power she consumed. So she would prefer to use weeds in combat, as they came into effect more quickly and cost less magic power.

Her magic power was released through touching the objects, and it was able to be transmitted through materials (for example, the earth), with the range of about five meters.

There was no doubt that the witch with green long hair would be a good helper at developing agriculture, and her importance was self-evident. To realize industrialization, a large population was required, which depended on an adequate supply of food. The food should be either produced in his domain or imported from other countries. If they did not invent an effective way to cultivate crops, then most of their labor would be tied to the land. As for the latter option, it was difficult to import food due to the poor condition of transportation in this era.

But now that he discovered a Druid, he had the hope to support a large industrial population with the labor of only a few farmers, and therefore, accelerate the industrialization in his domain.

With this in mind, he decided to make Leaf practice more on improving the quality of wheat and barley seeds. If their yield was enhanced, then it would be a great help to increase the upper limit of the population in his domain. In addition, he heard that there were some unique crops in Fjords, much likely to be potato and corn, according to Lightning�s description. If that was true, then introducing these crops should be placed at the top of the agenda. After all, wheat and barley were not high-yield crops.

Roland wrote down a practice plan for Leaf, put her record aside, and drew the second parchment from the desk.

The second witch who came to answer his questions was called Scroll. She was the oldest one among the seven witches, nearly 40 years old.

This was a really rare age for a witch. The older they were, the more difficult it was to resist the bite of magic power. But hearing her description of her ability, Roland could understand why she had been able to reach the age.

Her ability was having an extraordinary memory. After she entered adulthood and her ability became stable, she could remember almost anything she saw. At the same time, she developed an interesting derivative skill: She was able to materialize any book she had read for a short period. Roland named this skill as �Book of Illusion�.

Since she used her main ability almost all the time, she could easily go through the Days of Awakening. And that was also why she became so knowledgeable, even though she came from a poor family. The ability greatly strengthened her learning, especially the reading of books which required a good memory. To use her derivative skill, most of her magic power would be consumed, and when the remaining magic power ran out, the Book of Illusion would disappear, usually in half a quarter to two hours.

Obviously, Scroll was a natural teacher. If in the future he wanted to make education universal, she would be a teacher who could teach any subjects. As for now, Roland thought, she did not need any special practice. So he would teach her some primary knowledge of mathematics and physics when he had spare time. When the time came, she would make a great contribution to the field of education.

The third witch was Hummingbird. She was small, just as her nickname depicted. She acted more reserved than the other witches when Roland asked about her ability. She just reached adulthood this winter and was a cute girl with symmetrical dimples, a delicate face and a sweet soft voice.

Her ability was Object Lightening, which meant that she was able to greatly lower the weight of an object once she put her magic power into it. According to her description, the weight of an object would be close to zero. Roland asked her to demonstrate it with his teacup and found that the teacup almost floated in the air�that was to say, its weight was close to that of air. Of course, in the eyes of people in that era, air was weightless.

That was the reason why the Witch Cooperation Association was able to cross the Western Region of Graycastle without worrying about food supplies. With the magic power of Hummingbird, bags of wheat and dried fish would become light enough for the witches. In that way, they could easily take a lot of food with them, which significantly relieved the pressure on supplies.

Though Hummingbird had entered her adulthood, she still had not developed any derivative skill. Her magic power would come into effect only when she touched the object, which could not be a living entity. The larger the object was, the more time and magic power it consumed. However, once she successfully reduced its weight, the effect would last for several hours.

The ability seemed to be perfect for transportation, and it would also be a large advantage in the coming war. Anyway, there were still too many unknown factors, and he needed to conduct further research.

Roland wrote at the bottom of her parchment: Practice with stones of different weights and control the output of magic power so as to determine precisely the effective time of the magic power.

After completing the first three practice plans, he ordered his attendant to bring another candle, making the room brighter. But even with this, in the waving orange candlelight, reading and writing were very tiring for his eyes.

Roland made a yawn and flattened the parchment with the information of the fourth witch.

She was different from other witches as she had a surname, and her full name was Soraya Zoen. She was born in a merchant family from the king�s city of Graycastle. She had short brown curly hair and a pair of slender eyes. The freckles on top of her nose did not destroy her beauty; instead, they added a unique youthful vigor to her.

Soraya just turned 19 and she also had a special ability. After she became an adult, she was able to paint everything she saw or imagined. With her derivative skill, the Magic Pen, she was able to paint without pigment or paper, and her painting would be exactly like a photo.

Roland could list hundreds of ways to use this ability. As for her practice, he would ask her to paint several pictures every day.

He then picked up the next parchment.

The fifth witch, Echo, came from the Southernmost Region. She was a tall girl with a brown complexion, and her eyes and nose, which showed that she was a typical citizen of Sand Nation, gave her a very exotic charm. According to her description, she could imitate the call of any animal when she just awoke as a witch, and after she entered adulthood, she could skillfully imitate any sound in the world. She did not have any derivative skill.

Roland named her ability as �Magic Sound�, but did not figure out its usage yet. As for her training plan, maybe� she could shout as loudly as possible.

The sixth witch was Lily, a 16-year-old girl with two ponytails and a doll-like delicate face. When she sat in front of Roland, she was quite nervous. Her ability was to prevent food from rotting, so she had become the most popular role in the Witch Cooperation Association since she awoke a year ago. Without food preservation, a lot of food would become sour and moldy during the journey. Lily, as well as Hummingbird, guaranteed the food supply of the Witch Cooperation Association.

Whether she killed the bacteria by her magic power to keep food fresh or not was still to be confirmed. Roland decided to ask her to practice on all kinds of meat and fruits, and to confirm the duration of the preservation effect after the magic power ran out.

Rubbing his stiff neck, he piled up the previous parchments. Only one parchment was left on the desk.

And that was another pleasant surprise for Roland.

The seventh witch was called Mystery Moon.

She was obviously nervous when she walked into the office. Nightingale reassured her for a while and later whispered into Roland�s ears to simply explain her situation.

Among all the witches in the camp, Mystery Moon had the worst ability, which could be described as useless. Because of that, she was only able to do some chores which could also be easily completed by manual work. In addition, she was often blamed by Cara, so she had become very timid. She was afraid that Roland would also think that she was useless and hence drive her away from Border Town.

Her ability was magnetizing objects. Before she entered adulthood, she could only magnetize metal objects, but now she was able to magnetize any object. She did not have any derivative skill. She had to touch the object to magnetize it in an extremely slow way. As she described, it cost her half a day to magnetize a stone of about a cubic foot.

Her ability was indeed useless for the Witch Cooperation Association. The magnet was not rare in that era. For example, every huge ship sailing between the Fjords and the continent was equipped with a compass for navigation. On the continent, people did not need any compass to tell the direction as they could easily find other references. On the contrary, the magnetized objects would cause trouble to others. For example, the metal pots which were lightened by Hummingbird would accidentally fly toward the magnetized objects of Mystery Moon. For this reason, she was forbidden by Cara to use her ability in the camp.

But for Roland, this silent girl was a priceless gift.

That was why he would like to hum that song, �SuperStar��was there any words more appropriate than the lyric of �You are electricity, you are light�?

Electricity would be generated in the magnetic field, and electricity would also create a magnetic field in reverse. It was known by every student who had learned physics. Roland expressed his sincere gratitude to Faraday, Gauss, Ampere, and Maxwell in his heart. With electricity, there would also be light. Maybe he did not have to wait for long to create another miracle in his domain.

As a witch who was forbidden to use her ability, Mystery Moon was still able to survive from the Demonic Torture. It showed that she was not mentally fragile though she appeared timid. At least she had more desire to live on than others. Roland was secretly thankful that she had just joined the association for nearly a year, or she might be ruined under Cara�s rule if she had been restrained for a longer time.

With these thoughts, he wrote down Mystery Moon�s practice plan for the following days. She would magnetize a variety of objects to confirm the relationship between the consumption of magic power and the strength of their magnetism.

After adding these seven witches, Roland now had a total of 12 witches working for him. Through inquiring about their abilities, he got a fair idea of the magic power. The traditional classification of combat type and non-combat type was unreasonable, and he preferred to classify them according to the characteristics of their abilities. In general, the main abilities of the witches could be divided into three types.

The first type was the self-strengthening type, which was very rare. Up to now, he only knew Scroll belonged to this type. Her ability would come into effect automatically, so it would not be influenced by God�s Stone of Retaliation. Even if she was forced to wear the stone, she could still have a photographic memory.

The second one was the summoning type, and Anna, Nightingale, Nana, Lightning, Wendy, Leaf, Soraya, Echo, and Lily all belonged to this type. Their magic power could be summoned outside of their body within five meters. With various abilities, this type of witches was also most restrained by the God�s Stone of Retaliation. Once they stepped into the Forbidden Area where their magic power was suppressed, any magic effects would disappear. However, before the magic power was suppressed, the results it caused would be everlasting and irreversible.

The third one was the attaching magic type. For example, Hummingbird and Mystery Moon fell into this type. They had to get contact with their target to complete the slow conversion, which consumed lots of magic power and could be interrupted by God�s Stone of Retaliation. But once the conversion was completed, the added properties would become inherent, which meant that they would still be effective even within the Forbidden Area. The duration of enchantment depended on the size of the object and the amount of magic power.

�Maybe this was why the God�s Stone of Retaliation could not relieve the bite of the magic power,� he thought. God�s Stone of Retaliation was unable to affect the gathering and flowing of the magic power; instead, it affected its transformation of magic power into ability. Described in computer terms, it affected the fore-end of clients instead of the backstage data.

Roland put down the quill pen and rubbed his eyes. Anyway, he knew he would become even busier in the future.

The witches were still awake. After having suffered for so long, they still couldn�t believe that they were being accommodated by the prince and that there were neither shackles nor guards. The prince even allowed everyone to enter the castle and live in such spacious and comfortable rooms.

Wendy probably guessed the anxiety of the sisters. Together with Nightingale, she called everyone to gather in her room and sit around the bed in a circle. They would have a chat to calm down their emotions.

�This is the style of a leader,� Leaf thought. If it was Cara, she would never be so attentive to the needs of the sisters. Even if she had noticed, she would never have bothered to comfort them.

�Sister Wendy, what will His Royal Highness� ask us to do?� Hummingbird timidly asked, �Our abilities are far worse than you and sister Nightingale.�

This struck a chord with the other sisters, and they all nodded in support.

Wendy began to laugh. �Let me think about it, uh� the first thing you have to do is to practice your abilities.�

�Practice our abilities?� Soraya asked hesitantly, �Will His Royal Highness ask me to draw paintings all day long?�

�It�s quite possible.� Wendy patted Mystery Moon on the head. �Although Cara forbids you to use your abilities in the camp, His Highness won�t. On the contrary, he�ll encourage you to practice and master your abilities.�

�My ability will only bring troubles to my sisters,� said Mystery Moon.

�Even so, you must still practice,� said Wendy, �and it�s a matter of life and death.�

�Life and death?� Leaf could not help but ask.

�Yes, His Highness discovered the way for witches to safely get through the day of Awakening,� said Nightingale, who continued after Wendy. �From now on, we can say goodbye to the pain of the demonic bite and all sisters can live to adulthood.�

All the witches were now staring at Nightingale. At that moment they couldn�t believe their ears. Scroll asked in surprise, �Are you speaking about what happened to Miss Anna? But last time, you told us that you did not know the specific reason.�

�Yes, at that time it was only the speculation of His Highness, but Nana�s Awakening Day verified this. She also didn�t suffer any harm.�

�So the method is�� Scroll could not help but hold her breath.

�You just need to expend your magic power every day,� Nightingale said slowly word by word, �I can see the changes of the magic power in the Mist. Regular use of it will increase the total capacity of the body. At the same time, the suffering during the demonic bites will also be reduced. As it draws close to the Day of Awakening, as long as the magic power is exhausted, it�ll almost cause no harm to the body.�

�I think everyone can sense it faintly as well,� Wendy added, �During the days when we were hunted by the church, we would carefully hide in the corners of town and did not dare to use our abilities. Therefore, we lost many sisters every winter. But this year, while living in the camps in the Impassable Mountain Range, besides for Airy and Abby, everyone else was able to survive the Months of the Demons.�

�So that�s the reason.� Thinking about this, Leaf took a deep breath. When she had encountered the Demonic Bite while traveling through Barbarian Land, its duration was exceptionally short. �In other words, Holy Mountain isn�t in that barren land��

�That�s right, the Holy Mountain isn�t a specific place.� Wendy nodded. �Any place where people can accept us, without seeing the witches as the devil or limiting the sisters practicing their abilities, will be Holy Mountain.�

�Wendy had even asked His Highness if she could go to the camp when the Months of the Demons had ended to tell you the news.� Nightingale glanced at Wendy and said gently, �In this case, even if you hadn�t found Holy Mountain, you could still live well in the mountains.�

�Since everyone has come back, there�s no need to mention this.� Wendy smiled and shook her head. �Regardless of whether you�re needed by His Highness or not, you should still practice every day for safety.�

�If this is the key to resolve the bite of magic power, shouldn�t there be other witches who would have been aware of this?� Scroll thought for a moment and said, �We�re not the first witch organization. There are other witch organizations in Kingdom of Dawn and the Kingdom of Wolfheart. I have sent them letters to invite them to find Holy Mountain together. However, we have never received a reply.

Leaf sighed gently, and she knew Scroll held back on what she wanted to say. Ever since Cara found the ancient book in the ruins at the forest at the eastern border, she firmly believed in Holy Mountain and took everyone on her endeavor. At this point, the Witch Cooperation Association started their long journey of exile, almost across the entire Kingdom of Graycastle. During the journey, they met many new sisters but also lost many of them. If from the beginning they had decided to hide in the ruins, would they have discovered this key?

�We can try to contact the hidden witches in other cities,� said Nightingale, �and it�s part of His Highness�s plan. He also wants to let the witches notice this remote town by spreading the rumors. If we become the middle person, it would no doubt greatly reduce their suspicion.�

�However, I still don�t understand why His Highness wants to accommodate us?� asked Echo, looking confused. The witch from the southernmost region had suffered more than most of the other witches. First, she was sold by the people of Sand Nation to a businessman from Port of Clearwater, who then took her all the way to sell her again in King�s City. She was forced to learn dancing, royal etiquettes, and even the skills to please a man. If she wasn�t coincidentally rescued by the Witch Cooperation Association, she would probably have been sold for an exorbitantly high price to a duke or minister. Until now, she still had her foreign accent when speaking.

�Maybe just like those who wanted to buy you.� Lily sneered. �Man��

�Don�t speak nonsense, Lily,� said Nightingale in a stern voice. �His Highness is clearly different from all those people that you talked about. As long as you stay here for a while, you�ll understand.�

�It�s true, I have experienced it deeply,� Wendy said while wearing her kind smile, �It�s already late, so everyone should go back to their rooms and try to get some sleep. Don�t worry even if your ability isn�t useful to His Highness. He said that he wants all of you to be able to live a normal life in Border Town. If you want to know what His Highness will ask you tomorrow.� She deliberately paused for a moment. �I guess, it�ll start from the signing of a contract.�

After Leaf and Scroll returned to their room and closed their door, the latter said, �We should sleep as well.�

When His Highness had asked about her ability earlier, he arranged for her to stay in the same room as Scroll. He also mentioned that this was only a temporary arrangement, and in the future, she could have a brand new room for herself. But in her view, the bed was already spacious enough for three people.

She took off her coat and got under the quilt. It was hard to describe the softness and comfort that wrapped around her body. Leaf could not help but moan gently with her head buried in the pillow. After a long time, she softly asked, �Do you blame Cara?�

��� Scroll sighed. �No one can predict the future, no matter what she did at the end, at least in the beginning she was really genuine in wanting to find a home for the witches to live in peace. Now there�s no point mentioning this. Sleep well, my girl.�

She closed her eyes. �Good night.�

The next morning, all the witches were led downstairs by their maids. Like Wendy had said, each of them was given a roll of fine parchment by the prince after breakfast. In consideration of the fact that some witches were illiterate, Scroll explained what the contents were on the parchment. After that, everybody signed and put their fingerprints on it.

Roland knew that they barely understood what the contract really entailed. But it did not matter, as he believed they would eventually learn its meanings. He was also pretty sure that these witches would even be willing to sign all their rights away giving the present circumstances. Nevertheless, he did not think it was a bad deal to provide a relatively generous offer. Since he had decided to officially employ witches, he must look at the big picture. All that he had done so far was to create a virtuous, sustainable cycle that would benefit both parties in the long run.

After everybody handed in the signed contracts, Roland told each of them their individual training schedule which he drafted the night before. He then asked Leaf, Scroll and Soraya to come to his office with him.

Nightingale soon revealed herself and winked at the other witches after Roland closed the door.

�I�ve been thinking about what Wendy told me yesterday.� Roland pulled the curtains to let the bright sun rays shine through the window. �She said you came across some hideous, horrible monsters from which only seven of you managed to escape. Even the supervisor of the Witch Cooperation Association, Cara, died in the wilderness. I wonder what exactly you encountered? Demonic hybrids?�

Leaf broke off first. �No, they were not demonic hybrids, but demons from the Gates of Hell. They got big statures and could summon demonic beasts. They had magic power as well, just like�� She hesitated for a moment. �Like us.�

�Demons?� Roland knitted his brows and glanced at Soraya. �Were you there at that time?�

Soraya nodded.

�You can sketch out what happened that day, can you?� Roland handed her a piece of paper.

Soraya shut her eyes, appearing to be a little anguished. But she took the paper and walked to the desk.

As she summoned her power, an obscure quill emerged in her hand, whose tip emanated a beautiful rainbow glow. The quill soon sprang up and started to draw automatically. Soraya kept her eyes firmly shut. Gradually, a vivid picture appeared on the paper.

Roland approached the desk and saw the drawing was so lifelike that it was more like a photograph than a picture. Like a video camera, Soraya�s ability enabled her to reconstruct the murder scene and relate the story on Barbarian Land from the first-person point of view.

By the time the painting was done, Soraya�s forehead had been beaded with perspiration. Apparently, the memory of the incident agonized her like a prolonged nightmare.

At this point, Nightingale also joined the conversation. �Are they demons?�

�Yes.� Leaf pointed to the one closer to her. �This one with metal gloves could summon lightning to attack us. He was also physically strong and powerful. More than half a dozen sisters were killed by him. The one farther could shoot spears several times faster than bolts. They couldn�t, however, launch continuous attacks. During such intervals, I managed to kill them.�

�By yourself?� Roland asked.

�Cara�s Snake of Magic bit and broke the leather tube underneath this demon�s helmet. She later died with the demon together. The tube turned out to be the demon�s weak point, so I killed the other demon using the same method with my hand crossbow. There seemed to be some red gases in the tube. The demons didn�t die until all the gases ran out.� Leaf pointed at the neck of the gloved demon and said.

Roland could not figure out why there was such kind of creatures in the wilderness. They were definitely not extraterrestrial beings, for, from the patched leather tube that functioned like an oxygen tank and the animal skin garb they wore, one could tell that demons were by no means from a higher civilization.

Whether by means of scientific technologies or magic, the ability to visit another planet itself was a piece of solid evidence of power. In the case of human beings, it took men tremendous efforts just to land the moon.

Of course, the demons might also come from some queer civilization outside his knowledge, who had come to this world by some quirk of fate. Above all, now Roland knew that �demons� were not invulnerable enemies who could not be killed.

�Apart from the demons, we also saw a city in the air.� Leaf continued, �It was always there at the front no matter how hard we tried to get close to it. Lightning once mentioned the phenomenon in one of her adventure stories. She said it seemed to be a mirage.�

�Can you draw it?� Roland asked Soraya.

Soraya nodded and summoned the Magic Pen again. After that, she painted the air-built city that Leaf had just talked about on the paper.

Roland looked at the picture carefully, but could not obtain much information out of the blurry drawing. If what they had seen was really a mirage, the real city must be somewhere on Barbarian Land. As to the blood mists that obscured the sky above the city, they could be the breathing gases demons relied on. This explanation appeared to be more reliable than the alien theory. After all, the Impassable Mountain Range was a mysterious area never imprinted with the foot of man. It was perfectly normal that some other races lived there.

Now, the only question left was regarding the ancient book. �Nightingale and Wendy told me that Cara decided to seek Holy Mountain because of an ancient book.� He asked, �Scroll, have you read that book before?�

Scroll hesitated for a while and answered, �Cara didn�t allow any of us to read that book. But I, I once stole a peek at it. The contents are bewildering and at the same time� incredible.�

�Can you make a copy of it? Let me take a look.�

�What the book says isn�t true, Your Highness. The nonexistence of Holy Mountain has already shown it�s a lie.� Scroll sighed and raised her right hand. �I hope you won�t be too absorbed by what�s written.�

A gilded book emerged in the air, with its front and back covers spread open. The book pages in between swiftly flipped through. It then abruptly closed and descended on Scroll�s hand. �Your Highness, I hope you read it alone because I don�t want the rest of our sisters to become as stubborn and radical as Cara.�

Roland took the book and replied, �Got it.�

After all the witches left the office, Nightingale silently showed up by the couch. She raised the skirt of her robe, cocked her feet on the stool and then started to chew dried fish like she always did.

�Don�t you want to take a look?� Roland asked her smilingly.

Nightingale dismissed it contemptuously. �I�m not interested in what a crazy old witch was obsessed with.�

Roland shook his head and returned to the desk. He opened the book with great care as if the book had possessed some real magic power.

Just like what Scroll had said, most of the contents were difficult and inarticulate. It appeared that the wording and the grammars were also out of date. The book recorded everything from the Bloody Moon to the giant stone gate, but just not Holy Mountain. In fact, other than a few phrases here and there, the rest was simply a bunch of jibber-jabbers. To conclude, Roland recognized every single word in the book, but could not make any sense out of them. He wondered whether the missing information resulted from the hasty manner in which Scroll had read the book, or the book was simply incomplete as it was.

Roland ignored the tedious paragraphs in the middle and directly skipped to the end. Only the first few pages of the big book contained some contents. The latter part of the book, however, was totally blank. On the last page, the handwriting changed abruptly. The earlier neat handwriting suddenly turned into a sort of scribbles, as if the author had written them in a rush. The contents, nonetheless, started to become clearer and more coherent.

The first sentence read, �We failed. It was impossible for common people to defeat demons.�

�What does that mean?� Roland wondered while stroking that line of the sentence. �Has the author of the ancient book fought against the monsters on Barbarian Land?� As he continued to read, more information came into sight�

�The number of demons increased while ours decreased.�

�Even God�s Stones of Retaliation failed to stop them. These enemies were so ferocious and frightening that they could easily quash our resistance just with their monstrous, unparalleled physical strength. They didn�t even need to summon their magic power.�

�Holy City of Taquila had fallen, and we scattered to run for our lives.�

�Across mountains and rivers, we strove to stay as far away from the Gates of Hell as possible.�

�But where can we take our refuge next time? �

�Nonetheless, I don�t need to worry about this problem anymore. I�m dying, Natalia.�

�Demons� power is destroying my health. My illness is now beyond any medical treatment.�

�I write these in hopes that you can help me with something.�

�Alice�s experiment of God�s Punishment Army is almost completed. It was a great success. These extraordinary warriors are capable of competing against demons. However, she has forgotten that even if the God�s Punishment Army wins the battle, the victory won�t be ours.�

�That�s right. God�s Punishment Army will bring us nothing but devastation.�

�Go stop her, for this is something only you can achieve.�

It was not a long paragraph. After skimming it through, Roland sank into thoughts and tried to put himself in Cara�s shoes.

Suppose Cara did not know the existence of demons and replaced the word �demons� with �witches� in this paragraph, she would easily make the assumption that the church�s army was defeated by witches. Combining this assumption with the afloat rumors that witches were demon�s accomplices, whose magic power came from the Gates of Hell, Cara would readily jump to the conclusion that the church endeavored to cover up the fact that the Gates of Hell was the entrance of Holy Mountain. For hundreds of years, witches had been looking for their Holy Mountain for an eternal life. That was why the number of witches increased while the church�s army decreased.

Of course, there were quite a few points in this speculation that did not sound plausible. For example, the �monstrous, unparalleled physical strength� was definitely not a faculty possessed by witches. Another peculiar theory was that witches crushed the church�s army despite the influences of God�s Stones of Retaliation. Roland did not know what exactly made Cara resolve to come to Barbarian Land. Had her fervent eagerness to find Holy Mountain clouded her judgment? Or rather, the real reason behind her decision was actually hidden in the part Scroll had missed?

Roland preferred the latter conjecture.

At least he now knew that the last page of the book was talking about demons, a real foreign race, rather than witches.

But it did not answer his questions. Instead, it created more.

When had the church had a battle with demons?

Roland rummaged the memory of fourth prince�s, but could not find anything. The church had established its general headquarter in the north after the Battle of Faiths, for the purpose of preventing demonic beasts from invading the inner land from the ravine. Later, they had built a magnificent stronghold city on the plateau of Hermes and had named it New Holy City. The two connected cities, one high and the other low, were both used to defend against demonic beasts instead of demons. As to the name �Taquila�, Roland had never heard of it.

If such stories were true, the church had no reason to keep them from the public. In the church�s history books, every major battle the church had won were recorded in great details. The church people would elaborate on each victory they had gained to manifest their glorious achievements. It seemed strange, however, that they failed to mention anything about the battle against demons, for such a fight was absolutely more intense and worthy to be advertised than the ones with demonic beasts or witches.

The last question was in regard to the God�s Punishment Army.

Evidently, this church member who wrote the book did not wish to build such an army. So, he asked somebody else to stop the experiment that appeared to be successful. Roland only knew the church had the Judgement Army but had never heard of the God�s Punishment Army. Of course, there was also a big chance that the former Prince Roland was too ignorant and had not been provided with such information.

Roland did not understand why the writer thought the God�s Punishment Army would bring destruction. From its description, the army seemed to be as powerful as demons. If this was the case, it could but greatly benefit the church.

These two arguments were probably what Scroll felt inconceivable.

�Do you know where Cara got this misleading ancient book?� Roland looked up and glanced at Nightingale.

�By the time I joined them, they had been looking for Holy Mountain already.� Nightingale muttered with a mouthful of dried fish between her teeth. �But Wendy once told me the Witch Cooperation Association was initially not an association at all. It was just a small group of a few witches who happened to gather at Seawindshire, among whom were Cara, Wendy and Scroll. They later found a secret meeting spot in the Eastern Forest not far away from Seawindshire, which, unexpectedly, appeared to be the entrance to an underground relic.� She swallowed the snack and licked her lips. �But only Cara went down there.�

�Was the ancient book found in the relic?�

�Well, that�s what Cara claimed.� Nightingale twitched her mouth. �After that, more witches joined the group. Someone might accidentally expose their traces during a meeting. So, one day, the church sent a great number of Judgement Army and surrounded the forest. During that raid, more than a dozen witches were killed. It was at that time that Cara made up her mind to go to the Impassable Mountain Range and seek Holy Mountain. From then on, they started to call the group the Witch Cooperation Association and regard the search for Holy Mountain as its members� ultimate goal.�

Roland was absorbed in thoughts after hearing the account. His knowledge of mythology was so limited that anything related to histories or folklores just escaped his mind. The ancient book did not specify the year, so he had no idea whether other history books recorded such a battle. As the soldiers in that battle had all passed away, Roland thought the only way to figure out what had happened was to explore the relic in person.

Nonetheless, Roland knew it was impossible. The Eastern Forest was too far. His current priority was to develop his territory rather than travel across the whole Kingdom of Graycastle on a whim.

Roland paced to the window and looked at the garden down there through the French window. The witches were training themselves as he had instructed. Now, he had 12 witches in total working for him, and it was time to formally establish an organization.

He did not plan to set up any guidelines or regulations for the organization, for the organization was essentially founded for an easy management and to help the witches develop their abilities. It would be similar to the industrial unionism in the modern world.

There were only two simple rules for the organization, which were: a) the prohibition of using abilities to violate laws; and b) the prohibition of using abilities to evade legal liabilities.

Roland was initially thinking about following the example of the Three Laws of Roboticsand formulating some rules to forbid a witch to injure or cause harms to an ordinary person by using her power. But he soon realized it was rather unnecessary. Power to a witch was like a gun to a human being. There was essentially no difference between using a gun and using abilities, for both were self-defense. Besides, an overemphasis on the difference between witches and ordinary people would only widen the gap between the two groups.

Therefore, no breach of laws and no evasion of liabilities were the most concise terms a dull engineer could think of.

As for the name of the organization, Roland had had an idea long before.

This brand new organization would be called �The Witch Union�.

When night approached, the Earl Elk�s mansion was brightened up by glitters of lights. After Petrov handed in his invitation card, he was led by a servant to the hall. The earl�s third daughter, Aurelia�s birthday party had just started.

The guests invited to this party were invariably nobles from prominent families in Longsong Stronghold. From the woolen carpet in the hall and the servants� gilded black uniforms, one could tell the earl took the matter very seriously. After all, it was Aurelia�s 16th birthday. She had reached an age of maturity and was ready to be introduced into society for a decent marriage.

The music rang while the servants passed through the crowd with wines and glasses in their hands. Steamy food was placed on the several round tables in the hall. Aurelia, on the other hand, like a proud canary in full bloom, enthroned herself among a group of ladies at the corner, appearing to be in good humor.

Unlike the banquet in the Western Region, where everybody sat around a long wooden table, waiting for chefs to serve food which was usually a big bowl of pork, a whole chicken, buttered bread, some golden fried eggs and lettuce, the party here was all about style and fashion.

Having said that, it was still uncomparable to a true first-class banquet. To Petrov, who had lived in the king�s city for several years and knew the real extravagance, the birthday party was merely a superficial imitation.

For instance, the wine glasses delivered by the servants were in various colors rather than pure, transparent ones. Because of this, the glasses could neither display the vivid color of the grape wine nor enhance its mellow taste. The table should be entirely covered with white draperies to conceal the grease underneath. Meanwhile, the food, which still stuck to the typical Western Region tradition, was served in large portions and chopped into big pieces. Petrov shook his head. At least, the chef should slice them before serving.

It was a common practice for nobles to eat before the banquet so that they would not need to bother cutting these big chunks of meat on their own. Since every guest at the party represented his own family, it was considered as very impertinent to devour like a savage. Petrov did not want to become a conversation piece of those ladies.

�Hey, man, long time no see.� Someone suddenly flung his arm around his neck. �I�ve heard you were appointed as the ambassador by the lord again? How�s the mining business in Border Town going? I bet you�ve reaped a big profit from it, haven�t you?�

By the familiar voice, Petrov soon recognized the person as Rene Medde, the second son of the Elk Family, a complete idiot who had been longing to become a knight yet was not even capable of managing his own territory. In spite of this, he was still a friend of his. �Not bad.� Reluctant to talk about his experience in Border Town, Petrov simply steered away from the subject. �Did you put your combating skills to good use at Coldwind Ridge this time? Or you just locked yourself in a tavern at Hermes shaking like a leaf?�

�Damn it.� Rene pushed Petrov in his back, complaining. �You just won�t stop criticizing me, will you? I didn�t even go to New Holy City this time because I happened to have caught a cold on the very first day the troops set out. So, I lay in bed for a whole week.�

�Good. You did better than last time. At least, you saved the troops a lot of trouble.�

�You�re wrong though.� Rene suddenly summoned up a mysterious smile. �If I didn�t happen to stay in bed at Coldwind Ridge for a week, I would probably stay at the freezing city wall of Holy City forever.�

�What do you mean?� Petrov raised his eyebrows.

�I got the news from someone else.� The second son of the Elks whispered in Petrov�s ear. �New Holy City almost fell. Demonic beasts dashed into the inner city and nearly took the cathedral. Fortunately, the church sent out their strongest warriors and stopped them. The armies of the Four Kingdoms, however, suffered great losses. Only very few people returned to Coldwind Ridge from the battle. It made tons of women in the city into widows within just a month. Those who don�t have savings�� Rene winked and made a gesture. �Two silver royals for a night. Hey, don�t look at me like this. I didn�t do anything.�

�Are you sure it�s true? What about the border guards?�

�I saw it with my own eyes. The lord was shocked and got sick on the very day he received the news.� Rene shrugged. �As to the troops� there�s nothing he can do about it but slowly recruiting more in the future. Experienced soldiers are currently in urgent need in the Northern Region. I would have been able to command a group of knights if my family didn�t desire my immediate return.�

�This isn�t the point,� Petrov said within himself. The main purpose to garrison a troop at the border of Coldwind Ridge was to defend against the Judgement Army from the church. Now, soldiers of the four kingdoms� died in Hermes altogether. Petrov somehow smelled conspiracies. If the church was indeed scheming something, the north of Graycastle was currently as vulnerable and defenseless as a stripped, helpless woman. �What about the casualties among the Judgement Army?�

�Won�t be better than troops of the four kingdoms. It�s pretty obvious because they�re all crazy men who always rush at the very front. In fact, nobody will voluntarily fight until the Judgement Army takes the first move,� Rene said scornfully, �Those knights are always talking about their chivalrous manners. But when it comes to a real battle against demonic beasts, they�re the last to put their words into action.�

�There�s one such kind of fellow right in front of me.� Petrov smiled. Perhaps he had just been paranoid. Even if the church did plot to invade the north, it had nothing to do with Longsong Stronghold. It was something the new king should worry about.

�Unfortunately, nobody wants to employ me�or rather, I haven�t found anyone I want to pledge alliance to.� Rene paused for a moment and looked toward the door. �I saw the Wolf Family coming in. I�ve got to greet them. Talk to you later.�

�Sure. You don�t need to worry about me.�

�Right.� Just when Rene was about to walk off, he turned around again. �Have you noticed the handkerchief tugged in the invitation card?�

�You put in there?�

�No, I�ll only put my old socks.� Rene waved his finger. �My sister made the handkerchief herself. Although you�re a lot older than her, I�ll fully support you if you have the intention to seek this union. You have to think about it, man. You�re 22 now.�

Petrov gave him a side look. Rene whistled and walked away with a smile.

Petrov took a glass of wine from the servant and picked a corner, starting to study the bustling hall in secret. He noticed Aurelia would steal him a glance from now and then in the middle of her conversation. The moment their eyes met, Aurelia soon turned away to avoid his gaze. Petrov noticed a vivid flush gradually rose to her cheeks.

He smiled back as a courtesy. To him, Aurelia was simply an innocent little girl.

Just then, a furious voice on one side of the hall drew everybody�s attention.

�What? He really said that?�

�Yes. Cornelius that coward just came back without even defending his honor.� The loudest person exclaimed. �Such a shame on Longsong Stronghold!�

Petrov recognized that man. It was Simon Elliot, a remote branch of the Wolf Family, who married a quite beautiful woman. He had seen the wife once. She did possess some unique charm.

�Like you have a solution to that.� Someone retorted with mockeries.

�Perhaps I can�t do anything about it on my own. But if the duke notices such absurdity, I don�t think Roland Wimbledon will still be able to act so unscrupulously�

Hearing this familiar name, Petrov was stunned for a moment. He was soon intrigued by this interesting conversation.

�Petrov approached the crowd and asked, �What happened?�

�Mr. Hull,� Seeing the kamon of the Honeysuckle Family, someone replied, �we�re talking about the Lord of Border Town. He wants to seize the properties that the nobles in the stronghold leave in the town.�

�Just call me Petrov. What�s it exactly about him?�

�Let me explain it to Mr. Petrov.� Simon came up to him with a half-fawning smile. �The truth is, we live in Border Town in peacetime on the duke�s order to manage the North Slope Mine for him. Every winter, we take our townsmen to Longsong Stronghold and protect them from demonic beasts. When we returned to the town after the Months of Demons this year, however, one of my colleagues, Cornelius from the Fletcher Family, was told by the Lord of Border Town that his residence was torn down by the townspeople and that he would not receive any compensation for his loss!�

�You�ve got two choices: a) admit that the property doesn�t belong to you; and b) imprisonment and being hanged for defection.� Simon imitated the tone of Prince Roland. �Sir, how could he charge Cornelius with defection? I dare say all the managers of the mine have been doing this for the past 100 years.�

The image of the gray-haired young man involuntarily flashed across Petrov�s mind. Notwithstanding the prince�s widespread notoriety, Petrov, from his personal intercourse with him, knew that Roland Wimbledon was definitely not a person of mediocrity. The so-called �defection� was merely a pretext Roland used to assert his absolute authority in his territory. He had never planned to reason with these nobles.

It appeared that the prince had resolved to sever relations with Longsong Stronghold. Petrov thought that Roland must know very well that the nobles and townsmen took refuge in the stronghold every year. But he still forced Cornelius to make a choice between a death penalty and confiscation of the property. On top of that, he publicized his unreasonable, almost ruthless decision across Longsong Stronghold, which made Petrov wonder what on earth the prince intended to do.

�But he�s the Lord of Border Town. A lord is entitled to make laws within his territory,� The one who had mocked Simon earlier replied.

�Border Town is also under the jurisdiction of the Western Region!� Simon retorted coolly. �Are you challenging Duke Ryan�s authority? The duke has ordered us to live in the town and manage the mine. Now, Roland has seized all the properties of the nobles. He�s defying the six families. Duke Ryan will absolutely not tolerate it.�

�Are you talking about the murderer who hanged Kihls Medde without even issuing an official document?� Rene, who swung by unnoticed, suddenly voiced out. �My father was furious about it.�

�Lord Medde.� Simon bowed. �Yes, that�s the man we�ve been discussing. He�s now become more reckless and defiant than ever. I�m afraid we have to rely on the duke�s power to stop him. I hope you can take a message for us.�

�Don�t worry. At any rate, Duke Ryan has determined to weed him out,� Rene answered carelessly. �I came back to let you know that my brother is currently tied up with some business in the king�s city. So, it leaves me the only person in the Elk Family to command the army.�

�Really? How fantastic!� Simon rejoined in delight.

Petrov�s brows knitted. He knew such a day would eventually arrive after the prince sent out the letter in winter, in which he announced his intention to stay at Border Town. Yet, Petrov had never anticipated his friend would also participate in the war. Ignoring the curious looks of others, Petrov pulled Rene aside and tried to dissuade him. �Don�t meddle in it. He�s a prince.�

�I know he�s a prince, but he�s just a dummy prince among some country bumpkins.� Rene Medde patted Petrov on his shoulder. �Don�t worry. In any event, Duke Ryan won�t hurt a royal family member. Perhaps the prince will surrender soon after we get there. Even if he decides to resist, I�m sure those farmers and miners will flee as soon as we officially launch the attack. Plus, Prince Roland doesn�t possess any combatting skills. I reckon he�ll remain intact during the entire battle.�

[No, I�m afraid it�ll be the other way around�] Petrov tried to say something but eventually chose not to speak his thought aloud because he knew Rene would not believe him. Indeed, he himself could hardly believe that the prince would defeat the alliance army commanded by the duke with only a bunch of miners, either. Nevertheless, a sense of evil forebodings pervaded him.

�Master Petrov, your father wants to see you at home. He needs to talk to you.� A silver-haired steward walked up to Petrov hastily and whispered to him.

�Noted.� Petrov nodded. After bidding farewell to Rene, he, along with the steward, threw himself into the carriage that conveyed him to the mansion of Earl Honeysuckles�.

�Father.� Petrov entered the study and saw Sharafi Hull writing something at his desk.

His arrival, however, did not interrupt the earl�s occupation. �Send me a report on the production, the population, and revenues in the domain. I can plan for the upcoming war in spring. Duke Ryan has issued an order of conscription. After the snow melts, we five families will need to provide our knights and mercenaries to help him attack Border Town.�

�How many people do we have to provide?�

The Earl paused his writing and looked up. �You never cared about these matters. Why are you interested now?� He unfolded a letter on the desk and said, �25 knights at least, as well as the squires and horses they need. The 40 mercenaries we need to provide must be fully equipped and armed. As for freemen or serfs, the number should be over 100, and they should be lightly armed.�

Petrov did a quick math in his head. In that case, the five families would be providing around 1,000 people. Combined with the duke�s troops, such an army would be considered unbeatable in the whole Western Region. It would be an alliance sufficient to suppress the resistance of Border Town, where only 2,000 people in total garrisoned. They did not even need to dispatch all the troops in Longsong Stronghold to gain their victory.

�Father, can you stay at the rear?� After a momentary hesitation, Petrov asked.

�Why, my child?� The earl was a bit surprised.

�I�m concerned with your safety.�

Shalafi could not help laughing. �Do you know what you�re talking about? What danger can there be for an elephant to trump an ant? His Highness has but a few knights and less than 50 guards, whereas our people are 10 times more!�

Petrov would have also thought so had he not met the prince. Technically, his father was correct. Yet� �Father, everybody says a mud city wall will be washed away by the rain, but the one built under His Highness� supervision stood erect in the rain. They�ve also said it�s impossible to stop demonic beasts with merely a group of miners in Border Town, yet His Highness managed to do so. Not a single person fled to the stronghold in the whole course of Months of Demons this year.� Petrov felt increasingly agitated. �Now, everyone believes the duke will subdue Roland Wimbledon in the same way an elephant tramples an ant. Do you really think this will be the case, father?�

�Enough!� Shalafi whacked the desk, rose to his feet and shook his head. He walked to the wall upon which the portraits of all the ancestors of the Honeysuckles Family�s were hung. �I know you prefer business and trades to battles and wars. However, a tradesman isn�t necessarily a coward. For those merchants who sail out to pursue their enterprises, they put their lives on the line every day.� Shalafi knocked on the wall and hollered. �Look at these portraits. Your grandfather and your great-great-grandfather, they fought with their swords and bows against their enemies before establishing themselves on this land full of beasts, refugees, and bandits. Your cowardice really disappointed me!�

[No, father.] Petrov hanged his head and stopped arguing. He muttered, however, in silence, [You also know that these are my grandfather�s and great-great grandfather�s stories. Look at their fearless countenances and toned bodies, and then at your own wide waist and your puffy double chin. Father, are you still able to fight on horseback?]

Roland fulfilled his promises on a sunny afternoon.

He conferred Tigui Pine with the title of Viscount and granted him the domain of the south Redwater River, opposite to the river that separated the town. It was a densely-grown forest, an area still waiting for development. In order for him to give up the autonomy of territory, Roland had promised to prioritize the development of Tigui�s territory and divide a certain stake of the industrial land established to the viscount and his descendants. Of course, Roland tactfully described it as an underlining benefit that there would be no work needed to manage the property, he could just sit and wait for the money to roll in.

Tigui happily accepted it. He had never liked these, as nothing was more meaningful to him than fighting on the horse. However, he had diverted his attention to hunting since his daughter was born. In addition, Tigui asked Prince Roland to sell all his land in the east of Longsong Stronghold and move his family to Border Town as the properties within his domain had long been declining. Roland agreed.

The other one was Brian. Roland awarded him identity as a knight and asked him to choose either land or serving in the army.

If he chose the land, he would not be allowed to join the First Army of Border Town again. If he joined the army, he would be promoted according to his military exploits to obtain land like the others. Brian chose the latter, without hesitation.

Roland had a rough picture of how he would use the land.

Using the Redwater River as a border, there was a wide space of seven to eight kilometers and a narrow space of about three kilometers. The land in between the Impassable Mountain Range was the residential area. It could be used as a construction area or a reward for promoted officers.

Opposite the Redwater River was the future industrial and agricultural area, the land could be extended all the way to the Southern Territory. However, it was still covered by forest and hills could be seen some distance away. Roland would have to reclaim the forest when the population fulfilled its demand.

Misty Forest, to the east of Border Town, was an important development point. There were all kinds of treasures in the forest, such as wood, edible fungi, wild animals, and herbs. Wood could also be used as fuel, not just for construction and industrial use. The forest was incredibly huge. Roland had sent Lightning to explore and even after flying 30 kilometers, the end was still not seen. If it were only used for the firewood, it could be used for a long time.

Finally, the empty space in between the Misty Forest and the Impassable Mountain Range was also a restricted area that no one ever set foot on. Judging from the boundary of mountains and forests, the tundish area was vast, a lot larger than the Kingdom of Graycastle. Roland was very tempted looking at the abandoned land. However, he knew that he could not attend to it for the time being as the population growth of Border Town was more necessary.

When he was back in his office in the castle, Roland summoned the artist, Soraya.

�How�s the completion of the task on assisting the City Hall?�

�I�ve never drawn so many pictures in one day.� She looked much better compared to their initial encounter. �I�ve almost finished drawing for today. However, it felt a little strange to only see from a window the size of a head when I was drawing.�

�It�s to prevent your Magic Pen from scaring the people,� the prince smiled and said, �Although they know witches exist, such close contact could easily cause an accident. Thus, I would rather take a hidden approach to prevent them from knowing you�re a witch. It�ll improve it in the future.�

Soraya�s photographic skill had brought Roland�s citizenship registration scheme to a new level. The City Hall had vacated a house for the plan as the archives to store the information of the people. They recorded their name, age, address, relationship status and other information on paper. Barov had briefly totaled the information once during the winter, and the record showed it had expanded a lot in this time. The biggest change was that there was now a �color photo� attached on each personal account.

According to Roland�s request, the City Hall had built a single-access small house in the hall. It was covered with linen from the outside, leaving a square window at the front that allowed Soraya to see the appearance of the other. It prevented them from seeing the magic pen when the witch was painting the portrait.

Roland had come up with a very simple method to get the people of the domain to come forward and register, they would be subsidized 10 bronze royals. The money would be paid by the City Hall.

�I�ve summoned you here today to draw something else,� Roland said. He laid the ready-cut papers in front of Soraya.

She noticed that the size of each paper was exactly the same. They were all square in shape and only half the size of her palm.

�What would you like me to draw?�

�A few recreational props,� Roland said.

He�d had this idea for a while. The witches had basically nothing to do other than their daily practice. Life was getting a little mundane, even to the prince himself. Especially before the snow melted, his range of activities within the castle was limited. Therefore, it was imperative to think of recreational activities and get a few witches to accompany him to relax. ..

The simplest, of course, was poker cards. However, the normal soft paper was not suitable for holding in the hands and shuffling would be troublesome. He could consider making something more advanced with Soraya�s help.

�Recreational?� she wondered with her head tilted. She did not understand what kind of recreational thing was to be drawn on a square paper. �Alright, tell me about it.�

�First, you have to draw a soldier holding a heavy crossbow on this paper.�

�From my imagination?�

�Yes, his armor, body-build, age, the surroundings. It�s all up to your imagination. The only requirement is he�s holding a heavy crossbow.�

�Uh� I�ll try,� said Soraya. She closed her eyes and contemplated for a moment. A set of colorful magic pens appeared in her hands.

Soon, an archer who looked like a middle-aged man appeared on the paper.

�That�s great.� Roland praised. �Let me think what to draw next, ah� Draw a small circle on both the upper left corner and the center of the card. The first circle has a white color base with a gold frame and the second circle has an orange color base with a gold frame.� He tried to recall the look of the cards in his mind.

When the painting was completed, Roland asked her to add a number in the first circle and the symbol of a bow and arrow in the second circle.

Soraya�s magic power was that she could ignore the material she was painting on, so blank paper and the patterned paper did not make a difference to her. The formal pattern could be perfectly covered by the newly painted pattern like a cover.

Hence, an exquisite �Archer� card appeared in front of Roland.

�Is that all?� she asked.

�This is just one unit of the cards, there are still more similar cards to be drawn. I�ll teach you how to play when it finally forms into a deck of cards.�

Looking at Soraya painting with her eyes closed, Roland felt a hunch from the bottom of his heart. Perhaps such a conversation would soon fill his castle�

�What are you going to do? Let�s play Gwent first!�

Echo was sitting on the highest point of the castle, the roof of the observation tower, where she could see the entire town.

She had troubled Lightning to carry her up here, and the little girl would come back to pick her up after sunset. Lightning was currently on her way to Longsong Stronghold.

The weather was very good today and the sun was bright; the river in the distance was shining like silk, running slowly towards the west, separating the land of green from the white snow. She felt a sense of warmth and softness in her entire body. This was different from the hot sun of the Southernmost Region where the scorching rays would burn the skin.

[Even the wind is different,] she thought. The winds in the mainland varied from the salty sea wind in the Port of Clearwater. From the humid monsoon season in the king�s city, to the chilling wind in the Impassable Mountain Range, to the earthy breeze in the town here. Anyhow, the winds here were pure and simple. Sweltering heat or sweeping windstorms were common in Iron Sand City. Winds were visible, with gravel and grit mixed up in the howling airflow, like a black monster sweeping through. People would have to hide in their house or find shelter to avoid the wind. Standing in the wind would lead to the death.

Echo sighed softly. It had been four years since she�d left Iron Sand City. The Osha clan had unfortunately failed in the battle for power. Although her father had surrendered, he was still killed by the enemy. She had wanted to rush forward and perish along with the enemy after witnessing this, but she was knocked out from behind.

She wondered how many of the clan members had survived after these four years.

She�d heard that the Osha clan had violated the agreement of the sacred duel causing them to be spurned by the Three Gods and exiled to Endless Cape, forbidden from Iron Sand City forever before she was sold to be a slave in the Port of Clearwater. However, Echo knew that this was the conspiracy of the Tibia clan. They had smeared the whip with the black oil from the underground and it could not be extinguished once it was ignited. It was this exact trick that had caused her brother, the strongest warrior in the clan to be burned alive in the duel. It had caused chaos to the team formation.

Aside from the scorching hot golden sand, Endless Cape was left with only the never extinguished fire pillars and the ocean, which was more frantic than mother earth. The people heading there would soon turn into bones, and they�d ended up even more miserable than herself as a slave.

When Echo awakened and became God�s Messenger, she wanted revenge. But her ability was the useless sound stimulation. No matter how much she begged the Three Gods, they did not grant her will. After living in the Port of Clearwater for half a year, she was clear that the saying that the God�s Messengers was loved by the Three Gods was simply the Mojin Clan people�s self-deceiving lie. The God�s Messengers were hunted by the church under the jurisdiction of the four kingdoms. Echo had completely lost all hope for revenge since then.

There was a sudden rise of smoke from afar. She looked over to the east bank of the Redwater River and noticed the shimmering green flame moving through the woods. The black smoke of the burning trees combined with the white mist that accumulated from the evaporated snow, forming a gray pillar in the sky.

It was Anna�s green flames.

When she arrived, Wendy had briefly introduced Anna and Nana to the sisters. Echo was very envious of Anna�s ability. Having the freedom to manipulate high-temperature fire flames that could melt swords� If she�d possessed such a great ability when she was in Iron Sand City, none of the Tibia clan would be left alive.

Echo shook her head. There was no point thinking about these things, she was lucky to have survived, especially compared to the people who were probably killed in the yellow sand. Now that His Highness was willing to accept her, all she could do was finish her missions ordered by His Highness.

She cleared her throat and started to sing.

It was a happy song. She could remember the entire tune even though Prince Roland had only hummed it to her once.

Echo was no stranger to music. Seductive dance and flirtatious crooning were skills she�d needed to master when she was trained as a first-class slave. However, this song His Highness requested was totally different. It was full of rhythm and upward vigor, especially when he requested her to perform the music by imitating the flute, it felt like every note was jumping, making people wanted to dance along.

The difficulty was in adding in the drums and strings along with the music at the same time. It was Echo�s first time to stimulate and overlap all the three different sounds at the same time. She had never thought that music could be played like this!

Initially, it was difficult for her to make sure that the drum did not interrupt the rhythm of the flute. She managed to gradually merge the two sounds together according to His Highness� suggestion by tapping the beat with her hands or feet.

After a few days of practice, Echo had gradually mastered the stimulation skill.

After singing a few times, she stood up and decided to add in the final string.

As the music played, Echo noticed that the minor tune changed again. If the elated fluting formed the body, the passionate drumming had given it a skeleton, and the last seemingly embellished string had given the music its soul. She worked on the beat repeatedly, unifying the three instruments into one; her voice became increasingly higher and finally she was singing loudly.

*******************

�My attack power was higher than yours, so I won.�

Roland put his final card on the table, and Soraya sat opposite to him. She covered her face and cried softly in awe.

�Let�s play another round,� she said after a moment of contemplation. She gathered the cards again and said, �I�ll draw your 10 cards this time.�

�Ahem,� Roland coughed and said, �It�s getting late and I still have something to do, you can play with someone else.�

After making a roughly sufficient set of cards, replication was the next step. Soraya�s drawing skill was comparable to the copier machine when the template was in front of her. Soon, Roland had a few sets of Gwent cards.

Hence, Soraya became his first opponent.

After stating the game rules clearly, a card war was launched. In the card war, Roland found that the witch�s acceptance was higher than most ordinary people. Soraya had quickly mastered card handling. Although Roland still managed to win for the following rounds, he had to use the special cards. He had to shamefully refuse now as she requested to draw the cards for him.

�Alright.� Soraya carried the cards in her arms and ran out the door. This was when the cheerful music came through the window. She stopped and ran back into the room and stuck her head out of the window to take a look. �Is that Echo?�

�Uh-huh. She seems to be quite proficient.� Roland leaned back against the chair to enjoy the familiar music.

The First Army of Border Town would soon enter the comprehensive exercising stage. It was quite different from shooting on the city wall. The comprehensive exercise would be carried out in the wild and required the team to march forward in an orderly fashion. This was also the basic segment of a shooting execution lineup. In order to unify the steps of the soldiers, they needed to rely on drums or slogans to command everyone�s marching speed. With the witch�s ability of mixed sound stimulation, he simply imitated the British style of infantry march music.

Compared to simple drumming, the infantry march music could not only control the platoon�s marching speed but also help to effectively enhance and elevate the troop morale. Of course, the famous marching song, �The British Grenadiers� should be used during the shooting execution lineup. Unfortunately, Roland could only remember the name but not the entire tune.

This was no trouble for him as there was another song, based on �The British Grenadiers� that had been widely used across the country during the war of resistance. And, the melody was known by almost everyone; it was the widely-known �Guerillas� Song�.

Soraya turned around as she heard Prince Roland humming along softly. It was in a language that she�d never heard before, clear-cut and perfectly consistent with the beat.

�We�re all sharpshooters,�

�One bullet for one enemy.�

�We�re all soldiers with wings,�

�Unafraid of tall mountains and deep waters.�

�In the dense forests,�

�Our comrades set their camps.�

�On the tall mountains,�

�There are our countless brothers .�

�� �

Scroll knocked on the door and someone quickly answered, �Come in.�

Entering the room she saw Anna sitting at a table by the window, where she was reading a thick book. The sun streamed through the window, lengthening her silhouette. Her soft cheeks and delicate neck looked fair under the sun�s reflection, and her ash-brown hair, that covered her shoulders, almost appeared gold.

After getting along with her for a week, Scroll had basically understood Anna�s temperament, such as straightforward, honest, steady and quiet, especially studious� In short, it was difficult to find a civilian who had a pure and peaceful soul like Anna.

�Are you going to play the card game?� Scroll moved a stool and sat down beside Anna. After practice, the sisters would rush back to the castle and squeeze into Soraya�s room to play Gwent. They had fun and enjoyed fighting for cards from each other�s collections. Even Nana Pine, who had been playing with Anna daily, had been coming by less after learning how to play the game. It was uncommon since the little girl with the magic healing power was almost always to be found in Anna�s room.

�I want to keep reading,� Anna turned the page and said, �I don�t have an ability like yours, so I should spend more time on this.�

She had read all kinds of books, everything from historical biographies to long poetry, including the folks� tales Scroll had heard being told in the streets; she was interested in all things, as long as it was in a book.

Scroll lovingly patted her head and said, �Don�t worry. I�ll tell you all that I remember in the books.�

[This is the child who changed the fate of the Witch Cooperation Association�s survivors,] Scroll thought. Nightingale would have never come to Border Town, nor met with Prince Roland from the Kingdom of Graycastle, and everything else that happened after would not have happened either. In other words, she was the savior of all witches.

That was partially why she was so fond of Anna. When Scroll had gained the insight from the Book of Magic, Anna had quickly accepted her and showed her great admiration, so much so that Scroll considered it a little ridiculous. There had been no one admiring her ability in the Witch Cooperation Association. Anna had the largest capacity for magic that Scroll had ever seen, with the exception of Nightingale, and her ability to control the green flames came with a very high attack power.

�Your hair is a little long,� Scroll lifted Anna�s bangs out of her eyes and said, �Does no one help you cut your hair?�

She shook her head and said, �I�d normally thread it myself.�

Scroll�s interest was immediately peaked and she said, �Threaded hair doesn�t look as good, let me trim it for you.�

�Do you even know how to do this?�

�I gave most of the sisters� their haircuts when I was in the Witch Cooperation Association,� Scroll smiled and then said, �Hold on a moment and I�ll get my tools.�

She quickly came back with a sack clutched in her hand. After spreading out the folded layers of white cloth, a pair of bronze scissors were revealed. They were well worn, both sides of the grips were covered with scratches and the blades had been polished from frequent use. Scroll had relied on this pair of scissors for a living before joining the Witch Cooperation Association�she had been a hairdresser in the pub of Seawindshire. The extra bronze royals she had earned, after buying bread, was given to a captain with a broken leg in exchange for him teaching her how to read and write, this went on until he passed away from old age.

Scroll proficiently shook out and spread the white cloth over Anna, carefully tying it around her neck, and adeptly began trimming the long pieces of hair.

�I� have a question to ask you.�

�What�s that?� Scroll�s fingers were dancing with the scissors in her hand, the blades constantly opening and closing, making a crisp cutting noise. Anna�s ash-brown hair adeptly slipped through her fingers, falling to the floor, cluster by cluster.

�About the book you gave me yesterday, many of the stories end in the same way. Is it fated for a prince to marry a princess?�

Her hand paused a moment. The storybook was not a typical book, it was a collection of folks� tales that she had heard living in Seawindshire over the years. However, Scroll had filtered out the stories without a happy ending, where the prince and princess didn�t end up together and compiled them into the book Anna was reading.

She had known that Anna would ask about this after reading the stories, however, she did not want to answer honestly.

�Most of them do, of course, there are some situations where a prince marries a grand duke�s daughter. For example, King Wimbledon III of the Kingdom of Graycastle married the daughter of Duke Silverlight.�

After replying, Scroll silently sighed, feeling it in her heart. Wendy had mentioned Nightingale�s thoughts to her, but when compared to the mature and calm shadow killer, she felt more concern about Anna, to whom His Highness felt affection. Everyone could see her importance to him. Roland could not keep his eyes off Anna whenever she was around. She was busier than the other sisters and he did not change her sleeping arrangements. After bunking Nightingale and Wendy together, Roland had explained that Nana could share a bed with Anna when she stayed the night, never realizing that his decision needed no explanation since he was the lord of the manor.

Anna�s reactions to His Highness were similar. She wouldn�t really talk when she was with the other witches and preferred to be a quiet listener. However, she would become active and more animated when Roland was around. Scroll thought, that if there was ever something or someone that could tear Anna�s eyes from a book, it would have to be Prince Roland.

Unfortunately, Roland was the fourth Prince of the Kingdom of Graycastle and the future king. He would be supported by the witches and Anna was one of those witches.

This was not something she could tell Prince Roland, so she had to find a way to indirectly mention it to Anna. She didn�t want there to be any misunderstandings, but she also didn�t want to see it end in tragedy.

�Why?� Anna shook her head, knocking the broken pieces of hair off her neck. �What if the prince doesn�t like the princess or the lady from the nobles� family?�

�Um�� Scroll didn�t think that she would ask that. �He would still have to marry one. Since the prince is likely destined to be king, his marriage isn�t just up to him.� She tried to remember the relevant knowledge recorded in the book. �As a way to stabilize and unify the nobles from the bordering kingdoms, and to appease the shifting neighboring countries, or to even make strategic deals, a king had to marry for the benefit of his people. However, most importantly the king must have heirs.�

Anna did not continue to pursue her question and Scroll felt relieved. This delicate of a matter would take time and careful persuasion and she thought that someday Anna would understand. After she had finished trimming Anna�s bangs, she brushed them with her fingers and smiled, �Not bad, you look more energetic.�

Anna bowed and said, �Thank you.�

�So, for today�s book�� Scroll contemplated a moment and then decided to summon a book about the revolution of the Kingdom of Wolfheart�s history. She thought this book would support the information she imparted today. �Let�s pick a family biography.�

She was about to leave when Anna suddenly spoke with the Book of Illusion in her arms, �I don�t think Roland is the prince in these stories.� She sounded certain and not as if she were trying to persuade herself. �He would do what he wanted. regardless of his imparted duty.�

��� Scroll was shocked. �What makes you say that?�

�If he was a prince like in the stories, he wouldn�t have rescued me.�

Roland went back to his office so he could continue writing down the basic mathematical knowledge he had in his mind after dinner.

He did not have an extraordinarily retentive memory, not to mention his memory would decline over time. Due to his profession, mathematics and physics were the most frequently used subjects, while his information about history, geography, biology, chemistry and so on had degenerated to an entry-level. Thus, regardless of its usefulness, it was better for him to take notes about everything in order to retain more knowledge.

After he finished each page he would have Scroll commit it to memory. All she had to do was look over the page and it was permanently recorded. Unfortunately, Scroll�s ability only extended to the memory of looking at the information and she could not teach herself junior-high-school mathematics. So, Roland explained it to her when he was free.

Of course, for someone like him, teaching was a meaningful task. When Scroll was surprised or enlightened, after a long contemplation, he felt especially accomplished. However, Roland knew that this had to do with his specific student. Although Scroll was closer to 40 in age, her magic power had greatly slowed the aging process. The skin on her cheeks was tight and rosy, and her long black hair was tied back simply behind her head, making her look very mature and capable. The fine crow�s feet at the corners of her eyes did not destroy her overall beauty but rather brought out her steady temperament. She would definitely be the elegant and versatile teacher found in the movies. The sense of role reversal was pleasant now that he had surprised the �teacher� with his lesson.

Roland was quietly writing as he contemplated, [What exactly is the magic power found in this world?]

It was everywhere, and it did not matter if its source was in the deep mine of the northern slope or within the Impassable Mountain Range, off towards the Wild Places in the west, or located at the Seawindshire in the east; the witches could always use it to release their various and incredible powers. The power was obviously stronger than electricity and its energy was less processed and closer to its �origins�.

Like with Cara from the Witch Cooperation Association, Wendy had mentioned that she could summon four Snakes of different Magical types and their names were named Death, Suffering, Fossilization, and Nothingness, each with its own venom effect. Or, like Nightingale, and her unfolding Mist that could almost distort the space it occupied. The different forms of magic ability constantly changed, Roland could not think of a better word to use other than the �origins�.

If he were to give the word �origins� a definition, it probably would be the rules and order that control everything universal. In the latter part of his life, Einstein wanted to integrate the four basic forces of the universe into his theoretical framework and called it the �grand unification theory�. In a way he was searching for its source, so, Roland couldn�t help but wonder if there was a universal rule that could span any universe?

Roland couldn�t help but brainstorm, was it possible a force like that existed in the world he used to live in before he traveled across the universe? Had there just not been any witches to act as a catalyst, releasing the magic, and it was only neglected by others?

Roland was just thinking, besides there was no way for him to properly analyze the power with the currently available technologies.

So, in order to promote the industrial revolution, he had to concentrate on propelling the progress of civilization.

Perhaps, someday, mankind would be able to use the power without the assistance of the witches � it was exciting to simply think about the versatile energy, which could transform into various effects.

�Your Highness?� Scroll asked noticing Roland�s intoxicated look.

�Ahem,� Roland pulled himself from the delusion. He coughed twice and said, while looking at the dwindling candle, �That�s all for today.�

�Yes,� she bowed and prepared to leave but then she paused.

Roland noticed that he had not heard the sound of the door closing and looked up curiously and saw that Scroll was still standing by the door. �What�s up?�

�Your Highness�� Scroll hesitated for a moment before saying, �I would like to ask you a question.�

�Ask away.� Roland nodded while laying his quill down before lifting his glass of water and taking a large gulp. The witches didn�t have many shortcomings, except one - they were all too skittish. They were like rabbits that would poke their heads out of their cave, only to immediately retreat at the slightest disturbance, never to be seen again. He was predicting that her question would be something like, �Why were you willing to take us in?� or �Don�t you fear the church?� Nightingale and Wendy had asked him many that times. However, since Scroll had taken the time to ask he would answer her seriously, deepening their friendship and camaraderie.

�Is it� possible for you to marry a witch?�

�Pfft,� Roland almost spat out his water, �Uh, why are you asking?�

�I�� Scroll opened her mouth but could not answer.

Marry a witch? The first person who came to Roland�s mind was Anna, ever since the day he had met her in the prison, her blue eyes had left a deep impression on his heart. Witches started as ordinary, human girls but then their abilities would awaken and they would develop outstanding powers. Moreover, their appearances and bodies were superior to those of a normal human. They would be the focus of attention in the modern society. So, what did he have to hesitate about? In this case �

He looked at Scroll and asked with a smile, �Why not?�

*******************

Wendy rubbed her sore shoulders before returning to her room.

Her large breasts were troublesome, especially when she was casting her wind on the top of the Littletown�s wooden shed since she had to raise her arms up and slightly towards her back to keep balance.

Since the first sail trial, Littletown had made a lot of improvements. For example, there was now a simple shed built on the spot she would be standing to shelter her from the sun and the rain. The hull was surrounded by bark that was used to reduce the impact when it went ashore. Both sides of the ship were fitted with two cement short piles for the convenience of fixing the vessels.

And, her ability to control the wind had also made a great progress after nearly a month of training. The ships were moving more steadily now, and the speed could be fast or slow under the influence of the wind. She even learned to adjust the magic consumption by using the existing wind force so that she could last a longer time.

Nightingale had finished her bath before Wendy, and she was already sitting on her bed, in her pajamas, waiting for her.

However, Wendy found it strange that Nightingale was smiling uncontrollably.

�Did something good happen?� Wendy couldn�t help asking. Nightingale shook her head but didn�t say anything, she only smiled a little wider.

Wendy�s mouth twitched, [Her emotions has been low since the last time we talked. Only recently, with the growing popularity of Gwent, has her spirits been lifted. Then, why is she smiling so brightly? Where has the expressionless, quiet Shadow killer, I met in Silver City gone?]

[Whatever.] Wendy took off her clothes and stepped into the bucket of hot water. [She probably won a great card in the game.]

It�s been two months since the Months of Demons had ended, and the snow had finally turned melted into streams which ran into the Redwater River.

Once the white landscape slowly faded away, the trees on both sides began to sprout again, everything became green once more.

The land to the east of the town had already been cleared by Anna with her flames, and His Highness had temporarily turned it into a training ground for the First Army of Border Town.

At the training ground, Carter Lannis was holding a casing and was checking if the bayonet was firmly installed.

This was the newest invention of His Highness, but compared to the automatic operating machine and the modified snow powder, this new invention seemed to be a little too simple. When holding it in his hands, Carter instantly realized that it was not a qualified weapon.

In short, it was just a sharp iron triangle, with the middle line as the base, with the other two sides pointing inwards a little. Although it had a sharp edge, it was impossible to use it to cut down enemies�the blade was just too narrow after it was bent. Even if he was to attack an enemy without armor, if he tried to slash out horizontally, Carter was not sure he would even be able to cut apart the enemy�s clothes.

This weapon had only one purpose, and that was, stabbing. And it required being connected to the flintlock for its use. When used alone, it would not be as handy as a dagger.

In the eyes of the chief knight, wasting so much pig iron, only to forge such a simplistic weapon was totally unacceptable. If a blacksmith within his territory had dared to create such a weapon, he would have tied the man and given him a proper beating.

But even for a bad weapon like this, he could still see His Highness� attention to details. For example, the design of the casing. The mouth of the barrel had two grooves with a right angle at its end, so as long as the pieces were fitted properly and the bayonet was turned slightly it would become fixed. Because of this design, the pieces did not need to fit perfectly, and if they were a little too loose, some paper could be inserted between the two iron pieces and the grooves, and in case there was no paper, even tree leaves would work instead.

�Put the bayonet on the gun!�

Hearing the command, the members of the Flintlock Squad who had a bayonet allocated to them took them out of their bag and put them on the gun�s barrel�until now there were only about forty pieces of the new weapon and supporting bags. So the ones who did not receive a new weapon had to use a short stick instead.

They practiced this action for almost the whole morning, and now most of them only needed just a few seconds to adjust the bayonet. According to His Highness� words, the bayonet should only be used as a last resort. He did not want his men to fight a close combat fight. Carter disagreed with this statement, he thought as long as someone did not personally stab an enemy, they would still be considered as children. Only when they saw their enemies� first blood, they would transform from ordinary miners and hunters into soldiers.

Iron Axe was also in the platoon. Although he claimed to only be a hunter, Carter could see from his skills that the man had definitely received military training before. His skills were not much worse than that of the other knights.

When His Highness asked Carter to teach the soldiers how to use the new weapon, he did not feel very confident. He never heard of a weapon called bayonet before, so there was a chance that he did not even know how to use it. However, after seeing the prototype, he became full of confidence. After all, the bayonet was just like a short spear, and due to its special blade, it was much easier to use it compared to a spear.

The advantage of the bayonet was in the simplicity of learning to use it. There was no need to learn how to slash, lift, block or sweep, there was only one move, stabbing. So the chief knight let all the platoon members line up and taught them the most appropriate way of stabbing�placing one foot behind the other, bending the knees and the waist and pushing their arms forward with their maximum strength.

This kind of repetitive training was extremely boring. But what amazed Carter was that everyone was meticulously completing the stabbing training. Before the winter they were all still a bunch of weak and lazy civilians, but now they were behaving properly. They would immediately follow any command, and training them was even easier than training a squire. Of course, if he were to give them a sword, or using the words of His Highness �cold weapons�, these people still would not stand a chance against his men. But in terms of willpower, their progress was really notable in his eyes.

After half an hour of training, Carter let the flintlock squad sit down and rest. At this moment, His Highness the prince showed up on the training ground, accompanied by a woman who was wearing a hood. The knight was not surprised. His Highness had informed him in advance that they would be assisted by a witch during today�s training.

However, that witch was pretty tall, she was almost as tall as His Highness. Girls are more attractive if they are shorter, Carter thought. He then told everyone to stand up and greet the fourth prince.

�Greetings Your Highness!� The soldiers shouted and raised their hands.

�Thank you for your effort,� Roland nodded. As he was about to speak to the knight, a soldier suddenly rushed out of the team. Carter Lannis frowned, he stepped forward placing the prince behind himself with his hand already touching his sword. Nightingale had also appeared, grabbing Roland�s arm waiting to drag the prince into the mist in case something went wrong.

The person who appeared was exactly Iron Axe.

He did not run to the prince, but instead to the unknown witch, immediately falling down to his knees in front of her. It was not the Kingdom�s normal kneeling posture, instead, he threw his whole body flat on the ground, with his head buried between his arms, �Clan Leader!�

With this, the flintlock squad�s training came to an end.

*******************

�Tell me. Why did you do that?�

Back in the castle hall, Carter, Echo, and Iron Axe stood in a row, while Roland sat on the throne, he asked clearly dissatisfied.

Discipline, discipline! You have to always maintain discipline in the platoon! Not to mention seeing a clan leader, even if you were to see the King, you should not move an inch. If there is any request, there is always time for a report later.

�Your Highness,� Iron Axe wanted to kneel down but just as he leaned over, he was stopped by Roland.

�Stand straight and speak!�

�Yes!� Iron Axe swallowed nervously, and said, �Master Silver Moon is the clan leader I served back in Iron Sand City.�

�No, Kabago, I am not the Clan Leader�� Echo quickly waved her hands.

�No, you are,� Iron Axe responded, �After the death of your father and brother, according to the Mowkin custom, you became the clan leader of our Osha clan. I heard that you were sold to the Port of Clearwater, but I didn�t find you there, so I thought you were� dead.�

�But I�m���

Roland interrupted Echo, �One by one, you first Iron Axe.�

�Yes, Your Highness.�

�

The story was not complicated, so Roland quickly understood the general idea of what happened.

Echo was originally a member of the Osha Clan in Iron Sand City. Her real name was Drow Silvermoon, and her father was the clan leader of the Osha Clan.

The Sand Nation was not unified and Iron Sand City was only able to accommodate a limited population, so every now and then, each clan had to take part in a sacred duel, and the six victorious clans would gain the right to live in the city, while the other clans had to either live outside the city, or camp at the Green Sea. Although there were water resources in these places, the wild beasts and the sandstorms would cause a great threat to the Sandpeople. So during each of the sacred duels, the warriors of the various clans would spare no effort in order to win.

Unfortunately, the Osha Clan lost to the Ironwhip Clan, who had used insidious means during the duel. The Osha leader was killed and the clan ended up being exiled to Endless Cape. Drow Silvermoon, now known as Echo, was the daughter of the former clan leader and because of her extraordinary looks, she was sold as a first-class slave to a slaver at Port of Clearwater.

Iron Axe was of mixed-blood, and despite his being adopted by the Osha Clan, he was never regarded as a real Mojin person by the Sand Nation. For this reason, he escaped the fate of exile. Instead, other clans highly regarded him and they wanted to recruit him due to his excellent combat abilities. However, Iron Axe felt loyalty towards the Osha Clan Leader and was grateful for all of his help over the years, which, coupled with his desire to save Echo, made him resolutely reject the offers from the other clans. After a long and difficult journey, he finally arrived at Port of Clearwater. Unfortunately, he was too late and Echo had already been sold to the Kingdom of Graycastle.

Ultimately, Echo had been rescued by the witches and joined the Witch Cooperation Association, while Iron Axe headed to the Western Region of Graycastle, with a broken spirit. Today they unexpectedly ran into each other in Border Town.

After a moment Roland asked, �So what�s your plan? Do you want to return to the Southernmost Region with Echo and revive the Osha Clan?�

�No, Your Highness!� Iron Axe went down on one knee. �I�ve already sworn to the Three Gods that I�ll serve you for the rest of my life� It�s just� I was so excited to see Lady Silvermoon again that I couldn�t control my emotions. Please punish me!�

�What about you?� the prince asked looking at Echo, �Do you want to go and avenge your people?�

Echo also knelt in front of the prince before replying. �After my awakening as a witch, I did have thoughts of revenge, but that was a long time ago.� She bit her lip, �Please allow me to stay� I don�t have anywhere else to go.��

�I understand. Stand up, both of you,� Roland said quietly, �You don�t have to act contrite, and I haven�t said anything yet.� He paused a moment before saying empathetically. �You know, it�s not impossible for me to help you get your revenge.�

�What?� Iron Axe opened his eyes in shock, unable to believe his own ears. Echo, on the other hand, did not react. After all this time she had given up hope of ever returning to Iron Sand City.

�Of course, not right this very moment.� Roland waved his hand dismissively. This idea of his had not been mere whimsy. According to Iron Axe�s descriptions of the Southernmost Region, he had heard about some very interesting things�the hot and dry land with the strange terrain. How the ground would spew forth orange flames that could burn for decades, never to be extinguished. Near the flames, the ground had eroded into many pits and in their depths, and one could see the black Styx�s River.

Orange fire and the Styx�s River, the more Roland thought about it the more he believed. �That sounds like oil. Better still, it sounds like free-flowing oil!� There was no point in thinking about the importance of the black liquid to industrial development, and more than half of the modern day wars were over oil. The rise and fall of oil prices could even impact the wealth and success of many countries, changing the structure of the world. If he was able to establish a foothold in the Southernmost Region, through the Osha Clan, he would acquire a stable oil source.

But for now, Roland would not concern himself with remote disputes. He would, however, keep it in the back of his mind and eventually stage this �once in a lifetime�.

�After I take the throne, I�ll find a way to get justice for you.� Roland again stopped Iron Axe from kneeling. �But, as for today, you violated an order of the First Army. You�re sentenced to two days of confinement and during these days, you�re to reflect on your actions.�

�Yes, Your Highness,� Iron Axe happily replied.

�Then let us continue your training,� Roland said to the chief knight, �and, you�ll be responsible for the next march.�

Carter nodded.

*******************

Brian had thought that today�s training had already finished, however, everyone was still on the training ground, and no one dared to leave.

When Carter left with the prince, he ordered them to rest on site, but he had not dismissed them.

On his old patrol team, this type of situation would be unthinkable.

�Your Excellency, do you think His Excellency Iron Axe will come back?� asked Nail, from his team, �His actions just now startled me.�

�How many times have I told you not to call me like that.� Brian corrected him. �In the First Army, you should address me as Team Leader. His Highness told us to use military terms.� After he was knighted by Prince Roland, his rank within the army rose up. The rest of the team no longer talked to him, except for Nail. A short fellow who had been a miner before joining the platoon. He often came by to chat. According to Nail, he not only talked with a knight, he had even claimed to have had close conversations with Prince Roland himself too.

�This was a special situation� His Highness can�t blame him too much, right?� Although he agreed with this, Brian was not too sure about it. He once saw a civilian who had accidentally collided with a lord�s carriage killed on the spot by the lord�s guards. Iron Axe was a foreigner, and he had bowed to another while His Highness was present, even called her �Clan Leader�, no matter how you looked at it, it was a clear break of etiquette.

�My guess is that�ll be the case,� nodded Nail. �I�ve spoken to His Highness personally and he isn�t like other nobles, um�� He scratched his head, trying to find the right words. �Even though he looks like most nobles, he acts completely different.�

Brian also did not want something bad to happen to Iron Axe. After over a month of training together, he felt a deep sense of respect for him. Especially after he had taught them how to build a tent during their field training. They had all benefitted from his superb skills and his enjoyable teaching method. In Brian�s eyes, Iron Axe was even more suitable than Carter Lannis to be the commander of the First Army.

�They�re already back!� Nail brushed against Brian�s arm. �Hey, I can�t see His Excellency Iron Axe.�

Before his imagination could run wild, Carter had already ordered them to get into formation. Then, His Highness Roland stepped forward and began to give a speech. �The woman standing beside me is a witch, her name is Echo and she�s an acquaintance of Iron Axe, they have been separated for many years� However, because Iron Axe disrupted formation and violated the military rules, he has been sentenced, by me, to confinement for two days, as dictated by the rules. I�ll repeat this once more. You all now belong to the regular army, and the most important rule for a member of this army is to obey orders and maintain discipline! Do you understand this?�

�Yes! Your Highness!� Brian and the rest shouted. After hearing about Iron Axe�s fate, he finally calmed down. Nail, who was still next to him, was looking at him while making a wry face.

�In the next training exercise, Echo will aid you. Her ability allows her to imitate sounds, such as musical instruments, trumpets, and drums. The marching song that she�ll play next, will be the signal for you to act! Everyone has to move to the beat of the drums while maintaining your formation in one line.� Here, His Highness paused. �On the battlefield, Echo will be standing behind you. She�ll be the banner of the First Army, the soul of the Flintlock Squad! You�ll have to protect her at every cost! Now� everyone should become familiar with the melody.�

�What�s a marching song?� Brian was confused. �Is it something like the music they occasionally play in pubs? Is it appropriate to use that soft music to direct the march of the army?�

But, once he heard the melody coming out of Echo�s mouth, he instantly realized what His Highness had meant. The rhythm of the drum deeply affected him, which made him want to move forward while provoking his desire to fight.

This so-called �marching song� was a Battle Hymn that would encourage and motivate everyone on the battlefield.

Through the misty morning fog, Timothy Wimbledon could indistinctly see the flags flying on top of the city wall.

He raised his telescope, trying to make out the kamon on the flags. Most of the flags were green, each embroidered with a sailing ship and a crown on it. Undoubtedly, they belonged to his sister, Garcia Wimbledon.

The second most seen flag was a white flag, with a high tower which had a viper wrapped around it, and this belonged to the House Balya. �Ha.� He sneered in his heart. �Earl Balya, how shameless of you to keep your flag flying high after surrendering to the Queen of Clearwater. I�ll feed you your flags as soon as you fall into my hands, traitor!�

The least flown flag was red and it was embroidered with a high tower and a lion. This flag belonged to House Zita who was just as shameless as the rest. Timothy showed no external emotion even though in his heart he had already sentenced Arryn Zita, and Tommen Balya, to death. Of course, Arryn Zita also had to eat his flags.

�Sir Naim, raise the flags of the Kingdom of Graycastle!� Timothy commanded.

�Yes, Your Majesty.� Frostwind Knight replied before galloping off to tell the army behind him. �The king orders to raise the flags!�

The new king turned his head and watched as one by one, the gray flags were being raised, flying high in the wind. The image was a black pattern depicting a huge tower with inclining and intercrossed spears on both sides making the flag look solemn. This was the emblem for the King of Graycastle, and any traitor would be beheaded before it.

As soon as news of the independence of Garcia reached his ears, he took immediate action by mobilizing the troops of the Eastern Region and the king�s city and then marching on Eagle City. Although in his heart he was terrified, he had maintained a calm face, giving the ministers who stood by his side, a boost of confidence.

It took almost a month to summon the landowners and troops, and then a week on the road to the Eastern Region, followed by half a month to reach here. Yesterday, Timothy finally arrived at Eagle City at sunset. Fortunately, the Months of Demons did not affect the king�s city much, therefore, the road in the Southern Territory was not hindered by snow. Instead, the frozen ground made the carts of food move even faster.

His army was quite large and mainly comprised of his own guards, the knightage of the king�s city, and the troops of Duke Frances Chlett of the Eastern Region. The three groups totaled to over 6,000 men, and up to 1,000 of them were well trained and armed knights. According to a reliable source, Garcia had no more than 3,000 men, most of whom were the freemen of Port of Clearwater. They might be qualified enough to plunder unarmed farmers or merchants, but they would never stand a chance against the knights.

Goude, his Treasurer, had advised that it was not a good time to call the army after the end of the Months of Demons because the farming in each land would start soon, and the lack of men would harm the harvest. Timothy took the advice. He allowed his landowners to keep their serfs and called the freemen on his land to take on the job of logistics and transportation. This way the spring farming would still take place even while they were fighting in the Southern Territory.

In any case, Timothy Wimbledon would never allow Garcia to stay in the Southern Territory. Eagle City, which was not as stoutly built, had been designated a trade market, situated in the middle of the peripheral towns. As time went on, the market grew into a young city with a history of less than a century. Furthermore, the previous lords intentionally left out the construction of a defensible wall to give the impression of a trade city. Garcia�s army that totaled 3,000 civilians and the men from the two earls was not large or strong in Timothy�s view. Accordingly, the quicker they reacted, the more of a chance they stood. If he offered Garcia enough time to organize the entire Southern Territory, she would be more difficult to defeat.

After a good night�s rest and full bellies, his troops were ready for war. As the sun rose changing from a bright orange into a radiating gold, the mist dissipated and the brown �wall� was revealed. This was not a wall but more of a bare soil slope, in the new king�s opinion. The incline made the slope easy to climb with just bare hands and feet, there was no need for ladders. On the top of the slope stood wooden bars, all the height of the men. While this might deter the refugees and thieves, it would not stop the trained soldiers.

The men guarding this �wall� were scattered and obviously not ready to defend the city.

�Your Majesty, the scout on the south gate reported that a large party is on the move.� Frostwind Knight rode to the new king and he reined in his horse to make his report.

Timothy handed his telescope over to Duke Frances and said in a relaxed voice, �It seems she intends to run away.�

The duke watched the city for a while before nodding. �She made a bold decision quickly. We�ll take them all if she plans on putting her men in Eagle City. She won�t be able to defend herself there for very long.� As the duke said this, he laughed. �As you predicted at the council meeting last night, our quick response caught her off guard.�

�We�ve arrived at the right time,� Timothy said, �She couldn�t slip away at night even if she intended to.�

�Exactly, to march the army at night would be taboo.� �If she does decide to move at night, her army will be scattered even if we don�t attack. It�s impossible to gather your men once they have scattered in darkness. Thus, she�s still doomed even if she does make it back to Port of Clearwater.�

�So, my dear sister has to wait until the break of dawn to retreat with the army.� Timothy looked at Eagle City, it was finally within his grasp. Filled with satisfaction, he believed his sister had done exactly as he had expected. Garcia had set up her army in Eagle City, a place she had desired for a long time. Strategically, seizing the house from the previous wards of the Southern Territory provided an advantage and allowed one to buy the loyalty of the noble in the south. And, yet the crisis came with it. Thinking ahead, he had deployed a decoy army to draw attention, while he secretly led the riders to the Eastern Region in advance. This left behind the infantries but allowed carts to secretly carry the war supply. After the decoy army had entered the Eastern Region, the duke would contribute to the troops to reinforce them. Then he would lead the march on Eagle City through the other side of the kingdom. As they moved forward, the riders would run ahead to block the road, in order to reduce the possibility of any information leaking from spies.

Garcia might have received the rough news two or three days before she decided to retreat her army at dawn, which, was a hasty march since there was no time for preparation. They would have to walk for a day to get from Eagle City to the Town of Clear Spring, and even so, they could never outpace his riders. As long as he rallied 1,000 riders to chase after her and pick off the enemy from behind, her funny Coalition would automatically collapse.

It was a pity that Garcia could still escape if she abandoned her 3,000 men and fled alone. If she did that it would be easy for her to reach Port of Clearwater alive.

He thought that hunting her down in her lair would end the farce.

�Your Majesty, do we split up according to the plan?� Duke Frances said, �Do you intend to cross the city at the south gate, and start the chase after I break into the city, or will you take a detour that�ll add time?�

�I think it�s better to take the detour to the southwest.� Timothy pondered for a while. �The narrow street would be inconvenient, and furthermore, Garcia might block the street with junk to hinder the riding troops. A detour, while it might cost us two extra hours, won�t affect the pursuit of the enemy.�

�Then it�s time for me to set out, Your Majesty.�

�Be careful.� Timothy warned him. �Garcia may not have left many of her troop behind in the city, but I assume there will be lots of traps. Moreover, be aware of the narrow streets or anyplace crowded with houses. This is where ambushes from Garcia�s loyal men are likely to take place.�

�Hahaha.� Duke Frances laughed brightly. �Please, trust me, Your Majesty. Since the wound I received from following your father into battle, I haven�t sustained one since. And, I have single-handedly beheaded hundreds of men. He waved his hand to the guards beside him. �Blow the horn and begin the attack!�

The army behind him started to surge, with some of the platoons moving out of formation. Led by knights, they marched towards Eagle City. They were the vanguards, made up of civilians. They were followed by armored mercenaries which were the main force of the siege. At the same time, the riders brought by the duke all rallied under his banner.

Timothy waited until the main army had attacked the wall before leading the rest of the knights and squires southwest.

The freemen who were treated as cannon fodder had successfully climbed up the slope without any resistance.

However, wooden barriers blocked their way. Rather than being tightly built with wooden logs, the barriers bore gaps that allowed spears to thrown through so that the defenders only needed to stand behind the barrier as they attacked the enemies with spears.

Yet, Duke Frances didn�t expect that the men that were guarding on top of the wall had disappeared leaving the outer-ring of the wall unguarded. The vanguards breached the barrier with axes and brought down a few logs before pouring into the top of the wall. After a while, the wooden gate was laid down as well.

�Let�s move,� Duke flicked the reins, leading the remaining army to march on. �It takes us not more than 30 minutes from the start to the lay-down of the gate. What is Garcia Wimbledon plotting?� Frances frowned. Anyone who had a little war experience would know that when the leader abandoned the city, he would leave behind some guards or buy some expensive gutsy men, who knew not fear of death, to resist the enemy and buy as much time as possible for the main army to retreat.

�Princess Garcia is no fool, after all she conquered the entire Southern Territory in such a short period of time. Why doesn�t she deploy the men to guard the wall? The defenses and traps, no matter how strong and tricky they are, will have no use when they are unmanned.� Duke Frances pondered and decided to send the guards into the city in advance to check on the situation.

The information that the Captain of the guards reported was the same as what they had seen on the wall, there was no resistance in the city either. Only some streets were barricaded by timbers and bricks, and his men had gathered the residents to clean the blockades.

Frances led the rest of the army into Eagle City without any hesitation. He believed that he, a proven veteran who had followed King Wimbledon III to war for many years, would not be scared stiff by a young girl. It seemed to Frances that Timothy had made the mistake since he could have saved a lot of time if he chose to cross the city after Frances took it.

As he passed through the gate, the Duke smelled something strong, it was not the rotten stink that was common on the battlefield but something like a mixture of pine nut oil, orange peel and incense. If drawing a deep breath, he could even smell fragrant.

�What is it?� He looked around and found nothing special. Since the ditch that was for draining water off the wall was plugged up, the sewage had overflowed and ran along the ground slowly. Moreover, the dirty accumulation that had been left alone for an unknown time was dark black, reflecting a colorful light pattern in the sun.

�Maybe it was the smell of the sewage,� Frances thought while shaking his head and walked into the castle with the platoon.

�Now that I�ve taken Eagle City, it�s natural to stroll around the lord�s castle and City Hall to check if there is anything valuable to take. Certainly, Garcia must have plundered the city. But there are still some larger crafts and decorations that will be appropriate booties. And the food carts are good enough to carry the booties after they�ve been roughly cleaned up. As for the mercenaries, they must be heading to the stores and farms.

Leave them alone. Anyway, Duke Joey is dead and no one knows whom will be the new lord. Robbing the entire city comes first.�

After he walked through the entire lord�s castle, Frances Chlett discovered something wrong.

The castle was too empty, he thought. He couldn�t even find any cloth or food in the basement, not to mention the gold. The wall where there should have been paintings on it was now blank and the bookcase had no books either. What�s queerer was that the bed in the lord�s chamber was gone too. The castle looked like it had been stripped.

How could they take away all these things when they were in a rushed retreat? Frances started to sense that the situation was not as good as he had thought. The castle wouldn�t be so empty unless they had started to transport these things early.

When he was about to head to the City Hall, a thick black smoke suddenly billowed over the North Gate.

�What�s wrong? Something caught on fire?�

�I have no idea my lord. I�ve sent Moliere to check it out,� The Captain said, �maybe it was the enemy who started a fire on purpose.�

At first the Duke thought it was a trap, but soon he realized that using the fire to block the gate was meaningless. If there were no men to join in and launch the attack, the fire would be quenched soon by any organized troops. Let alone the fact that the fire had little use to hold back the enemy since they could bypass the gate and climb the slope to get out.

The right tactic was to make the men lie in wait until the scattered fires disturbed the enemy, and then launch an attack and catching them by surprise. It was an effective way to mess up their formation or even force back the enemy. Like he had said before, an unmanned trap was no more than uselessness.

At this moment, the other three gates began to smoke too, and the fire in the North Gate became clear in sight, what�s worse, the fire flared up quickly. It seemed like the gate was stacked with straws to fuel the fire. There were people screeching somewhere in the city, perhaps because their houses caught a fire as well.

�This is not right�� The Duke thought, �when I entered the city through the North Gate, there was nothing to catch a fire there but an open space! But how could the fire spread so quickly without a tinder? Wait�� An idea flashed through his mind, �could it be that Garcia Wimbledon had recruited the witches in secret?�

Frances touched the God�s Stone of Retaliation that hung around his neck and felt relieved a little. With the stone that would protect him from evil, he could pass the witches fire with impunity. Furthermore, no evil harm would come to the guards either, for all of them were equipped with the stones. As for the freemen, who didn�t have enough money to contribute to the church, they were beyond the Duke�s consideration now.

Thinking that the city was a little weird, he decided to get out of the city first. The army could set camp at the South Gate, they could watch the city while waiting for the riders of the new king to return. As he thought of it, he commanded the Captain, �we move to the south and leave the city. You keep blowing the horn on the way to gather the platoons.�

�Yes!�

The crowd moved at once, however, when they approached the South Gate, the fire had spread to the residential area where acres of houses were burning, casting a heat wave that forced them back. The panicked citizens, who had hidden in their homes, now ran out and crowded the street, even breaking through the wall of blades and swords of guards and running to safe clearings in a fluster. All of a sudden, everyone seemed to sink in the sea of fire, surrounded by the thick smoke and the fierce fire.

�Calm down! Go and find the well. Fetch the water to put out the fire,� Duke Frances quickly gave a succession of orders, �let the houses alone. Just try to quench the fire on the blocks and clear out a road. Keep blowing the horn to make sure others know where we are.�

�Sir!� A rider raced from the center of the city and jumped down from the horse before drawing the reins. It was Moliere who was sent to the North Gate by the Captain. �My lord, there is no way to quench the fire at the North Gate.�

�What did you say?� Frances was in shock. �The fire can�t be quenched?�

�The fire is fueled by black water,� she said quickly, �The fire not only can�t be quenched by water but also flows along it! My lord, the entire north of the city is burning!�

�The flame that can�t be quenched�� he murmured, �it�s the fire of demons indeed.� The Duke shouted loudly, �everyone stay calm. It is the fire of demons set by the witches under Garcia�s command! As long as you wear the God�s Stone of Retaliation, the seemingly dreadful fire will not harm you!�

�I see. May God be merciful,� said Moliere , subconsciously touching her chest, �My lord, what should we do next?�

�You�ve the God�s Stone of Retaliation, so what�s there to fear? All of you mount your horses, let�s race through the fire,� the Duke said while waving his hand, �the evil fire will disappear as soon as it meets the God�s Stone!� He paused and said, �Moliere, you lead a platoon out first. I will stay here to gather the men yet to arrive.�

�Yes!� the Lady Knight nodded, �please take care, my lord. The rest of you, be alert and keep up.�

After that, she mounted and raced to the end of the scorching hot street, without hesitation.

The knightsage of the king�s city cut into the tail of Garcia�s platoon like a sharp silver blade.

Panic surged through the crowd of enemies. Many men fell as they were scattering and running in a flurry, ending their lives miserably under the horse�s hoofs.

Occasionally there were some men that drew their weapons to resist, but they were pierced by the spears of the skilled knights. The one who raced in the front of the unstoppable knights, like the tip of the blade, was Frostwind Knight Naim Moor. The blue striped cloak flying behind him cast a particular conspicuous sight as he rushed ahead to clear the way. He fought fiercely to force back the enemies, causing his spear to be soaked with blood.

Timothy Wimbledon stood on a small slope far away from the battlefield watching the situation. At this moment, the tail of the platoon of 3,000 had become disordered, and as the scattering grew, the platoon almost halted.

�They can�t hold on much longer,� Timothy thought, �Her army will be defeated by two more rounds of strikes. The rabble of enemies is no match for the elite knights of Kingdom of Graycastle. Most of the enemies, who did not even have armor, only needed to be struck once for them to lose fighting capacity.

Just as he had expected, the detour took him two extra hours. The knightage had gone around Eagle City and then over a col, through a sparse wood, and finally back to the main road. After that, under his command of acceleration, the knights eventually caught up with Garcia�s army at noon.

According to what the duke had taught him, Timothy divided the knightage into three teams, each with 300 men that would take turns to strike the rear side of the enemy. In this way, he could save enough horses and men to mobilize and support the attack in the event of an emergency. In case of being besieged, rather than marching into the main crowd of the enemy, the knights only needed to be near the platoon from the flank before speeding up and dashing into the platoon. In this way, each time they could cut off a short piece of tail of the enemy�s platoon and cost them tens of men.

The tactic�s effect was obvious. After some rounds of strikes, the enemy had lost over 100 men, and they were unable to fight back. Although they also wanted to organize the riders to defend, they were poorly equipped and trained. Comparing to the knightage of the king�s city, their make-do riders were no more than the infantry mounted on horses. When the �riders� engaged in the battle with the knights, they could not help but to scatter and run away in the bloodshed.

The overwhelming slaughter lowered the morale of the enemy immensely. Timothy noticed that some of the men in Garcia�s platoon were abandoning the army and running away in other directions.

He thought it was time to launch a general offensive. Waiting until Frostwind Knight led the team back, he returned to the knightage from the slope instead of giving the order for the next round of strikes.

�Your Majesty, they�ll be soon dispersed,� Naim said as he dried the sweat on his forehead, the blood on his palm leaving some marks. It was the enemy�s blood. He had remained unharmed since the battle began.

Timothy pulled out his handkerchief and handed it over. �Well done. Take some rest before we launch the last strike.�

Noticing that the next round of strikes had not come from Timothy�s platoon, Garcia�s men were aware that the final battle was coming. The large platoon stopped marching and gathered slowly together into an assemblage. The outermost men held up the wooden spears.

Seeing their reaction, Timothy scoffed at it. �It is no more than the death struggle. Without any horses and armors, the flesh will never ward off the knightage of king�s city but end up in defeat. Whether Garcia was in the platoon will not change the result. Maybe she has run away long ago, leaving her army to buy her more time.�

But soon he found out that what he had thought was wrong.

Once again, the enemy raised the flag of the Queen of Clearwater, letting it fly in the wind. Timothy frowned as he caught sight of the sigil of a sailing ship and crown on the flag. Through the telescope, he watched the enemy. There was a blurred figure of a woman standing on a �stage that was made of some warriors. It seemed she was shouting something while raising her hands high. He could not see her face clearly but he recognized her gray hair.

It�s Garcia Wimbledon. Why doesn�t she run away?

Timothy took a deep breath. �Very well, in this fashion, the farce will be ended earlier here, saving me the trouble of marching to Port of Clearwater.�

The new king waited until the horses had enough rest before giving the order of a general offensive attack.

Under the leadership of the knightage of the king�s city, the 800 riders, which were made of knights and squires, started to march on the enemy. Frostwind Knight Naim Moor, still raced in the front like the tip of the blade.

When the knights were about to charge into the enemy, a large group of riders emerged on the horizon of the east and the west sides. Accompanied with their weird shriek and shout, they galloped all the way to the center of the battlefield.

Timothy widened his eyes in disbelief. �Who are these people?�

The troop that burst in had no flag or kamon, and was different from any forces in the kingdom. Watching through the telescope, Timothy found that most of them were without armor and equipped with various weapons. To Timothy�s knowledge, only one kind of people had the same sturdy figures and strange faces of theirs.

They were from Sand Nation in the Southernmost Region.

There was no need for him to guess which side they stood with. �Obviously, Garcia has struck a bargain with Sand Nation so that they�ll interfere with the game of the thrones of the Kingdom of Graycastle. Damn foreigners!� As Timothy was thinking about this his rage soared, he turned to shout, �Blow the horn. call the knights back!�

But it was too late for the galloping army to turn around easily. The knightage had rushed into Garcia�s platoon, piercing to where the Queen of Clearwater was standing like cutting through butter with a hot knife.

Timothy looked at the flying flag eagerly, hoping it would snap and fall down. �With the 1,000 soldiers from Sand Nation flanking on each side, the number of Garcia�s army is up to 5,000 men, which is beyond the number of my knights. Meanwhile, the soldier from Sand Nation, who is valiant and tough, will threaten the knightage enormously in the close battle. My only chance lies in the possibility that the knights could kill the leader of the enemy and bring down the flag.�

Yet the flagpole only shook a little and kept standing in the platoon.

Once the soldiers from Sand Nation had surrounded their enemy, they marched into the battlefield following the corridor cleared by the knightage.

If there were no reinforcements, Garcia�s 3,000 desperadoes would have scattered. Yet, the game had changed. They were holding out and swallowed the knights one by one, like a swamp.

The horn calling for the retreat was echoing in the battlefield. One after another, the knights were gathering towards Timothy. However, many men remained trapped within the confines of the enemy�s platoon, and Frostwind Knight was one of them.

He was panting with the effort to deal with a foreign warrior with a height of almost three meters that waved a giant stick to clear away the men around them. With the horse being killed under the bash of the stick, Naim now tried his best to dodge the strike. His extraordinary reaction and agility had helped him a lot, but yet the thick, heavy armor wore him out quickly. Finally, he tumbled at a dodge and was hit right in the chest by the flying stick. The hit was so hard that the plate caved in and the stick was broken into two parts.

The flying blue cloak fell slowly and disappeared in the crowd.

After an hour, the knights who were still standing had lessened. When Timothy saw that the soldiers from Sand Nation turned their eyes to where he was, he gritted his teeth and commanded the army to withdraw. The rest of army started to retreat to the north. After the battle, there were only 300 men left with the new king, considerably less than the large platoon that had started the war.

Since the end of the Months of Demons this year, the Western Region had multiple sunny days in a row, with only two rounds of rain. These nice days made up for the gloomy weather of the past winter. The musty smell in Roland�s office had gone. He was able to breathe fresh air now. Sometimes, he could even smell a pleasant, faint scent of flowers in the garden if he opened his window.

As the road between the town and Longsong Stronghold had restored its service by now, Roland started to pay particular attention to the development of the stronghold.

Based on what he had observed last year, he had expected that after the traffic was back to normal again, merchants from Longsong Stronghold would have come to Border Town to sell daily necessities. However, he had not seen a single merchant from the stronghold to this day. He ordered Lightning to patrol twice a day, as a way of making sure that the town would be well prepared when his enemy came.

In the recent week, the First Army had been busy with a comprehensive military manoeuver including defense line battling and field attack. The former was relatively easier, as the artillerymen and the Flintlock Squad only needed to act according to the signals given by Lightning. She would stay up in the sky to observe and would raise different flags to report the target distance to the soldiers when she spotted an enemy. After seeing different signals, the team leaders would give corresponding commands to their soldiers. They would shoot solid shells when the target distance was between 500 to 800 meters and grapeshots for enemy forces within 300 meters. If the enemy was less than 50 meters away from them, they would directly fire with flintlocks.

As for the field attack, it was a key part of Roland�s plan. It generally took three days to reach the town from Longsong Stronghold by land, so Roland calculated that his enemy would need the same amount of time to flee back to the stronghold when they were defeated. Even if the knights left all the militia and mercenary soldiers behind, they would still need at least two days to withdraw. That meant, they would have to spend at least one night camping in the wild. Roland planned to order the First Army to secretly follow the enemy on foot and take this chance to launch a surprise attack at them. He would let Lightning monitor the whole process, in case that the First Army got too close to alert the enemy. Meanwhile, cannons and ammunition would be transported by the Littletown. The first army soldiers would surround the enemy�s battalion at night after they pitched their tents, and the next morning, his soldier would besiege and crush the enemy.

It was not a complicated plan, but without radio communication, it was almost impossible to oversee the situation where his army had to be divided into two parts to besiege the enemy. Roland had to put a witch in his plan to make up for the communication inconvenience, but he was still not fully confident about this arrangement.

Another problem that he faced was the low reserves of gunpowder. Given that, the recent comprehensive military exercise did not shoot live ammunition. Instead, the maneuver just focused on training combined actions of the Flintlock Squad and the Artillery Squad and coordination between the witch and the First Army. Roland had sent people to farther Fallen Dragon Ridge and Redwater City, hoping to find more saltpeter suppliers. If he failed to replenish the gunpowder stock for the First Army in time, the soldiers could only use the flintlocks as spears after two more battles.

Roland wrote down his new purchasing plan on a paper, which included saltpeter, grains and seeds. He intended to ask Barov to send one of his apprentices to the king�s city of the Kingdom of Graycastle, as there were plenty of goods, especially saltpeter. Summer was near, the niter plant of the king�s city must be in full operation now, as nobles and wealthy merchants there would consume a huge amount of saltpeter in hot weather. Roland hoped that he could find a long-term supplier who could constantly purvey this gunpowder material for Border Town.

Before this, he had already sent two of his guards to implement two plans respectively, which were �Calling for Witches� and �Seeking Seeds�. One guard under the guise of a traveler or a merchant went to spread the rumor that Border Town was calling for witches in streets, taverns and black markets. Of course, he would not say that Prince Roland was accepting witches. He would say it was the Witch Cooperation Association who finally found Holy Mountain and welcomed witches to join. The other guard went directly to Port of Clearwater to buy seeds of extraordinary plants from the Fjords. If he found some other rare crops, he would also bring the plants and their seeds back to Border Town.

Roland gave Scroll the purchasing list he made and asked her to give it to Barov in the City Hall. When Scroll left, he stretched out to relax and wanted to drink some water, but found his cup was empty.

When he was to rise and get the kettle, Nightingale had already brought it to him. With a smile on her face, she stood in front of his desk to fill his cup and then put the kettle back.

Roland took a sip slowly, feeling really puzzled. �Nightingale�s attitude has somehow changed. She smiles at me a lot and now even voluntarily serves as a tea girl. Is she suggesting a pay rise to me? She used to sit on the couch and spend the whole afternoon eating her dried fish.�

Roland had asked Nightingale about her change, but instead of answering him, she had only given him a smile. After that, Roland just let her do what she wanted.

An idea suddenly struck him. �Is it because of Gwent? If it can really attract and please the people of this era that much, I should build a Chess & Card center offering poker games and mahjong later. It�ll definitely bring me considerable profits� No, stop. It�s not the time to enjoy my life yet.� Roland shook his head to banish those thoughts and focused on what he was going to do after he seized the stronghold.

He had thought for a long time whether he needed to relocate to Longsong Stronghold. Moving the capital to a more prosperous place seemed very enticing, but might not be a good choice in this case. Unlike Border Town, the stronghold had a history of over 100 years. There were many nobles, making the situation quite complicated. In a feudal system, each domain was controlled by its own lord. Under such circumstances, even the lord of the stronghold could hardly have a say in the domains of his subordinate nobles. If Roland wanted to make the stronghold his own, he needed a radical revolution. He thought he had better not move to the stronghold where fish swam with dragons and where he could not even guarantee his own safety. He did not want to get shot by arrows in the back when he was taking a walk on a street there.

Border Town, however, was completely under his own control. It also offered him a vast territory, saving him the trouble of expanding his domain. Most residents of the town were miners and hunters, making the situation quite simple. With his success during the Months of Demons, he had won wide recognition among the people here. More importantly, most of his subjects had already accepted the witches due to the propaganda of the First Army. Compared with Longsong Stronghold and the other cities which were heavily influenced by the church, it was easier for him to develop the town into a home for both ordinary people and witches. After careful consideration, Roland decided to make Border Town the central area of his domain.

As for the stronghold, he could appoint an agent and let him manage the place for him, as long as the agent could offer him workforce and taxes that he needed most right now.

Roland had an initial plan to use Longsong Stronghold�s wealth to hire its people for the development of Border Town. He conceived to return the gold royals he got from the defeated nobles to the people of the stronghold, and then he would collect taxes through the stronghold government and spend them again. Besides, he also decided to carry out some favorable policies to attract people with desired skills to settle down in Border Town.

That was a general frame of his plan. He would not have time to consider the details of the plan, such as how to appoint and supervise an agent, and how to make specific tax policies, until the end of the upcoming battle.

At the moment, a golden figure dashed into the room through the window and landed steadily in front of the prince�s desk. That was Lightning.

�Drink some water first,� Roland gave her a cup of water and said. Lightning picked up the cup but did not have the time to drink. She hurriedly reported to Roland, �Your Highness, they�re coming!�

The alliance army from the stronghold was marching steadily toward Border Town

A knightage formed by the knights from the six big families of the stronghold was leading the army. Inequality of power among the families could easily be seen from the armors and outfits of their knights. Duke Ryan�s knights were certainly the most eye-catching ones. With a significant air, they all rode on short-tailed horses imported from the king�s city. These horses were good at long-distance races and looked much taller and stronger than the other ones. The knights wore unified, shinning armors that were specially made by �Hammer and Dragon Tooth� Blacksmith�s shop. A huge lion head was carved into the thick chest armor and a wolf head into each shoulder armor. The lifelike animal heads seemed to be roaring with their mouths wide open. There were also fine patterns on their cloaks and red silk belts around their waists.

Duke Ryan�s knights did not only have the look. Each of them had indeed accumulated lots of battling experiences. They had to wipe out the remaining demonic beasts out of the city every year after the Months of Demons, as a way of ensuring smooth land traffic. In terms of personal fighting skills, they were as good as the members of the knightage of the king�s city. They were only less in number, compared with the king�s knightage. However, for a duke, it was already a huge expenditure to support such an elite knightage of 150 members.

Looking at this elite troop, Duke Ryan was satisfied and absolutely confident that with them, and he would be invincible in the Western Region.

The mercenary fighters were walking casually behind the knightage. They were poorly equipped compared with the knights. Most of them wore old and incomplete chain mails or plate armors. Some had no hand protectors and some no helmets. They carried various kinds of weapons, walking and laughing loudly in groups of two or three. They seemed to be going for a spring outing instead of a battle.

Some free civilians were also press-ganged into the army by the lord. They were plodding on slowly after the mercenary fighters, dragging single-wheel carts filled with foods and tent parts. Due to the speed differences, this army of 1,500 people marched in a really long procession. The knights in the front of the line had to stop every now and then to wait for the troops behind them.

�My lord,� Hirte Medde, Earl of the Elk Family, pulled the rein to catch up with the duke and said, �We�re going to arrive at Border Town in less than half a day. If things go smoothly, we�ll get there at 4 p.m. Are we going to rest for a night and reorganize the army for the battle next morning or directly launch an attack against the lord�s castle?�

�Do you want to sleep in the wild again?� The duke smiled and said, �Tonight, we should lie in beds in the castle instead of the damp earth. Of course, as a courtesy to a royal prince, I�ll send a messenger to persuade him first when we arrive at Border Town.�

Earl Honeysuckle who was slightly ahead of them, turned around to join the discussion. �Our knights have been traveling all day. They and their horses are both tired now. Is it appropriate to launch an attack under such circumstances? We�d better be careful. After all, Roland Wimbledon successfully survived the Months of Demons with just his miners.�

�Hah-hah, my old friend. I don�t know others, but even you don�t know the demonic beasts? They�re indeed dreadful opponents in the wild, as they�re incredibly fast and powerful, but they�ll become easy targets when they�re blocked out by a city wall. Demonic beasts are just beasts after all.� Hearing this, the Earl of the Elk Family shrugged and added, �Yes, I agree. Though the prince really surprised me by building a city wall so fast, my knights are not dumb beasts who�ll be stopped by a wall.�

�Exactly, and I�ve received a piece of news from the north. Hermes nearly fell into ruins, as a huge amount of demonic hybrid beasts attacked Holy City this year for some unknown reason. That means, most of the demonic beasts aimed at Hermes, and only a few of them came to the Western Region,� Duke Ryan said casually.

After the Western Region was under his total control, he did not want to confine himself to this remote area anymore. He placed informants who constantly provided him with the most recent news in all the major cities and towns. For him, the bloody battles against demonic beasts in the Northern Region were not as important as another war depicted in a secret report from Palisade City. According to the report, Timothy, the new king, and Garcia, Queen of Clearwater had already fought a fierce battle in Eagle City, but based on the previous information he had got, Timothy�s army should arrive at Eagle City a month later.

The report did not mention the process of the war, but described the situation of Timothy and that of Eagle City when the new king had retreated from Palisade City. Timothy who had led an army of thousands of people to the war had left the city with only a few of his soldiers. He had not even been able to block roads again. At the same time, Eagle City had been caught in the fire. Raging flames had lit up the sky, and black smoke sprang up to reach the clouds. The residents of the surrounding cities and towns had all witnessed the scene.

No matter whether the Queen of Clearwater had survived the war or not, Timothy had apparently suffered a heavy loss and a great shock. Stirred by the news, on the same day he had received the secret report, Duke Ryan had sent out his trusted men to the king�s city and the Eastern Region, hoping to find out the current situation of Timothy. If this war between the new king and the Queen of Clearwater truly shattered the Timothy regime, he would not hesitate to add fuel to the fire.

This was definitely the best chance for him to declare independence and become a king himself. The Northern Region had seen many of its soldiers buried near the Holy City during the fighting against demonic beasts. The south needed time to recuperate after the recent war. As for the Eastern Region and the king�s city, if what the secret report had said was true, Timothy would also need several years to recover. At this moment, if he could conquer the Northern Region and draw some nobles over to join his side, he would be able to split Kingdom of Graycastle. When that happened, he was going to build his own kingdom which would be as large and populous as Kingdom of Everwinter in the north and be able to compete with the remaining Southern and Eastern Regions of Kingdom of Graycastle.

As to him, Osmond Ryan, would become the first king of this new kingdom.

The duke smiled in satisfaction at this thought. He hoped that he could end this farce quickly today and head home tomorrow, bringing the prince as a captive. With any luck, he would be able to receive good news from his informants in his own castle three days later.

When the sun was almost sinking down into the mountains, Ryan saw a vague silhouette of Border Town� and a dense crowd of people outside it.

�Father and Your Grace, those people seem to be Prince Roland�s guards with weapons in their hands. It doesn�t look like a welcome.� Rene Medde who was in charge of guiding the army in the front hurried back and reported.

�It�s good, at least we don�t have to go to the castle to invite him out,� Earl of the Elk Family said while smiling, �Tell the knights to slow down. We still have a long way to go before the charge.�

�Yes, father.� Rene received the order and left.

Duke Ryan raised a telescope in front of his eye to look at the princes� guards. They were in a strange formation, standing densely in two rows and carrying weird weapons in their hands. Those weapons looked like pikes without pointed metalheads and their handles seemed too short. It just did not make sense to the duke that the prince arranged his guards in this formation. Such a thin, weak defense line would be easily broken through when knights charged toward it.

Seeing that, the duke thought in bewilderment, �Even if the prince has no military knowledge, why did his knights and guards just let him mess things up?� In order to make sure what the prince was planning, the duke decided after a thought to order the mercenary fighters to charge in the beginning of the battle, and the knights to wait for order in the charge distance.

As he had promised before, he needed to send a messenger to persuade Roland first. Duke Ryan sent for a guard and said to him, �You go to tell the prince that I don�t mean to hurt him. It�s only the order from King Timothy Wimbledon. If he surrenders to me now, he won�t be harmed. I�ll escort him back to King�s City.�

It took time for a large army to assemble. When the knights were taking up their positions one after another on both sides, the mercenary fighters were still slowly heading for the center of front line. Right at the moment, four flashes of flame dazed Duke Ryan�s eyes, and green smokes rose up after those transitory bright flames. The duke frowned at this scene, thinking he must be deceived by his eyes. He was about to pick up the telescope to look again when there came a series of loud bangs that sounded like thunders.

Van�er immediately saw those well-equipped knights in shiny armors riding on tall horses and steadily moving toward the town when the distant enemy first came into his sight. He gasped at the sight of this scene. There was a knight in the town, who always looked down upon people like him, and now here came nearly a hundred of them.

Van�er felt that his hands started to sweat again, just like what had happened to him when he had stood on top of the city wall fighting against demonic beasts for the first time. This time, he thought that he and his enemy, the noble alliance army of Longsong Stronghold, were at least of his own species.

�No, my own species? When did those nobles treat you as an equal?� He spat and mocked himself internally and put those thoughts behind. The Stronghold Coalition came here to capture Border Town and control the North Slope Mine area again. More importantly, they even claimed to banish His Highness from the Western Region. That was totally unacceptable for all soldiers of the First Army.

The soldiers knew from a pre-battle speech made by His Highness yesterday that Timothy Wimbledon, an elder brother of His Highness, had killed King Wimbledon III, the late king, and had seized the throne through scheme and tricks. Van�er usually cared nothing about nobles� plotting against each other, as he believed it made no difference to him no matter who was the king. However, he thought Duke Ryan who coveted the domain of His Highness in the current disruption was really way out of line.

Van�er had witnessed lots of positive changes that His Highness had brought to the town since he had become the lord here. He also clearly remembered the previous lord, who seemed to be an earl. People in the town had seldom seen him except when he had come out to buy furs with his guards. He had often purchased best quality furs from hunters at low prices and had always been the first one to flee in Months of Demons, leaving all his subjects in the slums of the stronghold. He had never concerned about the sufferings of people.

His Highness was different. Under his governance, the life of the town was obviously getting better for all the locals. The miners could be paid more for more work. His Highness had installed a black machine into the mine of Northern Slope to boost production, but he still attributed the extra output to the miners and increased their personal incomes. The locals of the town, who took part in building city wall or crushing stones in the mine, were all paid timely. No one was starved or froze to death this winter.

The biggest change in the town was the Militia, now called the First Army. Protected by soldiers, the locals of the town did not have to huddle up in their cold wooden sheds and beg big shots for food in winter. Van�er asked himself secretly, �If the prince is banished, will the Duke allow the First Army to exist?�

He took a deep breath and wiped his hand sweats with his clothes while thinking. �No, he won�t. The nobles of the stronghold won�t give a damn about people of the town. Just like what His Highness has said, only an army of people will fight for people.�

He lifted his head to look up to the left and saw a black point hovering up in the sky. It could be easily mistaken as a big-headed bird, but actually, it was the firing commander of the artillery squad, Lightning. She flew in the sky to investigate the enemy�s movements while well covering herself with trees on both sides of the main road. When she flew back, Van�er noticed that the treetops overhead indeed made it impossible for the people below to see her. That meant, if the witch did not fly to an open place by herself, all the enemy could see were branches of trees when they looked up.

15 minutes ago, Lightning had flown close to Border Town�s defense line to show them a green ribbon.

Seeing it, Van�er knew at once that the enemy was within 1,000 meters. Now he must immediately command their artillerymen to get ready for firing. In fact, Van�er did not know how long �1,000 meters� was. He only gave orders based on the rules he had learned during the maneuver. He quickly shouted out the correct order, instructing the team to reload cannons and correct angles.

Four mortar teams quickly switched angles of cannons to the third gear and filled the bores with gunpowder and solid shells, thus finishing the whole preparation process.

After that, Van�er still felt nervous. His heart had been palpitating all the time since the moment the army had assembled in the afternoon. He had considered himself an experienced leader, as he had fought against demonic beasts on top of the city wall, but today he found that he had still a long way to go before becoming a good team leader like Iron Axe or Brian. Both of them had calmly led their teams to the shooting positions, and he had even sensed a tinge of excitement from Brian�s voice just now when he had been giving orders. Even his buddy, Rodney seemed to be better than him. That made him feel a little depressed.

He licked his dry lips and started to search for Lightning again.

At the moment, the enemy forces suddenly slowed down.

�What�re they doing?� Rodney asked.

�I don�t know.� Cat�s Claw widened his eyes to look at the enemy. �They seem to be adjusting the formation, and their people look quite messy.�

�They�re waiting for the troops behind,� Jop said with a shaking voice. �Knights won�t fight alone. They�re certainly followed by a large number of people.�

�Oh? How do you know that?� Nelson twitched his mouth and asked.

�I�ve seen it. One knight will take at least two squires and a dozen serfs who carry food,� Jop said while counting on his fingers, �You see, a Duke of Longsong Stronghold must have at least 100 knights. He has at least 300 people who can fight on horseback other than the earls, viscounts in the stronghold�There�re even more! And they�ve hired many mercenary fighters. Those guys are cold-blooded, professional killers! But there�re only 300 of us.�

�Nearly 300 of us.� Van�er corrected him silently in his heart, but he actually felt better knowing that someone was even more nervous than him. Only about 270 soldiers of the Flintlock Squad were equipped with weapons, due to the insufficient production capacity, a phrase said by His Highness. As a result, the Flintlock Squad soldiers without guns were relocated in the mortar teams to carry ammunition for the four cannons.

�The mercenary fighters, they�re coming!� Jop said in a low voice.

Van�er looked up and saw a group of people dressed in various clothes gradually taking the central position in the enemy�s formation. They did not ride horses or march in lines. In groups of two or three, they gathered in the center. The knights were moving to the sides, leaving the central space for them. In less than 10 minutes, the alliance army of the duke�s had gotten much closer to him again.

In a sudden, a knight rapidly galloped out of the army and headed to Border Town. Van�er�s heart skipped a beat at the sight. He almost shouted out the firing order.

�What�s he going to do?� Confused as he was, he looked up but still could not see Lightning. The knight was getting closer and closer while waving a white flag in his hand.

�He�s the messenger of the duke. He�s probably coming to persuade us to surrender,� Jop mumbled.

�That�s none of our business,� Rodney said and then squatted down behind the cannon to align his eye with the central line of the cannon barrel. �Sir, the cannon needs to be readjusted, as most of the knights have already left the central part.�

The soldiers were taught repeatedly during the maneuver when they had conducted solid shell practices that a shell�s point of fall was in line with the cannon barrel. Given that, if they wanted to hit their target, they needed to adjust the cannon barrel until its central line aligned with the target. Five soldiers worked together to move the canon�s carriage a little, so as to aim precisely at the knights in the front of the alliance army again.

The messenger arrived and was brought by His Excellency Carter to the back of the defense line, but Van�er knew clearly that it was only a waste of time, as His Highness would never surrender to the duke.

Right at the moment, Lightning put on a burst of speed, flying toward the town with a yellow ribbon in hand.

The yellow ribbon flapping in the wind indicated that the enemies were within 800 meters. At this distance, they were able to hit targets with solid shells from the cannons. At the meantime, the mortar teams could fire freely as long as the captain of artillerymen did not forbid it.

Seeing the signal, Van�er�s team members all looked at him. He nodded, took a deep breath and then ordered, �Fire!�

Due to limited physical strength, horses carrying knights could only maintain a high-speed in a short time. As a general rule, in a charge, the knights would let their horses trot first when the enemy was around 800 to 1,000 meters away. They would speed up once the distance was shortened to 500 meters and sprint for the last 200 meters.

Theoretically, the shooting range of a 12-pound Napoleon cannon was 1,300 meters for solid shells, but the cannons designed and made by Roland tended to miss targets over 1,000 meters away, which might result from a small ratio of the barrel caliber to the barrel length. To ensure a high hit ratio, he made it a rule that artillerymen could only fire when an enemy was within 800 meters. In this way, shells would also be very destructive especially to a crowd of enemies as they would bounce forward on the ground after landing.

As Duke Ryan had ordered mercenary fighters to charge first, all the knights were standing by in a charge distance. This was usually a distance of absolute safety, as the enemy�s arrows could never shoot that far. Meanwhile this distance also gave knights enough space to speed up their horses step by step during a charge. The slow assembling of mercenary fighters made the knights hold their horses to wait in their positions. In this way, they became easy, fixed targets for the mortar teams.

By now, the duke�s army had already unknowingly stepped on Roland�s planned battleground. They could only see a flat, wide main road in the middle, with green grasslands on both sides, but those seemingly ordinary grasslands were actually full of plants grown by Leaf for special purposes. Hidden in the knee-high grasses, stout vines worked as heel ropes to prevent the knights from swiftly outflanking the First Army from the sides. Within 1,000 meters on this battleground, there were distances marks left by Soraya, which were also invisible to the people on the ground. Up in the sky, however, Lightning could clearly see that the battlefield was split into segments by different color marks. Each colored mark represented a certain distance from the defense line. From above, the enemies seemed to march on a straight ruler. That saved the Artillery Squad the trouble of calculating and correcting angles by themselves before firing. They just needed to act according to steps that they had learned in their previous manoeuver.

Van�er�s team was the first to fire their 12-pound cannon at the enemies.

A gust of air caused by the explosion of gunpowder sent a shell out of the barrel and flying at a speed of over 400 meters per second in the air. In the blink of an eye, it struck the ground with a whistling sound. It passed between two knights and finally fell into the grassland aside. The earth and crushed stones flying in all directions startled the horses. One of the knights had even fallen down from his horse before realizing what had happened.

Two following shells also missed their targets. They only created more dust and dirt springing up into the air.

In the first round of firing, only the fourth shot of the four cannons turned out to be lucky. There had been nothing in front of the iron ball, but then an unlucky knight happened to step into the area where the shell struck. His armors were of no use facing a high-speed iron ball. It broke the thin layer of iron and went through his body. After that, it bounced on the ground, hit and broke another knight�s calf and then cut open his horse�s tummy. The inner organs of the horse poured all over the ground.

The artillerymen would have to readjust for the next round of firing, if the knightage were accelerating their horses. However, the sudden strike apparently shocked the duke�s alliance army. The knights did not receive any order to attack and still stayed in their positions, trying to calm down their frightened mounts. They did not know where those iron balls came from and how they came, as naked eyes could hardly observe objects flying at such a high speed.

Van�er�s team reloaded the cannon as fast as they could to start the second round of shooting.

Hot weapon attacks were more than what flesh and blood could bear. Even rubbing against a fast-moving iron ball could severely injure a human body. The knight hit directly by the shell was blown to bits. His blood gushed out, forming clusters of blood mist in the air. The soldiers of the alliance army could only catch a glimpse of a black item when it bounced on the ground. It looked like a black ghost slaughtering their comrades.

After the two rounds of attack, the duke finally linked pieces together. He sank into thought. �The flames and the loud sounds must have something to do with the sudden strikes. The enemy forces seem to have some incredible weapons that shoot much farther than crossbow bolts. They may have the same firing range as mangonels of the stronghold.� At this thought, the duke gave the knights the order to charge by having a soldier blow a horn, as he believed that weapons for long-range strikes would not work once the distance was shortened.

Hearing the horn, the knights reacted quite differently. Some of them followed the order and quickened their pace, heading for the town. Some were still trying everything to calm down their mounts. A small number of them were even retreating at the moment. The mercenary fighters rushed toward the sides where the knights stood, making the formation in utter disorder.

Seeing the knights taking their positions on the main road and getting ready to charge, mortar teams stirred at once. Apart from cleaning bores and reloading cannons, this time, they needed to move the cannon carriages again, as they saw a red ribbon in Lightning�s hand when she returned to the sky above the defense line.

A red signal meant that the enemy forces were only 500 meters away. That was the cannons� point-blank range. At this distance, they had an 80% hit rate.

Van�er cried out, �Remain flat! Be quick, fire, fire!�

He did not even stop to look at the situation of the enemy when deafening noises of explosion died down. Instead, he directly turned around and shouted to the soldiers in charge of distributing ammunition. �Grapeshot! Give me grapeshot!�

During artillery training, His Highness had emphasized many times that once they saw red signals, they must reload their cannons with grapeshot and fire at the enemy forces when they were within 300 meters. His Highness had also reminded them that they must shoot out all the solid shells in the bore first before reloading grapeshot if their cannon was not empty.

Looking like an iron can on the outside, grapeshot was a cylinder stuffed with small iron balls and sawdust. Before the soldiers put the grapeshot in the bore, they needed to reload gunpowder and stuff a thin, wooden board inside the barrel, as grapeshot�s diameter was smaller than that of the bore.

The moment Lightning raised a purple signal, four cannons fired all at once.

This was the first time for Van�er to shoot real grapeshot. The artillerymen including him had only received training without ignition because His Highness said that it was difficult to collect and reuse grapeshot. Today, he witnessed how destructive it could be for the first time.

After the grapeshot flew out of the muzzle, its iron container violently broke open due to huge pressure differences. The iron balls inside rained on the knights within 300 meters like a downpour. Blood gushed out of the knights and their horses. The grapeshot shot down a crowd of enemies as easily as reaping wheat. Some iron balls could even maintain a high speed after they went through a human body. When that happened, even hiding behind someone else could not save a knight�s life.

There were still some lucky knights who escaped the iron ball shower and came to the sprint distance. They all lowered their upper bodies and rode forward at the highest speed, with only one thought in mind, which was breaking the weak defense line and killing the cowards who had been hiding behind it and operating those vicious weapons all the time. At their current speed, the knights only need less than two minutes to finish this 150-meter sprint.

However, it turned to be extremely hard for them to complete this short distance of 150 meters. The last round of grapeshot firing totally destroyed their will to fight. Within 100 meters, the undeformed, high-speed iron balls could go through two to three people at once. A cone-shaped area in front of each muzzle now was a realm of death. Each of the fastest 20 knights ended up dead. The only difference was how many shots he had got before he fell down.

The knightage collapsed.

Nothing could save this routed troop now. The frightened knights in the back of the troop pulled their horses, trying to flee the field.

Seeing the knights escaping, mercenary fighters would naturally refuse to move any step forward. They did risk their lives in battles for money but they never defy death. Now it was apparently the time to flee, and they were running much faster than they had when they had come to the battle.

The panic quickly struck the whole of Duke Ryan�s army, making the situation out of control. Soldiers pushed their way to flee the battleground. Those people who were knocked down on the ground were stamped to death. Everyone was too busy running away to attend to others, wishing they could grow two extra legs.

At the same time, Guerillas� Song rang on the battleground. Borden Town�s infantry marched out in lines to clean the field.

This was the first time for Carter Lannis to see such a battle.

A large team composed of 300 knights was already devasted without even scratching the edge of their defense line.

Even at the end, they were not able to enter the 50-meter zone. Prince Roland marked it as the Flintlock Squad shooting line. Everyone was only allowed to fire when the enemy crossed the 50-meter line.

The four cannons forced the enemies to dwell at the 100-meter line mark. In the zone between 100 meters to 150 meters, there were about 20 corpses lying on the ground, who, just like Carter, were all skillful knights. Had they not of been skillful knights, they would not have been able to advance at high speed on their horse among the blistering gunfire.

Carter was glad that he was not one of those sacrificed knights. He vaguely felt that the wars in the future would be distinctly different than the ones before. Roland Wimbledon, who held such formidable power, would inherit the throne sooner or later.

Some men of the First Army were experiencing dizziness and nausea after seeing such horrifying battle scenes. Since it was not close combat, the impact of killing enemies with cannon would be much less than killing enemies with their own hands. Therefore, the reactions were not too severe. Carter picked a group of hunters who used to see blood and stumps, and ordered them to collect the corpses and search for any surviving men.

The sun gradually fell into the mountains and Carter stared at the bloodred sky, listening to the humming of crows from the faraway woods. He suddenly felt a sense of forlornness.

The era of the knight was over.

�

Duke Ryan was still in a state of bafflement.

He could not understand how they lost. That defense line seemed so vulnerable as if it would be penetrated by one light stab. However, the knights fled as though they had seen demons. He could not even blame the others because the ones in the forefront of the troop were his most elite knights.

The guards chopped down several people to divert the swarming mercenaries from the duke�s location. However, that was all he could do. No matter how he shouted, he could not control his deviated subordinates. Without any choice, Duke Ryan had to retreat about 10 miles with the crowd.

Once night had fallen, the duke chose a place near the river to set up base camp. The separated knights and mercenaries approached under torchlight. There were still many lost members and the worst part was that the freedmen left carts and food when they retreated. The duke and the other members had to kill a couple of horses for food.

In the largest tent, the nobles from five prominent families gathered together. They looked at Duke Ryan with ghastly pale faces. Duke Ryan was carrying a solemn expression himself.

�Who can tell me what weapon they�re using? The distance was farther than crossbow bolts could reach, but it was unlike the mangonel from which we could see the stones being tossed.� He glanced at Rene Medde. �You were moving in the front line, did you see anything?�

�My lord, I, I�m not so sure,� Rene answered, holding his head, �I could only hear the gunfire, and then the knights collapsed group by group. Especially the last fire, it looked like the knight who was racing at the forefront bumped into an invisible wall. I saw his body shaking, and his head and limbs were scattered, just like�� He thought for a moment. �An egg that was thrown off from the top of the castle.�

�Perhaps it was witches?� the Earl of the Elk Family mumbled.

�Impossible.� The Duke frowned. �All my knights were wearing the God�s Stone of Retaliation. Witches won�t be able to hurt them. You�ve played with witches before. They�re like ordinary girls in front of the God�s Stone.�

�Oh, yes, my lord.� Rene suddenly recalled something. �After hearing that loud noise, I saw that they had a few carts in their troop. There were big iron tubes on the cart, and I could see red lights and smoke rising from it.�

�Iron tubes? Red lights and smoke? Isn�t that a ceremonial barrel?� the Earl of the Elk Family questioned.

The duke, of course, knew what a ceremonial barrel was. It was often used in huge ceremonies for nobles in the king�s city. Now the lord of every district would have a couple for spare use. He had a couple of barrels in his castle. It would blast after putting in snow powder. However, its noise was incomparable to the thundering roar he heard today.

�Ceremonial barrels won�t split knights into pieces,� Honeysuckle Earl said, �and no matter what weapon the prince used, we�ve already lost the war. What shall we do next?�

Duke Ryan glanced at him with displeasure. The word �lose� sounded ear-piercing to him. �We�ve not lost yet.� He strengthened. �One battle wouldn�t alter the result. Once we get back to the stronghold, I can summon another troop and at the same time terminate the business on the Redwater River. Without food, Border Town won�t last for a month. As soon as he brings those peasants out, my knights will devastate and flank him from the back.�

�Victory will belong to me,� he thought. However, �The loss that has been suffered isn�t comparable to a small town� It�ll be impossible to reconquer the Northern Territory. Damn it! If I caught Roland Wimbledon, I�d cut him into pieces.�

�But my lord, the ship on Redwater River was not only from Longsong Stronghold but also from Willow Town, Fallen Dragon Ridge, and Redwater City. If we terminate them all, would we�� Honeysuckle Earl hesitated.

�I�ll buy it all. Nothing matters as long as I pay the money,� the duke said coldly, �You shall all return to your tent and rest. We�ll depart at dawn. Knights with horses shall come with us. The ones without horses will stay back to lead the mercenaries.�

They could not march at night. Even if Prince Roland wanted to pursue and attack, he would have to wait until dawn. The prince would first encounter the mercenaries that moved behind his group. He thought, �Even if these useless ones collapsed quickly, it would at least buy some time for me.�

The next morning, the duke did not receive any news to indicate that the prince would pursue. To confirm this information, the duke sent out his trusted followers to enlarge the investigation zone. They all returned with the same information. This was a great relief to him. Perhaps those new weapons were cumbersome to move like the mangonel and could only be used in defensive battles. Prince Roland would not act carelessly by relying on a bunch of miners.

At three o�clock in the afternoon, the duke ordered the knights to stop the march and to wait for the others to follow them. The mercenaries and freedmen were only able to catch up with the knights at dusk. The crowded fumbled and made an area for base camp.

The duke would reach Longsong Stronghold after surviving through the night. The 10 meters city wall was like the natural moat to the hundreds of person troop. Even if Roland had the new weapon that could shoot over a long range, the duke would retaliate with the mangonel from the wall. It was the time for the duke to retaliate.

However, all day long, Duke Ryan felt as if he was being watched, which made him a little comfortable.

�Perhaps it�s just a delusion, I�m too nervous,� the duke thought

The next day at dawn, the duke was awoken by the roars of gunfire.

He rushed out of the tent and found that everyone was fleeing. There was splattering dirt and blood everywhere. The duke looked to the west side and saw that the �Militia� that was wearing leather armor was in a straight line and standing outside of the camp. In the deafening roars of gunfire, The duke had only one thought in his mind�how did they catch up with them?

Why did not the knights find those pursuers yesterday!?

�My lord, we have to run!� the guard brought a horse and shouted.

Osmond Ryan finally came to reality from his bewilderment. He jumped onto the horse and ran to the east with the guards. However, they encountered another troop soon after they left the camp.

Wearing the same leather armors and holding weird truncheons in their hands, they neatly lined up and even wore the same the expression.

Soon, the duke heard rhythmic sounds from the opposite side. With orderly pace, Prince Roland�s troop marched toward him.

Roland ordered the First Army to practice at least twice a week, but they never tried to march at night.

Marching at night would be dangerous. They would be easily attacked by wild beasts and snakes without being able to see the road clearly. Besides, it would be easy to lose bearing and get lost, while torchlight would attract wild beasts. That was why Roland had to wait until the next day at dawn to have the troop march and follow the duke�s army.

To ensure the success of this plan, Prince Roland decided to follow the First Army in person. Of course, he chose to stay on the Littletown instead of ridding horses on bumpy roads.

After a half month of training, Hummingbird could already stabilize timing for light fraction conversion of the 12-pound cannon. Considering a longer enchantment process, Roland ordered Hummingbird to convert the cannons at dawn. He hoped that the first cannon would take the longest time for conversion and the time would gradually lessen with each subsequent cannon.

Benefitting from Hummingbird�s ability, the Littletown could load four cannons and all the mortar team members on a trip. The large concrete boat was occupied by people, besides the cannon team and Roland, the rest of the members on the boat were Anna, Nightingale, Nana, Leaf, Echo, Hummingbird, Tigui Pine and Wendy who was responsible for providing the power along with Brian who was working as the captain.

It could be said that except those not good at combat such as Scroll, Soraya, Lily and Mystery Moon, almost all the witches in Border Town participated in. Initially, Anna did not need to fight on the battlefield. However, Roland could not refuse when he saw the determination in Anna�s eyes.

The land army was the flintlock troop of the First Army and was directed by the Chief Knight Carter and Iron Axe. Lightning took responsibility for locating and tracking. The group of people quietly followed the enemies. Their distance was outside of the investigation zone of the enemy�s scouts. Once Lightning found any activities of the scouts, the troop would stop marching. They captured many lost mercenaries and freedmen along the way. However, they could not deal with these surrendered enemies and so Roland had them disarmed and brought them along.

It was the first time that Roland had led �a huge army� to conquer the enemy. Standing at the front of the Littletown and feeling the wind that was blowing on his face, Roland felt quite motivated.

�What makes you so happy?� Anna suddenly appeared beside him and asked.

�Umm�� Roland took back his smile. �Nothing at all.�

�Really?� Anna handed her handkerchief to Roland. �Wipe your saliva.�

��� Roland suddenly felt a compulsion to jump into a river. �Thanks.�

It was already sunset when Lightning reported that the enemy had set up its base camp. Compared with the relentless investigations when coming, the Coalition was demoralized heavily after such a total defeat. The moment it was just sunset, the scouting knights ran back to the camp, afraid to miss the horse meat at night.

Roland�s troop camped beside the lake two kilometers away from the duke�s army.

They were not discovered so the annihilation plan was already halfway successful.

Next, they only had to wait to besiege the enemy before their departure.

This was the first time that Roland had camped overnight in the wild. Compared with the camp that was full of insects, he would rather choose to sleep on the boat. The wooden shed where cannons were placed was emptied and the members of the mortar team took the 12-pound cannons off to rest in the camp. The Littletown became the temporary palace for the prince. Except Roland, all the other witches would also sleep over on the boat. Everyone covered the tent with blankets and lay down side by side.

Roland wanted to avoid the situation. However, he found that the witches paid no attention at all. Except Anna, they had all experienced some degree of hardship. In the days of wandering, it was normal to spend a night in the wilderness. Soon, everyone fell asleep except Roland and Anna who found themselves sleepless. The former was because he was used to a soft bed and was unaccustomed to a hard bunk bed, but the latter with her unknown thoughts, was staring at Roland. Every time the prince turned his head, Anna would close her eyes immediately and pretend that she was asleep. However, against the moonlight, her eyelashes were shaking slightly. If Roland was not afraid to disturb the others, he really wanted to pinch Anna�s small nose, force her to open her eyes and hug her in his arms.

It was a sleepless night for both of them.

It was not yet dawn, but Roland had already started his annihilation plan. 270 infantries with flintlocks would be separated into two teams. One of the teams would take two cannons to the back side of the duke�s army through the Littletown and finish the defense line from one kilometer away. Lightning was responsible for monitoring the movements of the duke. After the cannons were set up, she would make signals and the other team led by Carter which would launch an attack from the front.

The unified transportation by concrete boat avoided the possibility of separation. After Nightingale went into the Mist, her black and white view could be used as a night vision appliance. As the pilot, she could help the Littletown to sail at night.

After they practiced the process many times, everyone knew their responsibilities very well. Wendy boosted the wind power so that the Littletown was able to transport all the members to the back side smoothly. After two hours, the interception team led by Iron Axe was all set. Then Lightning flew to the top of Carter�s camp and showed an orange flag.

It was just dawn.

The annihilation plan had just begun.

Because Echo was assigned to the back side, the members of the flintlock team who were assigned to attack in the front did not need to move. All they had to do was to line up and protect the two cannons. The 12-pound cannons were pushed onto the battlefield and were fired toward the enemy�s camp. At this time, the duke�s army was still asleep.

With the roaring noise of cannons, the solid shells went straight to the enemy�s camp. The knights and mercenaries, who just now realized the situation, rushed out of the tents but to find that the First Army had already lined up and was waiting. With the previous disastrous experience, no one dared to challenge this seemingly weak defensive line and all fled to the east.

However, Iron Axe had been waiting in the backside for a long time.

When enemies appeared, it was finally the closing time for this annihilation plan.

With the reverberating marching music, the 150 members of the First Army lined up in. To impose pressure on the duke�s army, the enemies would have soon abandoned their mounts and fled through the forest.

Duke Ryan was in a state of desperation. He could not understand how Roland�s army appeared behind them.

Recognize the failure and surrender? He did not know how Roland Wimbledon would treat a duke that dared to attack the royal family. Perhaps he would be imprisoned or exiled, or more likely sent to the scaffold. Regardless of the choices, Longsong Stronghold would have nothing to do with him.

Roland�s troop came closer and closer to him, so did Roland�s formidable weapon that roared and shone from time to time. The duke knew that if he did not run now, he would not have the chance anymore. He only had 30 members left with him and this was his last resort.

�They couldn�t stop us with their small troop,� Duke shouted, �and as long as we cross over that line, they won�t catch us without any transportation means. It would only take us half a day to arrive Longsong Stronghold! My knights! Follow me!�

Then duke started to command the mount to enhance its speed. However, not everyone had the mindset to fight regardless of their lives. He had only 10 people including his guards with him but he could not care too much at this point.

The marching music suddenly stopped.

Roland�s troop stopped their march in a good order and stood before the duke like a wall.

Then the duke saw the troop raise their short wooden sticks.

When duke was only 100 steps away from that defensive wall, a range of noises blasted. He felt a shock on his breast and his stomach as if he was stricken by a massive hammer. Then he felt a feeling of paralysis and powerlessness. He leaned backward and fell from his horse to the ground.

The duke wanted to say something but could not make any noise. He coughed and smelled a strong scent of blood. The sticky liquid blocked his throat. Soon, darkness engulfed him.

Petrov Hull sat at the desk and subconsciously fiddled with an exquisite parchment�that was the program the Longsong Theatre sent on every weekend afternoon. Usually, he would have chosen a favorite play and let the housekeeper pay the deposit, before giving the invitation to Shirley.

But now he did not read a single word.

Seven days had passed since their departure. If everything went smoothly, father should have already returned yesterday with the duke. Perhaps there was a delay on the road. Or perhaps the people were tired, and rested an extra day in Border Town? He tried to comfort himself, but yet he grew more anxious.

Prince Roland Wimbledon left a deep impression on him. Petrov felt it was incredulous. How could such an outstanding prince have such a bad reputation in the king�s city? People commented that he had a bad character and was dandy, incompetent and ignorant� none of these evaluations tallied with the prince he knew.

But this was exactly why he felt so uneasy.

He was afraid that the duke would lose to him.

�Master Petrov,� shouted the housekeeper at the door. �There�s a letter from Longsong Stronghold.�

[From Longsong Stronghold?] Petrov was dazed for a second. �Bring it in quickly.�

After opening the cover, the first word in the letter already left Petrov stunned.

It was a letter written by Prince Roland!

�Duke Osman Ryan attacked my territory with force and tried to start a rebellion. The duke himself was already executed on the battlefield, and Longsong Stronghold is now back under my rule.�

[The duke was defeated?!] His heart sank, and then he continued reading.

�Duke Ryan�s accomplices, other than a few diehard rebels, had already surrendered and pleaded guilty. The families who rebelled against royal family were supposed to be executed as well, but I have been merciful. Only the main ones involved would be sentenced to death and the rest of the captives could be redeemed with money. The place to carry out the exchange would be at the lord�s castle in Longsong Stronghold. The list is as follows.�

This official letter was written in an awkward manner, without using the diplomatic language, but the meaning was loud and clear�the duke had failed in his rebellion and the prisoners could be redeemed with money.

Petrov lowered his eyes to find his father�s name appear in the first line.

�Hedee!� He shouted the name of the housekeeper. �Prepare the carriage. I�m going to the lord�s castle in Longsong Stronghold!�

�

Earl Honeysuckle�s territory was in the east of Longsong Stronghold. When Petrov rushed to the castle�s area, it was already half an hour later. The lord�s castle was filled with the �Militia� he had never seen�they had no shiny armor and no cloak or ribbon. Each held a peculiar short stick in the hand with a sharp bayonet at the top. They stood neatly in two rows, with their head held high. Petrov could feel their undeniable presence.

After reporting his identity, Petrov was given access to the garden, and then led by a guard to the castle hall.

He had come to this place many times, but today, he felt like he had stepped into a completely foreign territory. The guards on the aisle were all new faces. No one nodded or smiled at him, but just looked at him blankly. At the entrance of the hall, a knight came up toward him.

�What�s your name?�

�Petrov Hull,� he replied with a slight displeasure. He did not like the interrogative dialogue and therefore emphasized his name a second time. �Sir Hull.�

�Oh.� The other party looked disbelievingly. He looked over the list. �Earl Shalafi Hull is your��

�Father.�

�Please accept my apologies,� the knight said without changing his expression, �I�m Carter Lannis, Prince Roland�s Chief Knight. Please come to the side room so that we can check if you have any weapons.�

After the search, his God�s Stone of Retaliation was also removed by the guard.

�That�s not a weapon,� Petrov said.

�Of course not.� The knight nodded. �After the meeting, we�ll return it to you. You can rest assured.�

He opened his mouth but finally decided against speaking. [Return it to me? That God�s Stone of Retaliation stone is considered a top grade stone and is worth at least 50 gold royals. It�ll certainly be replaced by a defective one when they return it. Forget it,] he thought, [and take it as part of the ransom.]

As he walked into the hall, he saw Prince Roland writing on his seat. He raised his head and was startled to see Petrov, but then he laughed. �We meet again, Mr. Ambassador.�

It was still his familiar face and tone. Petrov started to relax a little, bowed and saluted. �Greetings to you, Your Highness.�

�Have a seat.� Roland lifted his hand to direct him to his seat. �I�m sure you�re aware of what has happened. Your father was not hurt. He was one of the first that surrendered.�

�Thanks for your kindness, Your Highness,� said Petrov. �I�m not sure how much ransom is required. As long as Honeysuckle can afford it, I�ll arrange them to send the money immediately.�

�I don�t need money.� Roland shook his finger. �I want livestock and men.�

It was normal to want livestock. In the last 50 years, the conflict between the lords was usually settled with the losers compensating with cattle and sheep. Petrov had read this more than once in books. Why� did Prince Roland request for men? �Your Highness, the Honeysuckle domain does have a lot of cattle, sheep, and horses, but as for men��

�It�s very simple. Masons, carpenters, farmers, serfs are all useful to me.� The prince handed over a paper roll. �You can follow the values here, as long as the total numbers add up to 3,000.� He smiled. �By the way, because the earl can be considered as the one with the largest title, so his value is also the highest.�

Petrov spread the roll of paper on the table.

He saw that it was listed with occupational categories and livestock species, followed by a number: cattle 3, sheep 2, mason 10 and the like. He understood immediately what the prince meant.

The value of 3,000 meant that he needed to pay a thousand cattle or three hundred masons to redeem his father. Of course, his territory did not have so many cattle or masons. Arranging the items on the paper into different groups would produce a variety of options. As a noble that dealt daily in trade, Petrov was instantly aware that there was a lot of maneuvering he could do. He just needed a few days to calculate an optimal solution that had the smallest cost to meet the requirements of 3,000 points.

�Your Highness, could I��

�One day, I can only give you one day.� Roland stretched out a finger. �This refers only to the time for you to make a choice. After all, it would take three or four days to gather so many resources and people. And I won�t stay here forever. I�ll leave after a week at the most.�

�A day is really�� Petrov was taken aback suddenly and stared with his eyes wide open at the prince. �Hang on, did you say� that you wanted to leave?� He fell into thoughts. [What does this mean? If the letter was correct, the duke died on the battlefield. Longsong Stronghold now belongs to His Highness, yet he actually wanted to leave. Is this place less significant than the small and broken Border Town? No, this isn�t the main point! The point is if His Highness departed, who�ll run this magnificent city?] His heart became tumultuous. [Will he allow duke�s children to inherit it?] He knew very well this would be impossible. �That�ll give the duke�s children an opportunity to gather troops to avenge their father? Would he consider the five families aside from the Ryan family or the other noble families?�

�Yes,� said Roland, �I�ll take the ransom and return to Border Town.�

His heart was suddenly filled with a thought, and once this idea appeared, it could no longer be suppressed.

�Your Highness,� said Petrov in a low voice, after swallowing hard, �Excuse me, is there also a numerical value to �redeem� Longsong Stronghold?�

Roland stared at Petrov with a look of interest and laughed. �You�re the first person to ask me that,� he said. He took the cup and had a sip, and then said in a casual tone, �Longsong Stronghold is undoubtedly mine, even if I�m not here. What I really need is a person or a family to run Longsong Stronghold on my behalf. Therefore, what you should ask me isn�t the ransom, but the �agency fees�.

Agency� Petrov was no stranger to this word. Many of the nobles had no time or interest in trade, while they had large output in their domain. Some sharp-sighted businessmen would help them to sell goods. In order to obtain this right from the noble, the businessmen had to pay a sum of money in advance as a deposit.

�How many pieces of gold royals would you require?� he took a deep breath and tried to calm himself down.

�This is a long process, so you don�t have to pay it all at once.� Roland paused, and then said, �30 percent of the monthly tax of Longsong Stronghold, as well as supplies which value 1,000 points. The rest belongs to you.�

�It was not that outrageous,� Petrov thought. As long as he could control Longsong Stronghold completely, this price was even reasonable. He confirmed that His Highness was not kidding. The prince really intended to keep his word.

�This was an once-in-a-lifetime opportunity,� Petrov thought to himself. He and the prince were not enemies. The duke has completely failed, and his children would be deprived of their inheritance. If the Coalition forces could not defeat the prince, then who could stop him from controlling the Western Region? Aligning themselves with more powerful forces was the basic principle for the continuation of the noble. If he could earn His Highness� trust before the other four families, then Honeysuckle would own the biggest domain in the Western Region.

�Your Highness, why don�t you wish to stay here? This castle is larger than the one at Border Town.�

�What you meant to ask was why I wouldn�t run Longsong Stronghold myself?� Roland looked at the slightly embarrassed Petrov and laughed. �There are many reasons. The power struggle here is too complicated, and straightening out the relationships takes too much time, much less getting some profit from it. Supporting a local noble family who can govern better than me, is a win-win deal. There are many other reasons that you can think about slowly.� The prince started playing with the silver cup. �By the way, if you were chosen as the agent, would you try to revenge the duke?�

�Of course not, Your Highness!� Although the question was a little unexpected, Petrov still replied immediately.

[The duke was already gone. The five families now need to think about how to carve up his territory. Who would still care about revenge?] thought Petrov.

However, Petrov also knew that these were not the real reasons why His Highness did not want to stay in Longsong Stronghold. [The power struggle is too complex and difficult to straighten out? With his oppressing power, he absolutely can exterminate the opposing forces in the span of one to two years. All the nobles would forget the loser Ryan, just like what Ryan did in the past. Yet two years isn�t enough to construct Border Town into such a big city like Longsong Stronghold.]

[His Highness Roland might have a more complex plan.]

�In that case, this city��

�I�d gladly be your agent, Your Highness!� Petrov blurted out. Yet he soon seemed hesitant. �But, the king, no, I mean your elder brother, might not agree with this result. If he arranges a new duke for the Western Region, I would be unable to oppose the king�s city.�

�You don�t need to oppose them.� Roland threw two letters before him. �Look at this, and the document I found in Duke Ryan�s office.�

Petrov quickly scanned the contents of the letter, and could not help but gasp.

The first seal looked like a secret letter. The new king Timothy and Queen of Clearwater had a battle in Eagle City and suffered a major failure? The content of the second letter was even more horrifying. The document was only half written but stated Duke Ryan wanted to annex the north. His intention to be an independent king was revealed clearly on paper. The letter was not complete, hence it was impossible to know who the intended recipient was.

He understood His Highness�s intentions�no resistance was needed because the new king was already at hard times himself. Otherwise, the duke would certainly not want to be independent. His elite knights were enough to wipe out the Western Region, but still a far cry from the knightage of the king�s city.

[A secret letter may be forged, but this document is indeed in Osmond Ryan�s handwriting. Unless the prince finds a witch that can imitate another man�s writing�] he thought, and then denied the speculation.

[The prince doesn�t need to go to so much trouble to deceive me. Acting as the agent for Longsong Stronghold isn�t a unilateral transaction. If I can�t establish a firm foothold in Longsong Stronghold, His Highness won�t also stand to gain. Moreover, the duke designated by Timothy is bound to be the enemy of Prince Roland.]

If the Honeysuckle Family wanted to override the other four big families, then I would have to rely on the support of the prince. On the contrary, in order to ensure my interests to be better protected, the prince should also help the Hull family to hold the position more firmly.

As soon as he thought of this, Petrov stood up slowly and bowed to Roland. �The Hull family is at your service.�

�Well.� The latter nodded. �At the moment it�s still undecided if you should be the agent. Let me first ask you a few questions.�

�Please go ahead, Your Highness.�

�How are you going to deal with those forces against you?�

�What�s your estimate of the monthly taxes? How are you going to guarantee to provide supplies which value 1,000 points?�

�What measures do you have if I ask you to develop the business on a large scale?�

�� �

Petrov thought that His Highness just wanted to take this opportunity to get some information about the noble in the Western Region. He did not expect the latter to ask such strange questions as if he were being assessed for his administrative or general business knowledge.

A series of questions followed and Petrov racked his brains to answer them one by one. His Highness looked more and more impressed with each answer. In the end, he clapped his hands and said, �Yes, we�ll stop here today. When you�ve put together the ransom valuing 3,000 points, you can return to redeem the earl. Rest assured. He�ll be well taken care of these days.�

�Your Highness, about the agent rights��

�It�ll be announced on that day.� Roland implied that it was time for the knight to escort the guest out.

Petrov left the hall with mixed emotions. He then saw Carter returning to him the God�s Stone of Retaliation�it was still blue and translucent, and worth 50 gold royals.

*******************

�So what did you think?� Roland looked at Nightingale who had emerged from the side.

�Well, he said more or less the truth,� she shrugged her shoulders and said, �He was much more sincere than the ones interviewed before him. By the way, do you really think that it�s a good idea for you to repeat the same things to everyone? What about those letters? Aren�t the contents supposed to be of the utmost secrecy?�

�Not everyone,� the prince looked over the list and said, �They�re from the five big families. These great nobles are the only ones suitable for managing Longsong Stronghold. For those that aren�t strong enough, even if they were to get this position, they wouldn�t be able to run Longsong Stronghold properly. Instead, this would only cause the various forces to start an endless internal strife among themselves. As for Timothy Wimbledon being defeated at Eagle City, that isn�t really a big secret. It would soon spread throughout the whole Kingdom of Graycastle. I was just trying to speed up the process.�

[These two messages come at just the right time,] he thought, [If the Second Prince did not suffer such a defeat, it would probably be much harder to recruit an agent�if the use of coercion was needed, the results would not be so perfect.]

�So� Have you already decided to choose him?�

�If all goes as planned,� said Roland with a smile, �Anyway, he was the first person to take the initiative to ask about this matter. A subjective initiative has always been the most important quality of a staff. I did not expect to discover among the five families such a talent who�s proficient in administration and trade. I thought they were only good for getting on their horses and fighting and killing.�

He found Petrov Hull�s name on the list and used the quill pen to outline a circle.

�

Roland was finally relieved after interrogating the five families.

When he leaned against the chair, Nightingale took the initiative to walk behind him and massage his shoulders.

From defeating Duke Ryan to capturing the lord�s castle, they only took one day.

It went much smoother than he had expected. When the duke died in the battle, most of his people decided to surrender. The mercenaries, particularly, defected and kneeled to express their willingness to serve His Highness.

Thus the mercenaries watched over the surrendered knights and nobles, while the First Army watched over the mercenaries. Together, they went east and arrived in Longsong Stronghold at 3 p.m. that day. Upon seeing the Duke Ryan�s head and the groups of surrendered nobles, the guards immediately opened the city gates to welcome Prince Roland.

Roland did not immediately summon all the nobles in the city to declare his ownership of the stronghold. Instead, he first went to lord�s castle.

The castle sat in the center of the stronghold at the highest point, like a city within a city. When they broke into the city, there was an outbreak of small-scale fighting. When Nightingale blew up the courtyard gate with explosives, some 20 guards who did not follow the duke to the battlefield put up a struggle. They were shot dead by the First Army. But in their attack, they used hand crossbows and hurt five members of the army. Of those, two were seriously injured, but fortunately, Nana who was with the troop was there to cure them instantly.

10 guards tried to escape with the duke�s family through the back door, but Lightning who was monitoring the situation from the sky noticed them. They were captured at once, including the duke�s wife and his two sons. Until then, they were still in the dark about the duke�s defeat.

After capturing the lord�s castle, the First Army took over its defense. Doubtlessly, Duke Ryan�s castle was three or four times the size of the castle in Border Town. Its design was also much grander, with six lookout towers making up a hexagon outline. The central tower was almost five-story high, an unusual feat at this point in history. The courtyard had everything including houses, warehouses, and stables. There was even a private jail in the castle�s basement.

Roland put the valuable captives and the duke�s family in prison and evacuated the civilians. The weapons he had confiscated from the mercenaries were placed in an empty room in the courtyard in batches. In the meantime, he also selected several leaders and paid them handsomely, so they can take care of themselves. In his mind, North Slope Mine was the best home for those opportunists, but he had more important things to do.

That was the most important thing to �loot� after a battle�commonly known as searching the dead bodies.

Roland led the witches to ransack the entire castle. They even found the God�s Stones of Retaliation in the vault and secret chamber. By the time they were done, their haul was breathtaking. In the basement alone, they had discovered two boxes of gold royals. Even with a conservative estimation, they gauged there were at least 10,000 gold royals there. In a secret compartment in the bedroom, Nightingale found several gemstones the size of eyeballs. Behind a fireplace, Echo found the door to a secret chamber stuffed with all kinds of gold handicrafts like scepters and crowns, but also dazzling jewelry, all neatly placed on a shelf.

This was a duke�s wealth!

Looking at the massive wealth and considering the revenue of Border Town that was less than 500 gold royals in fall and winter, Roland became emotional. This was the temptation of looting and plundering. If Roland did not come from a highly industrial society, he would have been addicted to the feeling it gave him.

Despite his profound emotions, these things still have to be taken in. There would be a boom in the working population of Border Town in the foreseeable future, so he needed a lot of money to import food before the development of their agriculture.

After Hummingbird�s magic was used to reduce the weight of the boxes of treasure, Iron Axe and the prince�s guards escorted the transportation of the treasures back to their castle through the Littletown. Considering the time spent in enchanting bulky items, it took about three days to ship them all to their destination.

That was also why Roland did not demand gold royals as ransom the next day. He had benefited a lot from the duke. What he needed most were people and livestock.

�Your Highness, are you really only staying here for a week?� Nightingale asked.

�What�s wrong?� Roland closed his eyes, enjoying the sensation of numbness on his shoulders.

�This is the biggest town in the Western Region,� she said softly, �and compared with Border Town, don�t you want to stay at a more prosperous place?�

�There are too many intricate power struggles in Longsong Stronghold. It�s not suited for what I want to do. It�s fine if we want to maintain the status quo, but once we want to make changes, we�ll face more and more resistance. And I can�t uproot those forces in one go right now.� Roland smiled. �Of course, what�s most important is that the church�s teachings have been entrenched in the people here. They won�t be able to accept you all so soon. But as I�ve said, I hope the witches can walk freely on the streets. I�ve succeeded in Border Town.�

�Yes,� Nightingale said softly, �You�ve fulfilled your promise.�

*******************

The morning of the third day, Petrov brought his list over in a hurry. As per convention, Roland received him in the lobby.

�Your Highness, I�ve made my selection.�

�Let me see.� Roland took the list from him. As he had anticipated, most were second-class serfs. There were 800 of them, as well as 100 cattle and 300 sheep. In total, they were equal to 900 points. The rest were craftsmen.

�Your Highness, is that fine?�

�Of course, as long as we accumulate 3,000 points.� Roland returned the list to Petrov. �When can you gather all these supplies and people?�

�I can do it today, as per my arrangement with the property and people of Honeysuckle domain. However, Your Highness, it may take half a month to ship them to Border Town.�

�That�ll be up to you,� Roland said, knocking the desk. �I take that you have experience in arranging caravans?�

�Yes, Your Highness.� Petrov hesitated before adding. �What about my father�?�

�You can take him back today.� The prince smiled and handed him a parchment scroll. �If you don�t have any questions, leave your signature and fingerprint on it.�

�This is� an agency contract?� Petrov glanced at the top of the scroll, his voice shaking with excitement. �Are you agreeing to grant the Honeysuckle family the right of agency?� He unfolded the scroll and began reading it carefully.

Roland nodded with satisfaction at Petrov�s cautiousness. The most basic requirement to be his partner was having a keen eye on contracts.

Petrov raised his head a moment later. �The content is almost the same as what you told me yesterday. But�� He pointed to the bottom of the scroll. �Your Highness, shouldn�t it be my father�s name? He�s the Earl of Honeysuckle and the representative of our family.�

Roland laughed. �Of course not. The one I�m discussing becoming the agent of Longsong Stronghold with is you, not your father. Naturally, it�s you who have to sign the contract.�

Petrov was stunned and asked in disbelief, �Your Highness, do you mean you want me to��

�That�s right. You�ll replace the duke and manage Longsong Stronghold for me.� Roland nodded. �If the contract is enforced smoothly, you�ll continue to govern the city after I become the king.� He paused, his smile gone. �But if you violate the contract, you�ll end up like the duke. I�ve invaded this city once and I can do it again. So do well, Mr. Ambassador.�

The dungeon of the castle was not as damp and dark as the prison in Border Town, for the duke did not want his basement to become a haunted house, or a house where anyone could smell the disgusting odor once they walked downstairs. The dungeon was still clean in general. Different cells were decorated differently according to the standards. Some of them were totally empty while some of them not only came with a bed, but were even fully-equipped with a closet, a desk, and chandeliers. It seemed that the duke originally took this as a place to imprison some nobles, and he wanted to ensure that basic etiquette was still being observed.

Roland also found a special cell in the corner, a room which was half-occupied by a big bed. There was a chain hanging down from the ceiling, and the iron handcuffs on the chain were wrapped with a layer of sheepskin, and on the wall was hanging all kinds of whips. It seemed that Duke Ryan had an affluent knowledge in that special area. But unfortunately, Roland would leave here in a few days, and he had lost the chance to get close to that special area here.

As the most valuable captive, Shalafi Hull was naturally arranged to live in the best cell. If you never noticed the iron railings which were outside the house, you may have thought it was a luxurious bedroom. The ones he lived with were the viscounts from the Maple Leaf Family and the Wolf Family, the eldest son of the Wild Rose Family, and the second son of the Elk Family. Together with Lion Ryan, these families were called the Fortress Six. Of course, the Ryan Family had been disintegrated by Roland, and his wife and sons were imprisoned next door.

When His Highness appeared in the dungeons, all the nobles stood up. Roland said, �Earl Hull, you can leave here. As for the other people, when the ransom arrives, I�ll let you go,� he added this before they could ask.

�Father,� said Petrov, relieved at seeing the duke�s ruddy face. He glanced at his friend and then looked at Roland. �Your Highness, I didn�t see the name of the Earl of the Elk Family on the list. If he�s died on the battlefield, and the eldest son of his family is still in the king�s city, then there�s no man to support the whole family. Is it possible to release Rene Medde first and let him raise the ransom? I�m prepared to guarantee him.�

�The eldest son of the Elk Family, do you mean Jacques Medde?� Roland shook his head and said, �He�s already been back and came to the castle yesterday, but� I don�t think he intend to pay the ransom.�

Hearing this, Rene leaned against the cage. �Why?� he asked in disbelief.

�He said you didn�t protect your father on the battlefield and you killed Earl Medde.�

�Why did he say that? The killer is obviously�� Rene suddenly sealed his lips.

Roland just got over it and said, �What you were trying to say was the killer is obviously me, right?� He went to the cage and said, �Your father sent the people into my castle, and he wanted to burn the crops before the Months of Demons. Now he had invaded my domain with the duke, and I just made a counterattack to also repel the invaders. So am I a killer? Compared with them, who should be condemned? If it were not because you were proved to know nothing about the whole thing, you were a dead man already.�

��� Rene could not say anything.

�Your Highness,� asked Petrov, �if no one is willing to pay the ransom, will you execute him?�

�No I won�t. I�m always benevolent,� Roland grinned and said, �and I�d probably send him back to Border Town and make him mine on Northern Slope for 20 years for atonement.�

�So� how much is the ransom?� he asked.

�As the second son, he has no chance to inherit the title of nobility, so the price is naturally less than that of the Earl of Honeysuckle. It only needs materials worthing about 1,000 points.� Roland looked at him with interest. �So, do you want to pay the ransom for him?�

�What kind of materials? 1,000 pieces of gold royals?� The earl who was released by the guards interrupted.

�Your son will tell you about that.� Prince Roland made a gesture of �please�. �Go, there�s nothing here worth staying for. As for the second son of the Medde Family, you don�t have to rush for that. You can go back and think about it.�

When they left the dungeon and went to the gate of the castle, the earl suddenly stopped. �Your Highness, I know that Duke Ryan may be guilty, but� his wife and sons are innocent.�

�Yes, maybe,� said Roland indisputably. �I didn�t intend to punish them by exiling them or hanging them to death, I�ll only bring them back to Border Town and imprison them.� He wouldn�t release them until the day that he ascended the throne. The situation would be more complicated if he became remissive now because the eldest son had a legal inheritance to the throne.

*******************

�What?!� Shalafi Hull stared at Petrov unbelievably. �His Highness doesn�t intend to live in Longsong Stronghold, but he let you manage the whole city?�

As soon as they returned to the Honeysuckle�s, Petrov immediately told his father in detail what had happened in the three days. The earl could not bear it when he heard about the contract, and when he got the specific answer, he stood up and walked around in the schoolroom again and again with mixed feelings.

�Father, are you all right?� Petrov anxiously asked.

�Now it seems our opponent is mainly the Elk Family. There�s a broad gap between us and the other three families in terms of both wealth and culture.�

�Sorry� What?� He did not get the idea of his father.

�Opponents! The opponents!� The earl yelled. �I�m so disappointed with you. His Highness gave you such a great chance but you haven�t yet analyzed who is your opponent!�

�Uh, don�t you feel odd about that?�

�Why does His Highness insist on going back to Border Town? It�s really odd, but what does that have to do with us? We just need the real contract,� the Earl said as he fondled his mustache.

[That�s the fact,] Petrov thought, [and His Highness wouldn�t use much energy just for a joke. As to the reasons why he loves Border Town that much, I can slowly think about that again.] But what he didn�t expect was that his father accepted the fact so easily.

�I heard that the Medde guy is your friend,� Shalafi suddenly said firmly, �and you go to get him out tomorrow.�

�Do you allow me to redeem him with materials worthing 1,000 points?� Petrov was stunned.

�Well, think about it. If the Earl of the Elk family died, the eldest son wouldn�t want to redeem the second son. So in this battle, the only sacrifice would be a few knights, and it seems that there�s hardly any loss. Once Jacques Medde inherits the throne, it�ll inevitably hinder you from being in charge of� no, managing Longsong Stronghold,� the earl explained, �Why was Jacques reluctant to redeem Rene? Because he was afraid Rene will be a threat.�

[Well, that was the real reason,] Petrov wondered while bitterly smiling. But he knew that his father was right. Rene liked swords and rifles since he was young, and he was very close to the knights in this domain. Unlike the eldest son Jacques, who thought that a royal should not be involved in fighting and preferred romantic things. Although Rene had repeatedly shown that he wanted to become a knight, but that was in the absence of inheritance to the throne. Now, without the control of the earl, who knew whether he would gather the knights to kill the eldest son? Jacques would not spend money to redeem a person who made him felt restless. His decision was very simple and ruthless.

�My friend will never do that,� he firmly said.

�Maybe, if you redeem him, no matter what he intends to do will be a headache for Jacques.� Shalafi went on to say, �As for the points, we can choose some wonderful craftsmen.�

�When preparing for your ransom, I�ve transferred some craftsmen, and if we use more, I�m afraid there wouldn�t be enough craftsmen in the whole domain.�

�Don�t worry, do you know that the Northern Region is a mess now?� Earl said confidently, �The four kingdoms were all destroyed in Hermes, the lords forced people to join the army, and there have been a large number of fugitives. We can take this opportunity to take a little more, and then we�ll save the monthly supplies.�

Petrov found that his father was also a business master�at least he did much better in business than he was on the battlefield.

On the fourth day after Roland had conquered Stronghold, he summoned all the nobles in and near the area to the hall of the castle.

Although the majority had already known the news, he thought that he still had to make it clear before all of them�the Western Region had a new lord.

When he said that he would go back to Border Town and had asked the eldest son of the Honeysuckle Family to take charge in his stead, all the nobles started to argue immediately. Of course, nobody was willing to take the lead to dissent at that moment while the head of the duke was still hanging high in the gate and Timothy�s defeat made speculators decide to seek for external help.

After the knights of the Honeysuckle Family were ransomed, the rest of the captured knights from other families could not be ransomed. Together with those mercenaries, they would be escorted to Border Town. In Roland�s plan, all the mercenaries were sent to the mine for labor reforming while the knights would be considered for employment based on their repentant attitude�after all, most knights were literate and could be the first teachers of universal education. They, of course, were forbidden to use weapons for the rest of their lives.

As a result, the Honeysuckle Family�s power would be much greater than the other four families�. They had enough armed forces to defend Longsong Stronghold and their own Earl territory, Roland thought. And as for small confrontations in their interests among those five families, they were Petrov�s responsibility to worry about.

During the past few days, Roland had taken some time to order his guards to capture some officials who were held accountable for causing residents of Border Town to starve and freeze to death two years ago; the Treasurer, Reynolds, was included. They would receive a people�s trial in Border Town. The only pity was that Earl Hirte Medde, who attempted to burn Roland�s army provisions and killed Greyhound, was dead on the battlefield without standing trial.

Now, the traffic between Longsong Stronghold and Border Town had been fully restored. Each day over the coming seven days, more than 10 sailing ships would carry material resources to Border Town. Roland guessed Barov would be very busy in taking over coins looted from the duke and resettling a large number of immigrants, and he wondered if Karl had built those temporary wooden sheds as he told him to.

Thinking about it here, he could not wait to return to Border Town as quickly as possible to take charge of the forthcoming farming project.

After accompanying the nobles to have lunch, the castle ushered in a special guest when Roland was about to take a nap.

It was the High Priest, Tylo, in the Longsong Stronghold church.

Suddenly, Roland�s sleepiness was killed.

Different from Border Town, the church had been rooted here for a long time. They not only built a church but also had a high priest stationed here. This was also the main reason why the prince made up his mind to return to Border Town to develop it�Longsong Stronghold had been indoctrinated and influenced by the church for such a long time that any civilian could be their informer. And his public involvement plan would be constrained and the risks of witches being exposed would be multiplied. Unless the church was uprooted, his reformation would be going nowhere.

It was quite normal for the church to keep an eye on the changing of the Longsong Stronghold�s lord. But what made Roland feel strange was that they should wait till today to send a representative to make dealings with him. However, the representative�s identity was not simple. Believers of high priests were senior figures in the church and responsible for supervising one area which was similar to the secular duke�s.

As usual, he met the representative in the hall.

As a middle-aged man about in his forties, High Priest Tylo wearing a church-customized, white robe with a blue border was very neat in his dress and appearances and he behaved like a courteous noble. If Roland were not in favor of witches and the royal Family, he would be glad to talk with such a person.

The high priest must wear a high-quality God�s Stone of Retaliation. In case of any accidents, Roland told Nightingale before the meeting to stay far away from the representative�s location.

After Tylo saluted, Roland invited him to be seated and ordered his attendants to serve tea.

No matter what he was thinking, he must behave properly.

�Your Highness, I send blessings on behalf of Holy City,� Tylo said with a smile on his face. �You�ve already become the Lord of the Western Region as entitled, and may God bless you.�

�Thanks,� Roland answered in a relaxing tone, �and it seems that you don�t care if I�ve killed Duke Ryan and seized Longsong Stronghold.�

�We�re rarely involved in those secular disputes. Whoever can provide the people a better life is a good king. Whether he�s born to a particular Family or from the royal Family isn�t the church�s focus. In fact, promotion in the church never looks at believers� identities. I�m just a son of a farmer, but now the high priest.� He smiled. �With all due respect, Your Highness, I�m afraid that sons of farmers can�t become dukes, can they?�

If he launched an uprising and overthrew the royal Family, he would be the king. Although Roland thought this, he did not retort and changed the topic directly. �So why are you here, just for sending blessings?�

�Sending blessings is only part of it. I�m also here for cooperation.�

�Cooperation? Cooperation of what?�

�We can provide whatever that can help you to expand your domain and influence.�

�Wait�� Roland frowned. �You just said that the church was rarely involved with secular disputes.�

�Rarely involved doesn�t equal non-involvement,� the high priest calmly said. �Nowadays, the fight between your elder brother Timothy and Princess Garcia has led to a miserable life for the people in the Southern Territory. �I�ve mentioned that the church considers whoever can lead the people to a peaceful life to be a respectable king. And you�re exactly the kind of person.�

Roland was stunned and wondered if the high priest was implying that they wanted to help him fight for the throne. He asked subconsciously, �Why?�

�You�ve led the people to fight against demonic beasts in Border Town and survived the Months of Demons, which proves your courage and ability. The amount of food you�ve bought from Willow Town shows that you don�t want people to starve and suffer, which is a sign of kindness. The three noble qualities and the royal blood are the reasons why we choose you.�

Roland did not believe those reasons at all, but it at least showed that even though Border Town was covered by heavy snow and isolated from the outside, the church was still staring at this remote place.

�But how? Dispatching the Judgment Army to fight for me?�

�We want to quell the war as soon as possible, but it�ll raise most of the nobles� resentment, so we can only help with the material resources.� The high priest took two pills from his bosom, one red and one black. �This is from the Holy Prayer Room in Holy City�which is equivalent to your alchemic workshop. The red pill can make your men temporarily have formidable strength, and the black pill can multiply their pain, cold, and heat tolerances. With these drugs, your army will be unstoppable. And the church only charges the most basic production costs.� He paused. �Each pill is worth five gold royals. I can give you the two pills for free as test samples to prove that what I said is true.�

�What do you ask for in return? Expanding the scope of the congregation and establishing a church in every territory?�

�That�s good, of course, but it�s our intention to quell the war. As long as the people live a peaceful life, they�ll naturally come into the arms of God.�

Roland took the pills. �It sounds fantastic, but for now, I don�t want to compete to be the King of the Kingdom of Graycastle. Besides, both Timothy and Garcia are my closest blood relatives and I don�t want to hurt them.�

�I can understand.� The high priest smiled. �But sometimes Family affection doesn�t stop the temptation of obtaining rights, especially when you become an obstacle to their rights. Pills are just the starting point, and we can provide a little more help. If you decide to go that way, you can come to look for me at the church anytime.� At this, he stood up and bowed down. �I�ve brought the resolution of the church, and may God be with you, Your Highness.�

When Tylo left, Nightingale revealed herself from the Mist and said, �Today is probably the day that you�ve told the most lies.�

Roland said impatiently, �What can I do when the person was the high priest of the church? Anyway, can you tell if he was lying?�

�No, the scene around him was engulfed by the God�s Stone of Retaliation, and I could only see the darkness.�

�Unfortunately, the high priest couldn�t be treated like the noble,� Roland thought with regret. He put the two pills on the table. �Do you think the pills are really as amazing as what he said?�

For pain relief, morphine could do it. But in order to make the soldiers become powerful, it sounded like the effect of the adrenal hormone. The problem was how to extract these two substances to make pills? If the church owned such technology, they should have conquered the world.

�Wait�� Roland suddenly thought of a possibility, �Maybe it has something to do with the magic power?�

�Can you see the flow of magic power?� He looked at Nightingale and asked, �is there magic power in these two pills?�

Nightingale observed carefully. �I can�t see the magic power, but it�s a bit like the God�s Stone of Retaliation.�

�The God�s Stone of Retaliation?� Roland was stunned.

She nodded. �Well, you�ve seen the world through the Mist. It�s only black and white there, but the darkness is different from that formed by the God�s Stone of Retaliation, the latter more like a void that swallows the world around it. I don�t know how to describe that feeling�� Nightingale hesitated. �It�s better to say there�s nothing inside rather than a darkness inside of a hole.�

�Nothingness?�

�Yes, that�s nothingness.� She nodded. �The two pills also have something like nothingness, but they are subtle, and� they�re also not a circular hole, but rather sections of the black flowing filaments.�

�Does this nothingness affect your ability?�

Nightingale grabbed the pills, entered into the Mist, but soon retreated. �It seems to have no effect.�

�It seems necessary to find a condemned prisoner to try these two pills and see what happens.� Roland carefully wrapped the pills, and held the pills in his arms.

�I didn�t expect the church to be so optimistic about you,� Nightingale sat by the prince, and said depressingly.

�If the high priest didn�t wear the God�s Stone of Retaliation, I�d bet there are lies in nine out of his ten sentences.� Roland curled his lips. �The most important thing is what they do. What they ask for is totally different.�

�Why?�

�Think about what they want: more churches, more believers, a prince or king who�s supported by himself, and deciding the propaganda of the divine right of kings, a stable country that�s more conducive to their development of believers and development of power. Otherwise, under an annual war, the church and the cloister will become a target for robbery by refugees and aristocrats.�

�What they like is that you can bring a stable life for the people?�

�It�s not the case.� Roland shook his head. �Stability comes from unity or balance, even if the king eats and drinks every day, the people in the unified country live happier than the refugees in the war. So it�s not surprising that they support the Second Prince, and it�s not surprising that they support Princess Garcia. But it�s so strange to come and support me, especially when Garcia is victorious.�

�Now if the church fully supports Garcia, I�m afraid that the king�s city and the east side of the area will be swallowed by her in no more than six months.� If 70% of the land of the Kingdom of Graycastle belonged to Queen of Clearwater, Roland thought their pressure would also be greatly increased. �If we don�t help the strong one but choose the weakest one, it seems that this decision is beneficial to us. It can be assumed that we accept their support, and then the situation of Graycastle will become more chaotic. The direct impacts of the three countries are the sharp decline in the population, the rapid loss of wealth, the wars spread to the whole country, and the date of unification is dragged on.

�What benefits can the church gain? They won�t have more believers. Worse still, I�m afraid all the churches will be demolished.�

�I don�t understand the idea of you nobles. You always beat around the bush.� Nightingale sighed.

�Yeah,� Roland replied with a smile, �except for me.�

��� The witch narrowed her eyes and stared at the prince for a long time. �It�s strange.Why does that sentence also appear to be true?�

Three days later, Roland finally evacuated the castle and the library of Longsong Stronghold, contentedly taking the Littletown on the way home.

While approaching Border Town along the Redwater River, the scenery on both sides of the river had changed. In the open space of the town opposite where Anna burned, many people were busy working. Judged by their appearance, they were the serfs who first arrived in the town. While close to the Impassable Mountain Range, there were many simple wooden sheds that had been put up. Someone was moving in the wooden shed, Roland guessed it was a family member of the serfs.

These people were bound to the land from generation to generation, and their children were born to be serfs. Most people were living a numb life because they could not see hope. What drove them to work was not their inner desires, but the whip and cable set in the hands of the slaveholders. Low production efficiency was a great waste of human resources.

There was no doubt that slavery was the enemy of industrial production and belonged to the system that needed to be abolished. Roland did not intend to let them all become free people easily, but to provide a channel so that they could see the hope that they could be promoted to be free people. There was a precedent to follow�slaves divorced from slavery because of the kindness of their lord. Even if the spread of this approach would not have had much impact, other aristocrats felt that they were just a good person at most.

When the time was right, he would fully implement the abolition of the slavery law. The resistance would be much smaller then.

The wharf was full of sailing ships and it was clear that this small wharf had been unable to bear such heavy transport pressure. Fortunately, the draft of the Littletown was shallow, so it could dock directly without a wharf. �It seems that the expansion of the wharf also needed to be listed on the schedule,� Roland thought.

When they returned to the castle, he could not take any rest. The moment he returned to the office he called Barov, letting him report on the situation of receiving the goods.

And the assistant minister was also ready. He took a roll of parchment from his pocket, spreading it out on the big wooden table.

�Your Highness, the things that you�re taking back to the castle these days really scare me.� Although he said so, his face overflowing with wrinkles betrayed his feelings. �It took the 12 apprentices a whole night to count all the coins, and the total is more than 14,000 pieces of gold royals! Your Highness, it�s equivalent to a year�s income in an ordinary town!�

Roland thought that it might take more than 20 years for a duke to save those many gold royals. And these gold royals were from the search, plunder, and exploitation of the people in the Western Region. He wanted to turn them into food, steel, and machinery as soon as possible. �What about the gemstones, jewelry, and handicrafts?�

�There isn�t enough time to convert it all, but the conservative estimate is also about 10,000 gold royals. If they�re sent to the king�s city to auction, the price will be higher. Now they�re stored in the basement of your castle.� Barov stopped a second. �But there aren�t enough rooms to be used for food storage, so I suggest that you expand the castle and build more warehouses to store other materials.�

�Where�s the person who sent it? Any classification statistics?� Roland asked.

�Yes, please refer to the bottom,� Barov pointed to the bottom of the scroll and said. �A total of 1,100 have been sent to Border Town. They are mainly farmers and they were placed outside of the town as per your request. 35 of them were craftsmen that were placed under Karl�s command. Their residences have been prepared in the New Civilization District.� Barov clumsily pronounced the name. �However, is this okay, Your Highness? I remembered you were initially preparing it for the witches.�

�The guards whom I sent to spread the rumors haven�t returned yet, and the progress has been slower than I thought. Just let the craftsmen and their families have the houses, and we can always build more.� The entire Border Town would need to eventually be refurbished in Roland�s plan. The cottages built with the wood and mud shall be replaced with brick houses and they shall leave room for a spacious street at the same time, unlike the current alley which only allowed two people to pass side by side.

�Yes,� Barov nodded and said, �Your Highness, I heard that there would also be cattle and sheep being delivered?�

�Yeah, but not now, I specially asked them to deliver them a few days later along with the shepherds. There�s a grassland between the Misty Forest and the Impassable Mountain Range west of the city wall, it should be good for pasture. We need to blow out two openings in the city wall for the people to pass first. After all, it�ll only be used during the Months of Demons.�

Now that Roland had both men and wealth, the development limitations of Border Town had temporarily disappeared. Roland could finally put the town to good use.

He asked the bodyguard outside the door to come in and ordered, �Go and get Karl from the Administrative Office, I guess you�ll find him in the wooden shed area outside of town if he isn�t in the mine.�

After an hour, Karl walked into the office, bowed and said, �Your Highness.�

It had been half a year since he met the member of the Mason Guild, and he could be considered as the busiest officer since he was hired to work in the City Hall of Border Town managing the repair of the city wall, model houses, and those of the wooden shed temporary residential area. He was currently 35 years old with several white hairs showing on both of his sideburns, his skin was slightly tanned but he looked a lot more energetic than when they first met.

It was true that the environment could quickly change a person. Six months ago he was a Mason Guild refugee who was carefully concealing his identity. Now he was an experienced project commander and managed the engineering projects all by himself. Now he possessed the stature and gestures of a superior. However, what Roland most admired was his willingness to give.

Roland smiled and nodded. �Come and sit by the table.� He handed the sketches he had just drawn to Karl and said, �Take a look. I�ll need you to build these new things.�

�This is the warehouse. Uh, the bottom part of it is built-on stilts. That could effectively prevent moisture issues.� Karl quickly finished scanning through the first sketch before he flipped to the second sketch and observed for quite a good while before asking. �This is� a stove?�

�Indeed, you�ll need to build more than five furnaces on the border of North Slope Mountain to incinerate the cement and burn the clay bricks. We�ll need an open space, and considering the transportation channels and the yard position, more furnaces will be needed after it has been expanding to a larger scale.�

�Yes.� He turned to the last page of the sketch and frowned. �This� looks like a drain? No, it has a roof and parapet on top� It looks like it has a pond behind it. Your Highness, I don�t understand.�

Roland smiled. �It�s a lavatory and it�ll be your highest priority.�

�Lavatory?� Karl contemplated for a while and said, �Your Highness, where are you planning to build it? There are commodes in your castle, and the attendant would handle them regularly. As for the villagers, they normally wouldn�t need this kind of thing, they would resolve directly outside of their houses. So do the farmers, they just need to release themselves into Redwater River and the river would take the filth away.�

Thus, he could smell the strong stinky smell when he came ashore today. Roland shook his head, intending to disperse the unpleasant memory. �Exactly, we need to change that bad habit.�

�Uh� Bad habit?� Karl did not seem to quite understand.

�It�s of course hard to understand for the people who�re accustomed to defecating anywhere. How beautiful the world would be if a casual stroll wouldn�t risk stepping on stools.� Roland silently criticized in his heart. �Anyway, you just need to build it according to the sketch, and I�ve roughly marked the measurements. It should be located around the wooden shed area. There should be at least four to be built, and they should be built side by side on a two-by-two basis. Other than the ditch in the middle, it�s to be built with bricks, the sheds, roofs, and partitions outside should be built with wood as it would save a lot of cement.�

�Your Highness, you�re trying to gather them together to� that,� Karl paused as he obviously felt that he was degrading the dignity of the royal family by discussing such a filthy subject in front of His Highness. �What if they don�t go in?�

�I�ll issue an order for them to follow. You can go ahead and organize staff for the implementation.�

�In that case, I�ll follow your order,� he nodded and said, �Your Highness, I have one more thing to report to you.�

�Go ahead.�

�Since the Mason Guild was forced to dissolve, there were a lot of people, just like me, that chose to leave the king�s city. I�m thinking of writing a few letters inviting the members of the Mason Guild of whom I know to Border Town. They all have their strength, such as Lesya who�s very good at the furnaces you mentioned. Your Highness, I�m not sure��

�There�s no problem at all,� Roland quickly said, �and you invite all of them here and rebuild the Mason Guild. The pay shall be calculated according to what was paid at the Mason Guild, and the experienced ones can be inducted into City Hall.�

�Thank you for your generosity.� Karl bowed with gratitude.

After the mason left, he started to compose the serfs management and title removal system.

The population of Border Town would soon reach a peak. If the town continued to depend on food importation, the town would be in danger if there was any sort of disaster or if they were cut off from business. Therefore, other than the industrial sector, the agriculture sector would need to be quickly developed as well in order to achieve food self-sufficiency as soon as possible.

Prince Roland believed that as long as there was a promotion, the serfs would soon transform into active farmers. In addition to the improved seeds by Leaf, the farmland beside Redwater River would soon turn into an ocean of golden wheat in summer.

Regarding his request to prioritize the lavatory construction, that was to prepare for the agriculture development coordination. After having the men, land, and seeds, all that was needed was the fertilizers.

Of course, Roland knew that using the fertilizer of humans and animals was very troublesome. It required regular cleaning of the storage pool and needed manual composting which was not as convenient as a chemical fertilizer. However, he did not have a clue how to make chemical fertilizer and so he could only substitute it with the natural organic fertilizer. At least the human and animal fertilizer was tested over a long period of time, and the traditional fertilization could still be seen in some rural areas in the twentieth century.

The people of this world knew very little about fertilizer, and most of them thought that feces was something filthy, other than being used to disgust others, there was no actual use of it.

The rotation system was not important for villages or towns with small population density, but the land around the big cities was scarce, and it was equal to wasting the land if the system was still adopted. There was a large amount of grain imported from other towns monthly for places like Silver City, Fallen Dragon Ridge and King�s City.

The first step to use the human and animals fertilizer was to collect them up. This was the reason why Roland decided to build the public lavatory as soon as possible, and it would also help to reduce the spread of diseases and beautify the living environment. What a multi-purpose solution. The lavatories had been almost completed by the time the rest personnel arrived. As for composting and sowing, he decided to pick up a few of experienced farmers and teach them one-on-one. After all, the land was still under the cleanup stage, so it would still need another week before they could start farming.

Having completed the chores on hand, he decided to take a look at Leaf�s experimental field in the castle backyard.

Since Leaf started to study and improve the various kind of seeds, all the planting areas in the backyard were planted with crops. She also followed Roland�s suggestion to divide the flower pond into several sections and number them in order to compare the development of the two groups of experimental crops.

The moment Roland stepped into the backyard, his eyes were dazzled by the clusters of shaking golden wheat.

�Your Highness.� Leaf who was squatting by the flower pond, stood, gathered up her hair by her ear and bowed to pay her respects.

�Are these all of your improved results?� He waved his hand to tell her not to be so courteous, walked forward excitedly to hold a heavy load of wheat and feel its full caryopsis with his fingers.

He had no idea of what the wheat would grow into, however, compared with the wheat fields of King�s City in his memory, the wheat was not only smaller than that on his palm but the particles were not so full.

Leaf nodded and said, �First, I let the wheat grow big and then I plant the new seeds into the flower pond. After accelerating and harvesting the seeds a few times, such a wheat can be obtained. However� I�m not sure why it�s difficult to get such a long and huge wheat again after repeating the process two to three times.�

�Unfortunately, I am not able to help on this aspect,� Roland thought. According to his poor junior high school biology knowledge, it was probably due to selfing defect? The rice planted normally in the southern area was far different from the wheat. In order to increase the productivity, the seeds were actually purchased. However, it already had reached its practical value if it could sustain for two generations. A wheat could produce over 130 seeds and the first batch of seeds was transformed by Leaf, the second batch of seeds was given to farmers as self-reserved seeds which could be used for at least two years.

�What about this one, how come it�s empty?� Roland noticed an area of the flower bed with only a few wilted wheat.�

�I was planting there at first, and perhaps I�ve been planted too many times on it,� Leaf spoke with uncertainty, �The wheat can quickly grow if I cast magic power, but the wheat will quickly wilt once the magic power has subsided.�

It seemed that in order for the magically transformed plant to continue growing, it would still need the nutrients of the soil and some trace of elements were still essential. Roland walked towards the last flower bed where the shape of the wheat planted was extremely strange. There were several clusters of cyan wheat grains hanging down from a stalk which was as thick as an arm, and there were several branches stretching out in the middle of the stalk. The branches were covered with green leaves. Therefore, the size of each wheat was much bigger and there were only two planted in the flower bed.

This was the revised version Roland got Leaf to produce with magic power�the Little Wheat Tree.

Roland had an idea to grow wheat like a banana tree, fruiting from the branches, harvesting annually to cut down on the troubles of ploughing and seeding and also yielding the bigger and more green leaves which could improve the photosynthesis and be less dependent on the land. The sturdy wheat-straw and branches were a little space-consuming as of now. Besides that, the wheat was only growing out from the top of the branches and did not match his initial idea. �Perhaps, get Leaf to improve it towards the direction of the grapevine?� Roland thought, �After all, she hasn�t seen a banana tree before and grape isn�t a rare product in the Kingdom of Graycastle, and it should be easier for her to imitate with an available sample.�

�The seeds of the three wheat can�t be used for sowing,� Leaf said, �I�ve tried, but the seeds didn�t sprout after they were planted. However, it does yield fruits repeatedly and the wheat you�re looking at now belongs to the second batch.�

�Not sprouting means that each of the wheat trees was a unique presence which required Leaf to manually transform and that it wasn�t worth growing at the present.� �You�ve done a good job. Let�s name the wheat Golden Ones. I�ll keep a test field for you in the south bank of Redwater River, surrounded by a fence and covered up by a partition. You can accelerate the ripening process of a batch of Golden Number One as soon as possible for this year�s spring sowing.� Roland ordered, �As for the garden, it�ll continue to be used to improve the new species, and I�ve just come up with a lot of ideas, not only for wheat crops but also for grapes.�

Unfortunately, Leaf could only understand the characteristics of a crop from the macro level, such as a lot of fruit, sweet taste, dense branches and so on� If she could understand a crop from the micro level, would she be able to directly manipulate its gene and carry out the fine and precise adjustment? For example, plants could absorb light other than the visible light, such as ultraviolet, X-ray, and even ionizing radiation for photosynthesis to directly produce starch, glucose, sucrose and other energy storage materials. In that case, people could directly plant the crops in the cultivating tank.

Prince Roland lit a bonfire beside Redwater River in the evening and ordered Carter and the guards to gather the serfs. Big pots were delivered here by his people and set up on simple clay stoves to cook porridge.

Staring at their new lord who had his back facing the fire, his narrow long shadow reflected by the fire, the serfs bowed their heads down scarily. There were some bold ones sneakily peeking at Prince Roland from time to time.

Roland stood before the bonfire and the crowd of more than 1,000 people, to announce the rules he had set.

�I�m Roland Wimbledon, the fourth Prince of the Kingdom of Graycastle, the Lord of Border Town and the Lord of the Western Region!�

�I�m gathering all of you here to tell you that you�re lucky to come to this domain! As long as you work hard, you can get rid of your present identity and status!�

�Yes, I�ll give you a chance to get rid of the identity of a slave and become a free man!�

The serfs suddenly burst into an uproar. The serfs were well aware of what being a free man meant. They would no longer be subject to cruelty by the owner and no longer had to be forced to carry out endless farming. All the crops produced in the fields would no longer have to be turned over to the lord, and their sons and daughters could also leave the identity of slaves behind them.

Roland waited for a moment and continued to say, �From tomorrow onwards, each of you�ll be assigned to a piece of land where someone will guide you on how to farm to cultivate more wheat. In the first year, you would have to turn over 70% of your harvest and you get to keep the rest. The serfs of the best harvest will be promoted to become free men!�

�After you become a free man, your family can be exempted from slavery, and you can decide whether to continue farming or find another way to sustain your lives in the town. If you choose to continue farming, 20% of your harvest should be turned over to pay the rent of the farmland. The other 80% would be at your disposal. If you choose to find another way to sustain your life, you would have to return the field to the lord, and, of course, there�s also no need to turn over any food!�

All that could be heard was the sound of breathing until someone suddenly shouted, �Your Highness, is what you said true?�

�Of course,� said Roland word by word, �As a lord, I would never deceive my people.�

�Your Merciful Highness,� someone could not help but shout gently and soon there was cheering which quickly became louder. �Long live, Your Highness!�

A serf in the first row started to kneel down in front of the cheering crowd, following by the second and the third�

Suddenly, all of the serfs were kneeling, the cheering sounds continually growing. The voice of the people finally combined into one rhythm. �Your Merciful Highness!� �Long Live, Your Highness!�

�Since there was an echo, there was no need to prepare an actor,� Prince Roland thought.

He clapped his hands and ordered the guards behind him, �Let�s eat!�

Nightingale came out of the Mist once Roland fell asleep. She gently helped him to tidy up the blanket and covered his exposed arm. She stood quietly watching him for a moment. Then she left through the floor silently to go back to her room.

�Haven�t you slept yet?� Nightingale was slightly surprised to see Wendy still reading at the bedside.

�I�m afraid that what you�re doing is wrong!� Wendy stared at her. �His Highness isn�t a child. Is it necessary to take care of him until he falls asleep?�

�His Highness sent people to the other cities and towns to spread news of the witch organization. I�m just being cautious in case the witches intentionally come to hurt His Highness after hearing the news.� Nightingale picked up a wet towel and wiped her face, before untying her red belt and leather wrist guard. Then she unbuckled her armor. This outfit was newly made by His Highness. The ivory hooded-jacket design was extremely obvious, but yet Roland thought it was very suitable for an assassin.

Nightingale carefully hung the clothes up and smoothed out every wrinkle. Her perfectly fit body was wrapped within a piece of fine gauze, and there was no fat to be found on her tight abdomen, and thighs.

�What kind of accident would there be.� Wendy put down her book. �We have our sisters living in the castle and there are the guards patrolling outside the castle. Besides, haven�t you put the stone under his pillow? You�ve never touched something like that before.�

�Well, I�m just doing it to ensure his safety.� She sat by the side of the bed, took off her long boots, pulled her slender legs up and turned herself over beside Wendy.

�Did you even hear what I said last time?� Wendy sighed. �Veronica, we�re witches.�

�I know, Wendy,� Nightingale nodded and said, �We�re �witches��.

[Prince Roland would marry a witch. He had said it himself, and he had not been lying.]

Of course, Nightingale should not disseminate this information unless it was necessary. She silently apologized to Wendy and changed the topic. �Do you have any information about the church?�

�Why do you ask this now?� Wendy was shocked.

�When Roland was in the castle of Longsong Stronghold, the high priest of the church came to visit him and expressed his willingness to support him to seize the throne.�

�What did he say?� Wendy sounded nervous. �Or did Roland ask you to go out before the conversation?�

Nightingale shook her head with a smile and said softly, �He just asked me to pay attention to avoiding the range of God�s Stone of Retaliation. His Highness didn�t wear it himself. Wendy, he didn�t agree to the invitation from the church. He refused them.�

Wendy was relieved, and yet seemed a little disconsolate. �Unfortunately, the amount of help we can provide to His Highness is very limited, unlike the church which has power covering the entire mainland. If he agreed with them, he could probably take over the throne more quickly��

�Who knows. He said that the high priest was full of nonsense and not trustworthy at all.� She paused. �The only concern I have is this.� Nightingale narrated the incident of the red and black pills. �In the Mist, the pill has the same color as the stone, which is incredible. Our sisters have seen the result of swallowing the stone, which is no different from committing suicide. The high priest mentioned it was a kind of medicine they�re studying in the praying room of Holy City. Did you ever hear of it in the cloister?�

When the Witch Cooperation Association left Silver City, Cara brought Nightingale, Windseeker and Stone to set traps to capture villains who were chasing them for bounty and had retaliated. One of the ways was to put the God�s Stone of Retaliation they were wearing into their mouth and make them swallow it. The villains who swallowed the God�s Stone of Retaliation would die quickly, and their entire body curled up as if shrunken, just like fish dried under the hot sun.

�I have no idea,� Wendy closed her eyes and said slowly, �As far back as I can remember, I was living in the cloister in the old Holy City. It was surrounded by high walls, and there were no other sights except the sky. All activities were within the courtyard, reading and interpreting drawings were both taught by the chief nun. I still remember her name, Faria. One of the books she read to us was an introduction to the old Holy City. There were churches, cloisters, libraries, memorial halls and heroic walls in the city, but there was never a place called the praying room. I lived in the cloister for more than 10 years before the accident happened��

Nightingale had heard Wendy mention it before. The cloister had been attacked by a witch, and many people died in the accident. Wendy had escaped from the cloister during the chaos. �We�re not sure which witch had such courage to challenge the church alone, but she saved you at least.�

�No, Veronica. The witch came from the church,� Wendy shook her head and said, �She was just like me, a member of the cloister.�

�What do you mean?�

�The girls who lived in the cloister could basically be divided into three categories. The first was like me, they grew up there and knew nothing about their origins. The second was the waifs or orphans who were sent by the churches after being adopted. And the final was the girls who were sold by their parents to the church. The managers would separate them according to their age and place them in different dormitories, and their learning content was also different. The youngest would learn how to read, 10 to 14 years old would go for caroling and the girls older than 14 would learn etiquette. The nuns called our class the literacy class, and the older ones� the choirs and ritual classes. Once a lady becomes an adult, she was sent away from the cloister.�

It was the first time Nightingale had heard this. Wendy had never discussed her experience in the cloister in detail.

�In the first few years, we could always hear the girls screaming at night, mostly the ones from the choir and ritual classes, I didn�t quite understand what was happening. Until I was in the choir class, then I noticed that there would be lords from the church patronizing the dorm in the evening. They would drag several girls from the bed away with them and only send them back in the morning. Sometimes, they were not all sent back.�

Nightingale clenched her jaw. She was certain that she knew exactly what Wendy�s words meant.

�Such incident would happen once or twice a month. It became more frequent, almost once every two days. I was selected after that. Faria pulled me out of the room and whispered in my ear saying, �Just bear with it.� I was dragged to a half-covered underground house in a corner of the garden. The house was ablaze with lights, and there was a girl from the ritual class cuffed to the wall and four or five people around�� Wendy�s voice was slightly jittery. �When they approached me, the girl suddenly broke the shackles and grabbed the nearest one by his neck. She snapped his head off like a chicken.�

�She awakened?�

�I don�t know,� said Wendy. �Though they had taken off their clothes, they still wore God�s Stone of Retaliation. She killed them one by one, and one of them had his limbs torn off. Before his death, he seemed to say �extraordinary�. Adult screams alerted the guards outside the house. They opened the iron gate and rushed into the room, but they were bewildered. The girl charged straight into them. �

�Extraordinary� does it mean witch?� Nightingale asked, �Even the guard couldn�t fight against her?�

�The difference was too big. I learned afterwards that the guards were actually from the Judgement Army. One of them blew his whistle and the other attacked with his swords. By the time the first whistle ended, she already had her arm through the chest of the guard who was blocking her way. The armor of the church was flimsy, like a piece of paper, before her.�

�She picked up the sword of the Judgement Soldiers, stabbed Faria and split a Judgement Soldier into two pieces. The blade was broken into several pieces. However, the whistle had alerted the entire cloister, there were a lot of people rushing to the scene with oil lamps. She put on Faria�s clothes and picked up the weapon of the other Judgement Soldier and walked towards the guards all by herself.�

�I sat in a room full of bleeding bodies and I came back to myself after staring blankly for a while. One of the deadmen was in charge of the keys of every entrance of the cloister, I pulled the keys out from the clothes that were scattered on a side and took the God�s Stone of Retaliation off their bodies at the same time. Although I didn�t know what the use of the stone back was then, I simply thought that with its translucent appearance, it could be sold for a good price. The priest, the guards and the Judgement Army of the cloisters were searching for her. I almost got to the hidden side door of the backyard without any hindrance. Fortunately, having tried almost every key, I opened the door and left the cloister.�

After that, I only managed to sell one of the stones and the rest were robbed. I wandered around and finally stopped at Seawindshire having depended on only the 10 silver royals that I had. I was awakened as a witch in the winter after two years.� Wendy paused. �This is my entire story.�

Nightingale held Wendy�s hands and kept quiet for a while before she said. �What about the girl from the ritual class?�

�She may have escaped or be she might be dead. After that, I heard that the church claimed that there was a fire in the cloister and it was closed down. No one cares exactly where all the girls went. They were all abandoned.�

Nightingale sighed and took Wendy into her arms. �Now you have us. Go to sleep, Wendy.�

After a long while, Wendy answered, �Uh��

*******************

Roland yawned while walking into the office the next day. He found Nightingale gravely sitting beside the table and waiting for him.

�Huh, what happened?�

�Have you ever heard about the Extraordinary?� she asked in a deep voice.

After Roland shook his head, Nightingale repeated the story that Wendy told her the night before. She said, �It�s hard to imagine that a teenage girl could easily behead a member of the fully armed Judgement Army if she was not awakened.�

�A witch who can�t be controlled by the God�s Stone of Retaliation�� Roland contemplated for a moment after hearing the story and he remembered the categorization he made for the witches abilities. �Could it be that she�s a self-strengthening witch?�

�Self� What?�

Roland took a piece of paper out from the drawer and handed it to her. �I made a basic classification according to the type of magic you use. As a self-strengthening witch, she would consume magic all the time to transform herself, and her magic wouldn�t be affected by the God�s Stone of Retaliation. Although an ordinary witch�s physical quality would be improved accordingly with the magic content, it�s more prominent on the self-strengthening witch. If I understand correctly, Scroll is supposed to be the Extraordinary in the eyes of the church.�

�Scroll?� Nightingale was surprised. �But, she��

�But she�s not good at fighting, right?� Roland said with a smile, �The classification isn�t determined by strength, nor is it absolutely correct as it�s just my personal ideas and speculation. A power self-strengthening witch can really cause a lot of trouble to the church. Without the restriction of the God�s Stone of Retaliation, she can selectively kill the Judgement Army, or single-handedly destroy the church of small towns. However the strength of one person is still limited, and the awakening of a self-strengthening witch must be less than the other two types, otherwise, the witch would have hunted down the church in return.� Although it�s easy for him to say, Roland had a faint unease, thinking of both the red and black pills.

There were only a few Extraordinary, but there should be at least a dozen of them over the past century? As long as there were two or three power self-strengthening types, it could get the church hung up. For example, the church would focus all its energy on the Hermes defense line to clean up the church facilities of the other cities without restraint. They could destroy the church, the priest, and the priestess altogether. The number of church believers would be greatly reduced after a few years.

However, other than the Extraordinary witch whom Wendy met, Roland had never heard about another incident of the witch attacking the church and even the cloister Wendy used to live in was destroyed by a huge fire, and no one knew the whereabouts of the girls from the ritual class.

�The church would absolutely not be sitting around waiting to be killed,� he thought, �Perhaps they already found the means against the Extraordinary, and the two pills could be one of it.�

�In any case, we should first test the effect of the pills.�

Thinking about it, Roland summoned for the guard standing outside of the door to pick up a prisoner and look for Carter.

The test field was arranged outside of the city wall.

But as a preventive action, Roland had arranged four groups of the First Army to surround the test field and they were armed.

Other than Roland and Nightingale on the city wall, Anna and Nana were also standing there. As long as there was no God�s Stone of Retaliation, Anna�s green fire was enough to protect his safety and Nana could provide the most effective treatment.

�Is everything okay?� Roland leaned over and asked Carter who was stretching his muscles and bones, �Don�t despise the opponent.�

�Don�t worry, Your Highness,� Carter put on his helmet and said, �Your Chief Knight doesn�t earn his name with nothing. And, as the opponent is only using a wooden sword, it�s impossible to hurt me.�

The test object was a murder and robbery prisoner who was sentenced to death, and Roland did not like the death redemption after doing good deeds. He had directly told the prisoner that the family would be awarded five gold royals as a reward if he sacrificed himself for the test. The prisoner hesitated for a moment and agreed.

Carter even suggested the opponent to be armored and armed with an iron sword to have a fair duel with him, but Roland rejected without any hesitation. If the death penalty criminal was armed with a sharp weapon, the risk would increase exponentially. If the chief knight�s head was chopped off, Nana would not be able to revive him. As for not wearing armor, it was just to test the pain tolerance of the black pill.

After the prisoner took both of the pills, the expression on his face quickly changed, blue veins appeared on his forehead and his arms, his skin appeared to be dark red and he was breathing hastily. He grabbed the wooden sword and dashed towards the chief knight who was quietly waiting, at the speed comparable to a running wolf. Everywhere he stepped he left a small hole, and the soil beneath his feet was trodden out into a few small pits.

Carter looked a little surprised, but still calmly took a step to the side and sliced with his sword. This trick could force the opponent to change direction, or the blade would cut into his ribs.

The opponent was just a murderer who never went through any combat training except for his strength. It was not a surprise that he was fluttered into the air with the side of his chest deeply cut open with blood gushing out. The injury was enough to affect half of his body, but he looked unconcerned and pounced towards the chief knight. Carter used the same trick, but with a slight change this time, when they passed by each other, the prisoner single-handedly pointed the wooden sword towards the knight. Generally, the awkward posture should not be threatening, but the chief knight saw a shadow when the wooden sword was swept out, and he subconsciously blocked with his sword. The strong impact forced him to take two steps backwards, while the wooden sword was also broken.

�You�re pretty strong,� Carter swang his arm and said, �Give him another sword, come again.�

The prisoner did not catch the wooden sword that was thrown to him, but suddenly turned around and ran towards the forest. His speed was increased to a level where it was hard to be matched by an ordinary human, as fast as a galloping horse. He crossed his hands in front of his body and directly bumped into the soldier who was getting ready to fire. The soldier screamed miserably and was thrown into the air. At this time, other soldiers pulled the triggers. His blood was gushing out of his body, however, it did not slow him down. He was running so quickly out of the circle that it was more than 10 meters away within a few breaths.

�Don�t let him escape,� Carter shouted, �Get me my horse!�

Before Carter getting on the horse, the prisoner was suddenly startled and looked at his stomach incredulously�there was a horizontal wide-opened wound across his stomach and his boiling hot intestines were rolling out.

He slowly turned around and saw that a lady dressed in white, holding a shining silverlight dagger had appeared behind him without him realizing.

The wounded soldiers were quickly healed by Nana, and her ability to rejoin fractures was put to good use. Roland sent the First Army back to the camp, and the only ones that remained at the scene were the chief knight, the witches, and several guards.

He walked to the corpse with a gloomy face and commanded Carter to cut the back of the corpse open on where it was hit by the bullet.

The hole was about a finger and a half deep, where the bullet was found broken and the level of injury was basically the same as a normal human.

�What�s your opinion on that?� Roland asked Carter.

Carter also seemed a little upset, for he probably did not expect to have someone who never received a sword training to use such a move. �It was simply empty strength and speed, if it was not for our observation, I would have cut his head off on my first attack.�

�What if he were a knight?�

�This�� Carter contemplated. �If he were a knight under the duke, I probably could still barely cope with it, but if it was the Frostwind Knight and the Steelheart Knight from the king�s city�s knightage, I probably couldn�t measure up.�

Roland declined to comment as they would be relying on sword techniques and skills, and perhaps what Carter said was true, but with the armors, the situation would be worse. Assuming the prisoner was wearing heavy armor, with a helmet and a two-handed sword, Carter absolutely could not win so easily.

The power enhancement was multifaceted. They could carry more heavy armor and weapons, and enhance the speed as well as being able to last longer in combat. Roland thought that he had to correct the idea he had before in Longsong Stronghold. �Adrenaline? No, this is much worse than adrenaline, for hormones could only stimulate the potential of the human body. However, the red pill apparently had made the prisoner break through his limitation. He was almost comparable to the heavily-armed cavalry, especially the speed and momentum he showed when he was running.�

The effect of the black pill was equally amazing. He was almost cut in half across his ribs, and even after being shot at close range, they could not stop him. If it were the ordinary people, he should have lost combat effectiveness due to the pain.

A civilian who had no fear of pain had become so powerful. What if it were a group of well-trained soldiers? Thinking of the words of the high priest, Roland could not help but frown.

�Your Highness,� Nightingale said, �Look at his skin.�

After the initial red color on the skin of prisoner�s hand faded, it became pale and crumpled, like a molting snake. Roland poked it with a knife handle and noticed that there was no solid muscle under the skin and it felt empty. After cutting it open, he noticed that the subcutaneous fat had turned into mucus and the muscles had also shrunk.

�The effect is the same as after swallowing the God�s Stone of Retaliation,� she looked at Prince Roland and said, �The pills indeed contain the ingredients of the stone.

�Simply swallowing the stone would not produce the effect of power enhancement,� Roland said while thinking, �How did they come out with such unscientific stuff?�

The pills seemed to have a strong side effect, and it was not clear whether it was permanent or it could be restored. Roland thought it was more inclined to the former. If it were the latter, the drug similar to an enhancer of mixed morphine and adrenaline would completely be considered as the magical war potion, as long as it was distributed according to the recovery time, it would not be a surprise for the church to use it to dominate the world.

Even if it were for a short duration and there were side effects, but it was also enough for Roland to be vigilant, Roland thought. If the church turned to support Timothy or Garcia, he would have to face an army of drug addicts.

It was even more disturbing for Roland that the church was willing to sell such thing without considering that the new king would attack them using the pill after the Graycastle reunification. Graycastle could easily recruit cannon fodders on the battlefield quickly as compared to both the old and new Holy City. If they joined forces, the Judgement Army would only be slowly exhausted.

Unless� they had a stronger card in hand and did not care about anything like this.

Roland sighed, he had intended to attack Longsong Stronghold to solve the problem of population and the lack of funding before focusing on the education, production, and agriculture in order to extend Border Town into a city within a short period. He thought he would be able to put aside weapons research for the time being. However, now it seemed that the army construction could not be set aside, the First Army would have to continue to expand and the production of flintlock guns would have to be continued as well. The new weapons research would also have to be listed on the agenda as soon as possible. They needed to work on breechloaders and fixed charge cartridges.

The mechanical principle of the breechloaders was not difficult, for it could be installed with paper-made bullets and it could also be made with several copper stampings.

Roland still had no clue regarding the ignition cartridge that was used to set the bullet. He only knew that it was called mercury fulminate. It literally meant that the raw materials must consist of nitric acid and mercury. He could not recall whether it needed to mix with anything else at the moment. And, he had the impression that there were certain requirements of humidity and temperature during the production, and the risk seemed to be rather high that it would be easy to blow fingers off accidentally. After some contemplation, he decided to spend more money to recruit a group of alchemists and build a laboratory in a corner of the town so that they could ponder it over themselves.

*******************

After dinner, Roland summoned both Anna and Scroll into the office.

Now the financials of Border Town had improved, and he would soon put half of the assets into compulsory education.

Industrial society needed workers with basic cultural quality, rather than the empty brute force of the illiterate. If universal education was not in place, the demographic dividend would only become a burden for the population.

With such a view, he intended to spend some time out at the school teaching, every night from this night onwards. Until Scroll mastered the basic knowledge of �Theoretical Foundations of Natural Science�, the town should have almost completed the first batch of literacy tasks.

Scroll would be the future education pioneer and all-around teacher, so Roland wanted to pass all his knowledge to her. And, he asked Anna to come along as a favor.

Anna did not have an extra retentive memory, but her desire for knowledge and active learning was the most intense among the witches. He could often find her rummaging for books in the bookcases, and she had probably seen all the books for the past six months. In addition, her acceptance of new things and logical way of thinking was also rare in this era.

After getting the elementary mathematics and physics textbooks that Scroll created with her magic, he began to talk about today�s teaching content.

Anna�s understanding ability was significantly better than Scroll�s from the beginning of the adding, subtracting, multiplying and dividing to the more complex equations. When it came to physics, Scroll was still memorizing Roland�s words and slowly assessing it while Anna could already ask a few questions from time to time.

Such as what the basic particles looked like and why the basic particles formed into various shapes and so on.

There were some questions that Roland could answer, but some of them he could not answer either.

Such as what magic power really was.

He could only share what he previously thought, saying that the magic power might be a kind of energy, similar to the electricity and heat, however, only the witches could use it currently. Ordinary people did not have the capability to store and use the magic power.

Anna revealed a thoughtful look.

The time always flew by quickly when teaching the women, especially the outstanding women. The candle had been changed twice without Roland knowing and the new one was already at its end.

Suddenly, Roland heard a soft snoring noise. Nightingale who was lying on the sofa had fallen asleep unknowingly. Perhaps the course was like a lullaby for her. The Mist had lifted the coverage, her totally inelegant sleeping position exposed to the eyes of three of them.

Roland shook his head helplessly and decided to end today�s class here. He took off his coat and gently covered her, blew out the candle and closed the door behind him, while Anna and Scroll were trying to hold back from laughing.

After returning to her room, Anna threw a cluster of green flames into a wooden barrel filled with water. The water would be soon heated up.

She took off her clothes and stepped into the wooden barrel.

When witches wanted to clean their bodies, they came to Anna to help boil the water. After all, it was troublesome to fetch water from the kitchen. Roland was surprised when he found out. It seemed like it was difficult for him to accept the repeated usage of bath water.

When Anna thought of this, she found it funny. For a commoner, it was difficult enough to clean his body once a month. Thus, it was very common to use bath water several times.

He was not even aware of the great improvements in the witches� living conditions after he took them in. Anna shook her head. His Highness Roland Wimbledon seemed to be erudite, but in some places, he was� slow-witted. She had read many stories where the princes would participate in various banquets and parties since his childhood. They would be familiar with all kinds of women. A prince could be ignorant and cowardly, but he should at least be good at socializing.

However, this feeling made her feel inexplicably secure.

His Highness� head was filled with much knowledge that took her breath away, such as the steam-operated iron machine and floating stones on the water by calculation. And today�s lesson�the world is made up of little balls, so tiny that they need to be magnified thousands of times so the naked eye can see them. Because of this, they are everywhere. Either for solid, gas, and liquid or for people, flowers, and stones, when broken down, at their core, they are all basically the same material.

Anna found all these unbelievable. But how did her Highness knew all these?

After wiping herself, she dried the dripping water on her body with fire. She put on her clothes and sat at her desk.

In the center of the desk was a textbook written by Roland.

There was a period of time before the Book of Illusion was finished, so Anna borrowed this textbook. She wanted to read it for a bit before going to bed.

The book began with the common phenomena in life, before unfolding gradually like a peeled onion. Some pages were even illustrated with vivid and interesting drawings. Anna was so immersed in absorbing all the novel knowledge that she found it hard to stop after turning to the first page.

While the pages in the first part were relatively simple, the latter became more and more difficult to understand. Take the chapter on temperature, for example. It said that the cold and the heat are the active reactions of those tiny balls. The more energy those tiny balls get, the more actively they move. From a macro perspective, the temperature would rise. If what His Highness said was true, would her green flames become many active tiny balls after being magnified?

The candle burned to its end as time went on. After the flames wavered twice, it went out. Just then, the Book of Illusion was completed. The pages and handwriting became gradually transparent before disappearing altogether. Darkness engulfed the room until a green flame blossomed from Anna�s fingertips, lighting up the whole room.

Looking at the empty desk, she felt somewhat disappointed.

Holding up her right hand, the dark blue magic was like a cluster of fluorescent lights, motionless on her fingertips.

She wanted to give it a test. If everything was made up of tiny balls, could it be as tiny as a tiny ball? Anna closed her eyes and visualized the image of countless particles that made it up.

The flames started to change.

It changed from a droplet-like shape to a thin line. It became thinner and longer, before finally resembling a hair.

Anna noticed the change, but it was not enough for her. She thought the hair was still much bigger than a tiny ball. It could become much thinner.

Even though she thought so, it seemed difficult to transform the green flames again. The light became dim and the thin green light started to tremble.

Perhaps they could not be stacked, but can be linked� Her Highness had once said that there was a fixed chain between the tiny balls. Maybe she could reshape them.

The particles imagined in Anna�s mind shook twice, and with a bang, the links were broken up. The fire particles were no longer connected to each other, but flew apart like stars in the sky. The green flames may have disappeared, but in her mind, they still existed in a different shape. In the vast darkness, after most of the stars fell, the rest of the particles reunited slowly. They lined up one by one, eventually forming a filament composed of stars.

Temperature was an active matter, she thought.

As soon as she got this thought, the filament began swinging, as if someone was holding a corner of it and shaking it. After the shaking, the undulation of the filament seemed unstoppable and ripples were unfolded along it.

There seemed to be ripples in her world, where there was no clear outline between things jumping along this ripple, so was her magic power. She even thought that the first ripple plucked by her fingers was magic power itself.

When she opened her eyes, everything was quiet again. The green flames were gone. When her eyes were adjusted to the dark, the desk, the wardrobe, the candlestick� the furniture of her room showed their shapes from their shadows one by one. The pale blue moonlight poured onto the floor through the window, mirroring a small part of the grayish white. Everything appeared to be the same as usual.

But in her eyes, the world had become completely different. A dark filament floated in the air�Anna knew that she did not really see it with her eyes, but rather a different kind of perception.

She pulled out an iron ingot from under her desk and placed it in front of her.

The black filament abided by her will and wrapped itself around the iron ingot, quickly gathering. Like a hot knife cutting butter, the filament easily embedded into the iron ingot. Under the will of Anna, the temperature produced by the filament was several times higher than the green flames, but was limited to a very narrow range. Iron ingot soon broke into two. She picked up one half of it and saw the smooth cut. She could even feel its remaining warmth.

Then she placed the iron ingot vertically, placing the black filament on the top of it. She then split a horizontal filament, making them perpendicular.

This was a mathematical knowledge taught by His Highness in his lectures. With one point as the center, a precise circle could be drawn up using a tight line around the center. The area of the circle was equal to the line�s length multiplied by itself and a constant.

Anna controlled one end of the horizontal filament to bend down and form a right angle, traversing through the iron ingot to the desk. She then made it gently rotate around the center line. The shape and whole temperature of the black flames could now be adjusted, and those black flames composed of particles could be turned into any shape. The temperature of various parts could also be controlled respectively.

After making a circle, a standardized cylinder was cut and shaped.

Due to the fact that the joints were shaped too closely to each other, Anna spent a lot of efforts to beat it out of the iron. Just as the section before, the surface of the iron cylinder was quite smooth. Against the moonlight, she could even faintly see her elongated face reflected on it.

At the crack of dawn, Roland was pulled out of bed by Nightingale. He remembered the last time this happened was when Tigui Pine discovered Nana was a witch.

�What�s going on? Did we discover a new witch in town?� he asked, rubbing his eyes.

�No, Your Highness!� Nightingale exclaimed excitedly. �Anna, Anna�s ability evolved again!�

�Again?� Roland was not completely awake. �Didn�t she already reach adulthood?�

�It�s a post-adulthood evolution. I�ve never seen such amazing magic power. It acts just like an entity.� Nightingale brought him a washbasin and continued, �Scroll and Wendy have never heard of it as well. Hurry up and take a look. Everyone�s in the office waiting for you!�

Roland gave his face a cursory wash. After putting on his clothes, he went straight to the office on the second floor with Nightingale. When he went in, the eyes of 11 witches were focused on him. Anna�s eyes were swollen, as if she had not slept well the whole night.

�Who can tell me what happened?�

The first to speak was still Nightingale. �When I passed by Anna�s room this morning, I saw her sleeping at her desk with a pile of iron lumps. I wanted to wake her up, but when I got closer, I noticed her magic power had turned�� She paused momentarily, as if to think of a way to describe it. �Her magic power has become a fixed shape, like a revolving block.�

�A block?� Roland approached Anna and carefully observed her. There was nothing unusual about her, except for her exhaustion. Then he noticed a cylinder on the desk. The cylinder seemed to be made out of pig iron. Its smooth gray surface and the flatness of its top was an unbelievable sight for him. �This is��

�Anna made that,� Nightingale said, �Using her new magic power. After a witch is awakened, her body will gather magic power. At first it�ll as pale as the fog, but in a few years, it�ll slowly become a whirlpool of gas of a different color. For example, Wendy�s color is white and Leaf�s color is green� As for Anna, her magic power was immense in the past. In adulthood, it became a lot more condensed, making it a dark green. But her magic power is now only the size of a fist. It�s like a solid object, completely opaque.� She picked up a quill pen on the desk to roughly depict it. �That�s basically what it looks like now.�

Nightingale�s drawing was terrible, but Roland could still tell that it was a cube.

He looked at Anna. �What happened last night?�

Anna told him what she experienced. When she finished talking, the other witches were still confused. They did not understand what the tiny balls, vibration, and linking had to do with the evolution of her ability.

Roland was the only one who was a little shocked.

In his view, magic power was a form of energy and it was the witch who released it. Magic power could be transformed infinitely, but its form was ultimately dependent on the witch manipulating it. In other words, it depended on the witch�s thoughts.

If his guess was accurate, a witch�s thoughts could have far-reaching impacts on her magic power.

To put it simply, a man who had never seen a plane would find it hard to imagine a huge iron bird flying in the air. A man who had never seen the universe would naturally not know how wide the world was. It was one�s knowledge and thoughts that limited the use of magic power. Every step in understanding the nature of the world would bring great progress in science and technology. Would that hold true for a witch�s ability? The more they understood the world, the closer their magic power got to its origin?

�Let me see your new ability,� Roland said curiously.

Anna stuck out her fingers. A mass of black flames appeared on her fingertips, looking nothing different from ordinary flames, except for the fact that they did not glow.

�Can your Blackfire change shapes freely?�

Anna nodded and controlled the Blackfire to the table. Soon, the Blackfire suddenly turned into a cube. Not yet all the people noticed what happened, the cube spread into a black cloth, almost covered the entire desktop, and then concentrated to the center gradually, it turned into a straight line. Roland could not help touching it and found that hair shaped slim black line did not move� that was so incredible, we all knew that even if it was hard as steel, when it was pulled into a filament, one could easily twist it with fingers. This was determined by the flexibility of the object, the absolutely solid material did not exist.

�Can you make it finer?�

�Yes, but you can�t touch it anymore,� said Anna, �Otherwise it�ll cut you.�

�What about the temperature? Can you control it freely as well?�

�Yes. Compared with the green fire, I can make it produce different temperatures at different parts.�

Roland basically understood what Nightingale mean by the ability liked real substance, compared with the green fire which as gentle as water, her ability had been cohered at the moment, and it was not appropriate to describe her ability as flame�when Anna accepted the point of view that the world was made by the microparticle, her knowledge of the temperature generated by flame broke the horizon of the temperature generated by particle movements. What could be sure was the two sides did not control the particles, like they did not control the flame� Whether the originally ordinary flame, or the green and black flame after adult year, they were all the forms of magic power.

Even though both were heat transformed from magic power, the effects were totally different.

Roland could not help thinking that Anna was a true genius. Other than that, he had nothing more appropriate to describe her. After learning the theory just a few days ago, she immediately understood and even applied it to her magic power. Such thought and capacity for knowledge could only be found in talented people.

Anna�s transformation also made him more interested in exploring the true meaning of the world.

It was a pity that Roland could never possess magic power. This might be the biggest regret for him after the time traveled. After all, most people had a superhero dream. If one developed incredible strength out of the blue, thus changing his whole life, how wonderful would that be?

�I think I�ve figured out the reason for the change in Anna�s ability,� he told the witches, leaving behind his regret in his heart.

�What�s that?� the witches asked.

�Learning.�

�Learning?� Scroll muttered, �Do you mean the class yesterday?�

�Exactly,� Roland briefly explained what he guessed, �The knowledge will help you improve your ability and even dramatically transform it.�

�Can I� do that too?� Mystery Moon asked timidly.

�Of course.� Roland patted her shoulder. If not for the fact that steam engines were limited in number, and they could not find rubber, they could have made wires. The pile of strong magnets made with her enchantment would definitely come in handy.

Roland�s original purpose in lecturing was to pass on knowledge to Scroll, in case he forgot more as time passed. Now that he accidentally discovered that such knowledge could also improve the witches� abilities, his class had become a necessity for all witches.

Of course, he understood not everyone had an outstanding talent like Anna. For Nightingale who would fall asleep in class, he naturally did not pin any hopes on her. From remembering to understanding, and from understanding to applying, there were many gaps in the process. He did not know how many of them could truly understand the knowledge and finally apply it to their magic power.

�Did you not sleep well last night?� Roland asked Anna. �Take a good rest first. I�ll test your new ability a few days later.�

�Yes.� Anna nodded seriously.

�As for you all,� he said, looking to the other witches, �from today onwards, gather in the living room after dinner from Monday to Friday to learn basic reading and writing. Scroll, you�re their teacher that�ll lead them towards enlightenment.�

Prius had been kept here for five days.

After the transformation, the residence was almost like a cell. The original wooden doors had been replaced with wood balustrades and the furniture had all been removed. Only a few blankets remained. The only advantage was that the room was still clean, and neither air nor rain could leak in.

Aside from him, there were four other people in the cell. One belonged to the Wolf Family, while the other three were from the Ryan Family. And he, himself was the knight of the Earl of the Elk Family.

�Oh, heck! When can we leave?� The oldest knight of the Ryan Family shouted, �The wheat in my domain has not been sown yet! My wife doesn�t know how to deal with these things.�

�Your domain?� The young knight of the Wolf Family sneered at him. �Do you think His Highness will let you go to gather horses, weapons, and armor? Do you think he�ll give you a chance for revenge? To tell you the truth, you should consider him merciful for not hanging you already�

�What did you say?!� The older knight glared at him.

�It�s the truth,� said the young knight in a carefree voice. �The duke was the mastermind behind the rebellion. Why did he not dispose of his elite knightage, to leave them for his son? As for us, we had no choice but to go to the battlefield under the threats of the duke.

�I think you�re suicidal!� He walked over and lifted the young man, with his right hand clenched. As he was about to beat him, a hand stretched out from behind and held him firmly.

�Stop! Halon. Do you want to attract the guards?� An extremely handsome knight pushed down his fist. �He�s right. We�re the knights of the duke. When convicted, the sentence will be severe. Right now, the only thing we can do is to wait for the result. Look at the knight of the Elk Family and look at you. Where�s your demeanor as a noble?�

Prius knew him. He was Ferlin Eltek, the star knight of Longsong Stronghold. His nickname was Morning Light. He had attracted many young ladies of the noble. But in the end, h had married a civilian woman, which had caused a big clamor at the time. Hearing Ferlin Eltek mentioning him, Prius could not remain silent anymore. He said to the three people who were quarreling, �I�m not sure whether your domain will be returned. But at least I know His Highness won�t kill you.�

�Oh? Why?�

�Killing you at the stronghold would have been more effective, why would he kill you here after all the trouble he went through to bring you here? For his subjects?� Prius shook his head. �The knightage wasn�t even able to enter Border Town. �

They had not burned, killed or looted the town, so the townspeople would not hold extreme hatred against them. Therefore, for the prince, killing them in the town would not be as good as killing in the stronghold. Since they had not been killed in the stronghold, they should be alright.

Ferlin thought a little and nodded. �What you say is reasonable. And what�s your name��

�Prius Dessau.�

�Thank you for your comfort, Sir Dessau.� Ferlin looked at him with gratitude and took Halon back to the corner.

Ferlin Eltek sat down and hummed against the wall.

Prius thought that Ferlin Eltek was not really afraid, but his own �calmness� was just a facade.

Prius knew that he was unsuited to be a knight. He had not inherited his father�s bravery or the wisdom of his mother. Compared with swords, he performed by taking care of his fields. For example, keeping chickens and ducks, going fishing in the pond. He had been forced to fight for the Earl of the Elk Family. He did not even like to hunt, and he never mind killing people. When in an assault, Prius always rode behind other people. He was still surprised to be alive.

�Wait�� Suddenly, he felt a bit strange. �As the star knight, why has Ferlin Eltek survived as well? Shouldn�t he be the first one to go?�

�His Highness wants to see you,� the guards shouted at the door, �Sirius Daly! Come out first.�

The young knight jumped up, waved to the others, and walked out of the cell.

�Hey, what about us!�

Halon ran to the door but was forced back by a short jab from the guard. After locking the door, the guard said, �Don�t worry, it�ll be your turn later.�

Knowing that the trial was about to come, Prius was getting more nervous. Damn it! He had been waiting for this day, but now that it was here, he was frightened. He got angry. His body could not stop trembling. He looked at the door from time to time. It was like waiting for his first child�s birth, with hope and panic coexisting.

Fortunately, the wait was not long. About 30 minutes later, the guard came back. �Prius Dessau, it�s your turn.�

He stood up in a panic and tripped over the blanket on the ground. Luckily, Ferlin was quick to help him up.

�Thank you.� His throat was dry.

�It�s no bother,� Ferlin replied gently, which made Prius feel quite relieved.

He nodded to Ferlin and followed the guard out of the cell.

The guard was a young boy, about 17 years old, wearing dark brown leather and boots, he carried thorns and sticks in his hand.

�Aren�t you going to tie my hands?� asked Prius.

�You were searched before being locked in, what can you do without weapons?�

�Where are you going to take me?�

�The castle of His Highness.�

�What happened to the man before me? The knight called Sirius. What about him?�

The guard shrugged and did not answer.

Well, maybe he did not know, maybe he did not want to tell. Prius stopped asking.

He felt strange about this guard. He looked like an ordinary civilian from his dress and appearance, but he was not afraid of the knights and when talking he did not even use the most basic honorifics. It seemed that he was not aware that these people could easily determine his life and death in normal times.

Something was strange about the guard�s eyes. Prius had seen many civilians who had been running around for life, who were stiff and indifferent, just as a corpse without soul. But in this man�s eyes, he saw the pride. He was obviously a civilian, but he had the same proud manner as the knights�. Prius was very confused.

What kind of environment could create such a person?

He looked around. Though he had not been to Border Town before, he had still heard of this barren and desolate place. But the town in front of him was thriving, far different from what he had imagined. The streets were crowded with busy people bustling about quickly. From time to time someone would say hello to the guard. Everyone�s faces were ruddy and full of energy as if there had been no suffering during the Months of Demons.

Close to the castle, he saw an open space with more than a hundred people. It seemed that they were building houses, but looking at the size, it looked like more than one. The materials piled nearby were clay bricks. In general, only the nobles could choose this expensive material, but then again, these houses were too small for the nobles. Some of the houses already built in the open space were just a little bigger than his own living room. In addition, the rooms were too similar, as if they were printed out. What kind of noble would like this kind of room?

With his mind full of questions, Prius entered the castle.

Before entering the room, Prius was searched again. This time the search was much more detailed. From top to bottom, any place that could hide a knife or dagger was checked again, even his soles were searched.

Then he saw the men who defeated the Duke the Coalition�Roland Wimbledon, the Fourth Prince of Graycastle, the lord of the Border Town, and the new lord of the Western Region.

The prince had long gray hair, a symbol of his royal blood. His face looked very young, at most 20 years old. His hair was not bounded, and he did wear any crown. The fingers holding the quill pen were slender, and you could not see any jewelry or rings on his hand, not even a bracelet. This was very rare for the noble.

�Prius Dessau, Knight of the Earl of the Elk Family?� Roland leaned against the chair and looked over his list.

�Yes, Your Highness.� Prius knelt down on one knee.

He still could not believe that this man, who had no beard on his face, could lead a group of miners and hunters to defeat Duke Ryan.

�Are you literate? Can you read or write? Please stand up and answer my questions.�

�I am, Your Highness. This is the most basic requirement of a knight.� Swinging up, Prius stood wobbling. He suddenly remembered that being adept with both the pen and the sword did not apply to some of older knights that had been conferred in the Kingdom of Graycastle, so he added, �I mean, the new knights.�

Over the past three decades, battle accomplishments and battle skills had had a reduced role in the appointment of new knights, as many other considerations had been added. If you could not read or write, it was difficult to be chosen by the lord. The rise of Frostwind Knight in the king�s city, and Morning Light in the Western Region had also taken the requirements to a new level.

So if one desired to become a trainee knight, the first thing to learn would be reading. To reach a higher level, he also had to be proficient in all kinds of etiquette.

But Prius did not understand why His Highness asked this question.

�Well,� said the prince, �Then I�ll make the verdict now.�

This made him hold his breath instantly.

�You have two choices. One is to become a miner in the North Slope Mine for two decades to redeem your sins. The other one is to become a teacher, teaching my people to read and write. Miners aren�t slaves, rather you would be getting a salary, and you could have three days off per month. If you were to be a teacher, in addition to salary, there would also be free housing for you, and you could have two days off per week. However, if you choose the latter option, you must work until the age of 50. At that time, even if you quit the position, you�ll continue to receive your salary.�

Hearing this, Prius felt relieved. It was like he had expected before, no execution or exile. But these two choices puzzled him, mining sounded like hard work, but His Highness had said there were salaries and holiday? To be a teacher, that was supposed to be the job of knowledgeable people, wasn�t it? He could only write and read. And His Highness had said that he should teach his people, what did he mean? Did he mean to cultivate the civilians like noble?

The important thing was that in that both choices there had been no remark of how his territory would be handled.

Prius looked up at the prince, and asked carefully, �Your Highness, I don�t know, if I choose one of the two, how my territory will be��

�From the moment you lifted the sword to me, your territory was no longer yours,� Roland said bluntly, �and I�ve reached an agreement with the successor of the Elk Family. Your estate will be converted to gold royals as compensation to you, and when you make your choice, the new earl will send the compensation together with your family to Border Town so that he can vacate the place to recruit knights.�

Prius was worried, for there were only a house and a flock of chickens and ducks in his territory. How much could these things be worth? The new earl would certainly take a big discount. It was hard to say if there were 30 gold royals or not. The earl had just died, and his successor would abandon him. Prius was disappointed.

�As an accomplice to the rebels, this is a minor verdict,� said Roland. �Why regret a bare territory? Whether you choose to be a miner or a teacher, you would have enough money to buy land in Border Town.�

Hearing this, Prius resumed a little again. He did not want to be a miner, as for the other choice� �Your Highness, how much is a teacher�s salary?�

�Junior teachers receive 20 silver royals per month, with an increase of five each year until the age of 50. After the age of 50, the salary will be calculated on the basis of the maximum growth. Incidentally, the right can�t be inherited or transferred.�

Prius calculated that with nearly three gold royals every year, in addition to the increase every year, in about four or five years, he would have the revenue of his territory�s. �Your Highness, what does junior teacher mean? Are there other categories?�

�Of course. The junior teachers only teach reading and writing, while secondary and senior teachers have to teach all subjects, as long as you have the ability which is beneficial to the development of Border Town, you can take the job.� Roland sat up. �Do you have any good skills? I don�t need riding and fencing.�

�I�m not good at these skills anyway,� Prius thought. He hesitated and then spoke, �Your Highness, I�m good at raising chickens and ducks, and I�m also good at fishing. Do these skills work?� The moment the words left his mouth, he regretted it. The skills he had said could not be considered skills. Chicken and ducks could be alive in the wild by themselves. And noblemen liked to raise birds and cats, but this was just their hobby. They never dedicated to raising these small animals. As for fishing, this was the same as the hunting which was just a personal hobby.

His Highness was actually interested in the first part of his sentence. �Oh, how to raise poultry? Please tell me about it.�

�Well, according to the experience I�ve gained in the territory, they�ll grow faster if fed with some corn, rather than the full stocking. And if the grain is mixed with sand, they�ll also grow fast, meanwhile, the food can be saved. You need to build a shed in a ventilated place, which can keep out rain, wind and sun. Especially in summer, if there�s no shed, the hen will probably stop laying eggs. And in winter, if you put straw inside, you can avoid the chickens freezing to death. In addition, if the chickens are fed some fish every month, then the flocks are less likely to get sick. Of course, the cleaning of chicken manure is also very important��

His Highness started laughing. �Not bad! It seems that the noble of the Western Region isn�t completely useless.�

�Your Highness?� Prius did not understand.

Fortunately, Roland Wimbledon quickly solved his worries. �I�ll let people buy some chickens and ducks from Longsong Stronghold, and I�ll give some land west of the border to you to raise the poultry there. If you do well and teach the raising method to others, the remuneration will be the same as the secondary teachers. The salary starts with 50 silver royals per month in the first year, with an increase of ten each year. But if it fails, North Slope is your only choice.�

Roland wrote down on a paper how he would deal with Prius, and then put down the quill, and rubbed his aching neck.

�Your Highness, do you need me to help you relax?� He heard Nightingale�s voice.

�There are still more than 30 people to deal with, maybe later.� Roland rejected her with a smile, and then rang the bell placed on the side of his table. The sooner he finished with these matters, the sooner he could initiate Border Town�s universal education. With Anna�s new ability, he was full of expectation about the future.

The next person brought into by the guards was a tall knight, and Roland�s first impression on him was that he looked extraordinarily handsome. He was not that far off from Carter, who was also very attractive. Of course, in Roland�s eyes, being extremely good-looking was a bad thing. He glanced at his list, and asked, �Ferlin Eltek?� But unlike the other people, there were also additional comments after his name, so Roland continued reading, �Head of the Lion Knightage, Morning Light, First Knight of the Western Territory� you have so many titles.�

�I do, Your Highness.� Ferlin went down on one knee.

�I thought people like you would be in the front line of the battle.� Roland raised his brow. �How did you manage to survive?�

�I hid in the back,� he replied honestly, �As long as you control the gallop of your horse, it�ll look like you�re in full sprint, while in fact, the horse speed is still relatively low.�

Roland never expected such a straightforward answer. He was expecting some kind of excuse to cover up his cowardliness and how he had escaped from the battle. It seemed that the situation was not as simple as he had first thought.

As expected, Ferlin continued, �On the morning of the third day of your pursuit, in other words, the day of the duke�s death, I was standing right by his side, waiting for an opportunity to kill him, but because he had a large number of guards closely surrounding him, I couldn�t attack him. Fortunately, your troops killed him in the end.� He paused and bowed his head. �Your Highness, I want to express my gratitude for what you did. No matter what you need me to do, I won�t have any objections.�

The last words could be regarded as a swear of allegiance. Stunned Roland commanded. �Stand up and tell me, what happened?�

�Yes, Your Highness.� He stood up and began. �My wife, Irene, was originally a civilian who worked at a well-known theater in Longsong Stronghold. We met each other on a lucky encounter and immediately fell in love. I wanted to marry her, but my father and mother didn�t support the wedding. So, I had to leave our territory, and rent a room on a farm near the stronghold. That�s where we also held the wedding. Shortly after our marriage, Irene finally got the opportunity to officially perform for the first time.� The knight�s voice became deeper. �Unexpectedly, the duke also watched the performance and took a fancy to her, and soon afterward, while I was away on a mission, he took the opportunity to break into our room and raped Irene.

�It took a long time before she finally told me what had happened. I wanted to find the duke and hold him responsible for his action, but Irene begged me not to act recklessly. Deep down, I also knew that if I were to try and do something, my chances of success weren�t very high. Even if I was able to kill him, I�d never be able to escape his guards and Irene would most likely become an object of revenge for the duke�s heir. With no other option, I could only suppress myself, until the day he decided to march against Border Town.�

�Although I didn�t avenge him myself, Irene will finally be able to sleep without worrying that someone will break into her room during the night. And for me, a heavy burden has now finally been lifted from my heart, so please allow me to express my gratitude again.�

�So that�s what happened.� Roland tapped on the table with his quill, a sign he had previously agreed with Nightingale, whenever he had to check whether the other side was lying. Soon he felt Nightingale pinch his left scapula, which meant that the knight had told the truth. But this pinch was just a bit too hard, leaving Roland with a little flinch. �Can you read or write?�

�Uh�� Ferlin was startled, clearly unable to follow the prince�s thoughts. �I can.�

�Then I�ll announce my verdict now.� Roland gave him the same choice as the others. �� what�s your choice?�

�Your Highness, don�t you require me to fight for you? Whether it�s a single duel or a group battle, I��

�No, I don�t.� Roland interrupted him. �There are no nobles in my army, and I won�t recruit any of them in the future. My army is fully composed of civilians, and as for you, you�ll never pick up a weapon for the rest of your life.�

�Oh. Is that so?� Ferlin remained silent for a long time before he finally nodded. �I understand. In this case, I choose to become a teacher.�

�You made a wise choice. Teachers can get free housing and the salary is also very good. I�ll send someone back to your home, to pick up your wife, so that you can continue to live here together.� Roland waved to the knight to leave.

�Wait, Your Highness, please allow me to ask a question,� he hesitated and then said, �Do you give these options to all the knights? If they�re unable to become teachers, will the only option left for them be to work in the mines for 20 years?�

�Correct.�

�Your Highness, I have a man named Halon who�s an experienced old knight but illiterate. Can I pay for him with gold royals, so that he won�t be sent into the mine?�

�Of course not.� Roland waved. �If you could redeem your crime with money, I would have sent you back to the stronghold.�

�But he�s almost 50 years old, and that kind of hard work would only destroy his body.�

�He can�t survive in a mine but has the ability to attack Border Town?� said Roland. [Furthermore, my mines are not like dark coal mines. Apart from the steam engine helping with the pumping and transportation, the workers also have a fixed amount of holiday.] Roland picked up the bell, ready to call the next person.

�Your Highness!� Ferlin ground his teeth and kneeled down once again. �I have a family treasure map. It�s at least 400 years old. I�m willing to use it in exchange for Halon�s freedom.�

�A 400-year-old treasure map?� The prince raised his eyebrows. �Are you sure that one of your ancestors didn�t just draw a map to joke with the younger generation?�

�No, it was not written with charcoal or ink.� He shook his head as if he was trying to recall the drawing. �I can�t tell what material it�s made of. The lines are very delicate, smooth and subtle, and even though it has been stored in the basement for decades, the drawings and the text don�t have any sign of discoloration. My father told me it was handed down from generation to generation, and it describes the location of a treasure, located deep in the Misty Forest in the northwest, but now the area is Barbarian Land, impossible for people to reach.�

Roland tapped his quill again against the table, and once more Nightingale pinched his left side.

�Well, even if what you said is true, this treasure map should be hidden in the basement of the Eltek house. You�ve already given up the right to your inheritance in your territory. I�m afraid they won�t be very pleased to see you again.�

�That�s true.� Ferlin nodded. �But I�ve completely memorized the content of the map, and I can roughly depict the drawings and the texts on it.�

�Then draw it for me.� Roland pushed his quill and paper to the side of the table. �If what you said is true, I can make an exception to your request.�

�Your Highness is too kind.� Ferlin went to the table and began to draw the treasure map.

In fact, Ferlin Eltek was not just good at fighting, he was also talented in painting and calligraphy. Soon, a rough geographical map appeared in front of Roland.

The map displayed the area behind the Impassable Mountain Range, the whole lower right corner of the map was occupied by mountains while an equilateral triangle was drawn in the middle of the map. The three sides connected three different locations. One corner pointed towards the foot of North Slope Mountain, and another pointed to a hexagonal star mark inside the Misty Forest, which most probably represented the so-called treasure�s location.

However, Roland�s attention was entirely drawn to the third vertex of the triangle, located in the middle of the Barbarian Region, on top of a tooth-shaped mountaintop, with a word above it: �Taquila�.

�The number of demons increased day by day, but our numbers grew smaller. The Holy City of Taquila had fallen and the only option left to us was to flee in all directions. We fled over the mountains and across the rivers, getting as far as possible from the Gates of Hell. But next time, where should we flee?�

�What�s your opinion?� Back in the office, Roland closed the Book of Illusion and turned to Scroll.

�If the knight remembers correctly, then this would be a really incredible coincidence.� Scroll waited for a moment. �The content in the treasure map is the same as the recordings in the ancient book. It proves that the church had indeed constructed a city in the Wild Places to defend against the demons. As for the marks on the map, perhaps they were defense towers, posts, warehouses, or whatever else they had built there.�

�You mean, it isn�t really a treasure map?�

�Of course not. After all, the church isn�t like bandits or pirates. They don�t need to hide their treasures, not to mention leaving a drawing for future generations.�

Roland nodded. �You�re right, so� is it a legit map?�

�Most probably. Although it�s not clear why the church didn�t record this period of history, I believe that there are more ruins in the forest east of King City,� explained Scroll. �If the locations marked on the map are just constructions above the ground, there shouldn�t be much left after all these centuries, but if they include underground facilities such as basements, underground remains must exist, and through them we might be able to discover some clues.�

�What kind of clues?�

�For example, why the church wants to hide the existence of the demons? Why are they so secretive about it when they�ve previously fought them?� She paused, her voice becoming deeper. �And, why do they hunt us, witches, as if we were demons?�

Roland did not know how to comfort her. After a long silence, he slowly said, �Unfortunately we�re not sure how accurate the drawing is. According to him, the original map was so precise that it didn�t look to be drawn by hand.�

�How about asking Nightingale to check the knight�s home?�

�That�s not very appropriate.� Roland disagreed. �The treasure map has already been passed down for hundreds of years in their clan. It�s highly probable that the basement is filled with God�s Stones of Retaliation and other traps. Let�s discuss this another time.� He measured the sides of the triangle symbol. �Anyway, for now, this place is out of our reach. Assuming that the foot of North Slope Mountain is our mines, then the location of the hexagonal star is at least 50 kilometers away from us, almost as far as the distance between Border Town and Longsong Stronghold. Apart from Lightning, who could reach it within a day, the rest of us would need to walk for two or three days. Not to mention the chance of encountering demons. I don�t want anything bad to happen to you.�

�You could let Lightning explore the area from the air, maybe she�ll discover something.� Scroll proposed.

�That�s a good idea.� Roland stood up. �Once she comes back, I�ll talk to her. I need to go to North Slope Mine now, and you can start preparing your teaching materials for the lessons. If you need more copies, turn to Soraya for help. You have to continue their lessons this evening.�

Roland had combined what he had learned in primary school with the teaching methods of the palace, and passed everything to Scroll, including classic memorization, phonetic reading, writing and reciting phrases. With all of these, he believed she had everything needed to become a good teacher.

�Yes, Your Highness.� Scroll saluted and left.

The firing area behind North Slope Mine was double the size it had been before, and the two holes needed for the production of the 12-pound cannons were still visible on the ground. When Roland arrived, he saw Anna practicing her new ability. On the table, there were two finished products. They looked like steel pipes.

He held one up examining it. The steel pipes were perfectly round and had a smooth surface without any pores. The hole in the middle was equally wide on both sides, and sunlight passed through without any problems. Roland used his nails to measure the thickness of both sides, only to find that they were nearly identical.

�How were you able to make it?!� Roland praised her.

�Watch.� Anna picked up a freshly cut steel bar, laying it flat in her hand, and then a thread of her black flame was inserted into one end, slowly burning through the whole bar. Then she rotated the thread around the center, and soon the hole was created.

What a great ability, he thought. With the high temperature of her magic, Anna was capable of taking the industrial production of Border Town to a new level all by herself. Trying to contain his excitement, he said, �Let�s try some basic tests first.�

The basic tests included the range of her ability, her ability�s strength, and its duration.

Nightingale came out of the Mist. She was responsible for observing any changes to the magic power inside Anna�s body.

The results showed that other than a substantial increase in the strength and the duration of her ability, the range of her dark flames still remained at around five meters, and only within three meters was she able to control them with precision.

At the same time, her ability still belonged to the summoning type. Her dark flames could still be affected by God�s Stone of Retaliation, as they would immediately disappear once inside the range of one of them.

[Unless she could evolve to the point of directly utilizing magic power, it would be impossible to get past this hurdle,] Roland thought.

However, Anna�s new abilities could turn Heaven and Earth upside down. With her Blackfire, it became much easier to produce industrial machines, all kinds of machine tools, and it quickly improved the quality of machining levels.

But a large-scale industrialization could not be achieved by one person alone. For example, the task he gave Karl of building furnaces next to North Slope Mine was underway, with one furnace already constructed. However, by the time they tested it, they discovered that although they could use it to produce clay bricks for the creation of cement, its temperature tolerance was not up to standard. So, in the end, they still had to rely on Anna to produce the required cement. Fortunately, since her day of adulthood, she could complete the calcining process without the need to be inside the dusty room.

Roland could solve the temperature problem. For instance, they could use the steam engine to create enough wind to improve the furnace�s temperature, and they could then let the heated air circulate to minimize heat loss. But without Anna, the steam engine would not even exist. After all, only she could produce the key components.

It could be said that the industrialization of Border Town relied heavily on Anna�s ability. Without her, the so-called industrial revolution would be nothing more than a dream.

During the Months of Demons, everything Roland did had been to survive, but now that the threat of the demonic beasts no longer existed, and Longsong Stronghold had provided them with enough manpower and funding, he naturally intended to change the current situation.

Starting from the basics.

He let Anna cut a two-finger wide, one-millimeter-thick steel sheet then measured a centimeter-long distance on it, marked it and repeated this until he had a ten-centimeter-long ruler. Then using the black flames, they created vertical marks at a regular distance. Under her control, the distance between each vertical mark was almost identical.

Roland intended to start with a ruler, and then continue with the creation of all kinds of measuring tools, in order to define all weights and measurements. These standard units would then be written as the norm into manuals, becoming an indispensable part of his imminent plan for universal education.

Every day during this half month in Port of Clearwater was like a holiday. Even when standing on the terrace of the Lord�s high tower, Ryan could still feel the high morale of this city.

The supplies and manpower from Eagle City dramatically boosted the performance of this harbor city. Every marauder came home with great profits. The slave market also prospered. The series of battles did not cause much loss on the Blacksail Fleet. Instead, the Blacksail Fleet recruited many slaves as their sailors. Right now, the newly recruited slaves were under some serious trainings. A few days later, they would head for the Fjords route and start the first plunder of the year.

The queen also promulgated a slave expansion decree. As long as these slaves, who were looted from Eagle City, were able to capture new people from the plunder to substitute themselves, they could become the citizens of Port of Clearwater. With such an exciting decree, the residents of Eagle City who were now slaves would endeavor in the battles.

[Now Timothy was utterly defeated. There would be no one to stop the Queen of Clearwater in the Kingdom of Graycastle. Soon enough, Garcia Wimbledon would sit on the throne of Kingdom of Graycastle,] Ryan thought, [but why didn�t the queen show any signs of pleasure? Instead, there seemed to be a sense of low spirit on her face.]

�Your Highness, the tribe leader from Sandstone Clan and Black Bone clan request to see you.� There was guard�s voice from outside of the door.

Ryan looked at Her Majesty, who seemed completely indifferent. Ryan then called, �Bring them in.�

Regardless of resting, meetings or seeing subordinates, Her Majesty liked to do all the activities on the top floor of this high tower. As long as the weather was fine, Garcia stayed most on the terrace. Most of the people were not used to standing up in the midair and conversing with the sea breeze of unpleasant smell blowing on their face. Even the residents of Sand Nation were not accustomed to such.

The leader of Sandstone Clan was a small-sized female, who was also the goddess of the tribe. Ryan scorned it in his heart when he first heard such introduction to her. There was no such thing as the goddess. She was merely a fallen witch. The leader of the Black Bone Clan was a strong guy with scars all over his face. His arms were the same size of legs of the ordinary people. During every meeting, there would be three to four guards surrounding him in case of any malicious attempts from him to the queen.

The two tribe leaders frowned at the instant when they stepped on the terrace. However, they soon appeased their expression and bowed piously to the Queen of Clearwater. �We wish that your road to the future will be covered with oasis and that the stars in the heaven will shine on your path.�

�You may get up.� Garcia seated with her back facing the fence. �How�s your new house? Are you content?�

�Everything has been great,� the goddess Kabala said, �there are forests and water sources in your domain. Living here is much better than living in the windy and dusty Iron Sand City.�

�That�s good. Why did you two come to me?�

�Your Majesty, last time you��

The leader of Black Bone Clan was immediately interrupted by Kabala. �Your majesty, after last battle, many of our warriors have been weakened. They can only recover after taking the new pill periodically. However, we don�t have many pills in our hand anymore. So, I came here to ask you for more pills.�

�I came for the same reason,� the tribe leader of Black Bone Clan glared at the goddess and said.

�The ingredients to compose this pill are very complicated. I don�t have many pills left either. Don�t worry. I�ll give the pills to you two as soon as the production of the new pills is completed. However, don�t forget to prepare the gold royals. If you two don�t have enough gold royals, you could use the water of Styx�s River instead.�

�Your Majesty, may I ask. �Kabala hesitated. �When would next batch of pills be produced?�

�I couldn�t release any information to you regarding that.� Garcia smoothed down her hair that was ruffled by the sea breeze. �Anything regarding the pills is confidential. Wait patiently. Those warriors are just exhausted. They�ll be fine after resting for a while.�

The guards received the hint from Ryan. They came up and surrounded the two residents of Sand Nation and �escorted� them out even though they wanted to ask more.

Garcia sighed after the door of the terrace was shut.

It was extremely rare to hear any sighs from Her Majesty. He asked, �Your Majesty, don�t you think it�s the proper way to allow Sand Nation to reside near the border of the Southern Territory? If they grew stronger one day��

�No, Ryan.� Garcia shook her head. �I never worried about Sand Nation. They would not anyhow threaten Port of Clearwater. The lake in that territory is in the middle of the two clans. And the upstream comes through Port of Clearwater. As long as I block half of the river, the lack of lake water would make them fight with one another. That�s why I picked the Sandstone Clan and the Black Bone Clan�their relationship has always been not so harmonious.�

�Then are you worried about the pills?�

Garcia did not answer. At that moment, the guard knocked again. �Your Majesty, Priest Descartes from church requests to see you.�

�Bring him in.� Her Majesty stood up promptly. Her expression grew even gloomier.

�Your Majesty Garcia Wimbledon, I wish to greet you as the representative of Holy City.� The priest came up to the terrace and bowed.

�Where are the pills? The delivery of the previous batches of pills was punctual. What�s wrong with the delay for this time?� Garcia asked coldly.

�Please appease your anger, Your Majesty. I came here today for this issue.� Descartes wiped the sweat from his forehead. �Your order of 5,000 pills was too overwhelming. Even if we devote all of our resources to produce the pills in Hermes, we couldn�t satisfy your demand within such a short time. This time, I brought you a new batch��

�How many?� Garcia interrupted.

�1000 pills,� Descartes said while holding onto his chest, �and the rest of the pills will be delivered shortly afterward.�

�What was the promise before?� The queen�s expression was less gloomy now. � You promised that I would have as many pills as I wish. Where are the pills? I�ll send my people to retrieve it.�

�In the church, regarding the gold royals��

�You�ll have all gold royals that we agreed on,� Garcia walked toward Descartes and whispered near his ear, �however, if the rest of the pills couldn�t be promptly delivered, your head will be hung on the embolon of my Blacksail flagship. I believe that the archbishop would not shed a tear for you.�

The priest excused himself with a ghastly pale face. The queen walked back to the fence, stared at the faraway sea antenna. The sea breeze blew her long gray hair just like the flags waving in the wind.

�You�re right. I�m worried about the pills.� Garcia�s voice sounded far away, �If Timothy was late more another two months, I would have ample knightage of King�s City to defeat him, instead of relying on the pills. However, he came too soon.�

�You�ve done very well, Your Majesty.� Ryan thought. [Who would have possibly done better? Garcia schemed a response right after they occupied Eagle City. She ordered people to take away the resources and citizens and at the same time started to dig ditches to pour the blackwater. Due to lack of human resources, she obtained the support from Sand Nation in exchange for a vacant territory in the Southern Territory. She ordered the warrior who took the pills to attack the knightage. Her loyal followers even took the pills without any hesitation to block the last savage assault.�]

�The pills from the church were not as beneficial as how I described. Without continuing the prescription, the warriors who took the pills will become anxious and then weak. They�ll eventually die in pain. I don�t care about the death of Sand Nation. However, my citizens who�re loyal to me should get better returns.� Garcia paused.� Ryan, you go retrieve the pills and give them to the warriors. Tell them to eat half a pill once, so that we can last a little longer.�

�Yes, Your Majesty.�

At the moment when Ryan departed, the guard knocked the door again. �Your Majesty, there�s a letter from King�s City.�

�Read it to me before you leave,� She said.

�Yes.� Ryan took the confidential letter, cut open the seal with ease and took out the letter. This type of letter was usually from the scouts from the various districts. There would be no names on the letter, and the content of the letter would be very clear. However, he was flabbergasted when he saw the first sentence of the letter.

�On 22nd day of Spring, the church declared that Linna, the queen of Kingdom of Everwinter was a hidden witch, and then conquered the capital of the kingdom and claimed total control over the Kingdom of Everwinter.�

When Mayne pushed open the heavy door of the secret chamber, a slight scent of resting grass blew onto his face. Archbishop Mayne was fond of such a candle that was composed of a mixture of herbs and spices. Especially in the airtight room, the scent of the burning candle made him felt composed.

The secret chamber was not commodious at all, it could only take one round table and four chairs. The other two archbishops were already seated. The first seat facing the wooden door was vacant. With his failing health, the pope had not shown his presence in almost half a year. Mayne would visit the Pivotal Secret Area of Hermes� underground castle only when he encountered tough problems and sought help from the pope.

�Since you all have gathered, let�s begin.� Mayne locked the door and sat between the two others. �Tayfun, how was the social order maintained in the Kingdom of Everwinter?�

�Besides the nobles from King�s City, there were not many revolts in other areas. The plebeians even welcomed us to rule the kingdom.� Tayfun touched his beard and said, �Of course, the nobles who still clung to their glories in the past will be annihilated one by one.�

�Very well.� Heather licked her lips. �If it were up to me to make the judgment, the citizens would realize the ugly side of the nobilities. It is a shame that I have so much to do over here and couldn�t make it to the Kingdom of Everwinter.�

Mayne ignored her words and said to Tayfun, �Those vacant positions need to be filled with our people. The church raised so many talented individuals for this occasion. Now is the time to use them. Originally, the church had the most influence on the Kingdom of Everwinter. The smaller the waves that we make, the quicker that we will be able to handle the Kingdom of Dawn and the Kingdom of Wolfheart.�

�This is natural.�

�The people who seek refuge from the church�I mean, the nobility�how shall we deal with them?� Heather asked. �The reason why the church has attracted so many excellent believers is that we care about their ability instead of their background. If we hastily accept those fools, we�ll shake the foundations of the church. My suggestion is� � She made a gesture of cutting down her throat.

�Leave them aside. We can make the issue clear to them after the situation becomes stabilized. That way, we�ll meet less resistance.� Regarding this issue, Mayne had consulted the pope. �The church could offer them positions equivalent to their noble ranks, which, however, can�t be passed on to their descendants. Don�t forget that we�ll abolish the monarchy in the end. We don�t need to be too anxious, Your Excellency Heather.�

Heather was born in a low-income family. She had gone through the hardships of starvation and vagrancy before the church took her in. She climbed to this position, thanks to the fact that she was born with a keen mind and extraordinary judgment. Mayne deeply understood Heather�s hatred toward the nobility. However, they needed to look at the bigger picture for now.

�How has the Kingdom of Graycastle been?� he asked.

�According to the information, the new lord Timothy didn�t return to King�s City after he was defeated. Instead, he went straight to the Eastern Region,� Tayfun answered.

�A smart choice.� Heather snapped her fingers. �He took Duke Frances to challenge the Queen of Clearwater, and when the duke died, he immediately went to divide the territory of the duke so as to stabilize the army and win over the support of other nobles. Well, well� not everyone in the royal family is a moron.�

�This way, we don�t need to worry as much. Let the High Priest from the church of King�s City contact him. I believe, in such a predicament, he wouldn�t refuse the benefits offered by the church. We�ll cut down 30% of the distribution of pills to Port of Clearwater so as to balance the power between the two. You shall take care of it, Tayfun.� Mayne arranged it. �In two years, the Kingdom of Graycastle would not have a single available soldier.�

�Don�t worry.� Tayfun nodded. �But� something is wrong with Longsong Stronghold in the west of Graycastle.�

�What happened?�

�After having defeated Duke Ryan, Prince Roland returned to Border Town. He didn�t reply to the invitation from Tylo. Perhaps, is Prince Roland not intending to fight for the throne?�

�Well, what do you think?� Mayne looked at Heather.

The latter shrugged. �There�s not much to think about� What were the rumors about him? They said he was ignorant, ill-mannered, incompetent, and covetous. I presume that someone like that wouldn�t be able to conquer Longsong Stronghold. So the answer is obvious. He lied to everyone, nobles and also us.�

�You mean that�� Mayne frowned.

�Our Royal Decree on the Selection of the Crown Prince picked the wrong person, Lord Mayne.� She sneered. �He should be the one on the stage, not Princess Garcia.�

�Being able to defeat a duke showed his capability. However, no matter how talented an individual is, it�ll be meaningless if he doesn�t have enough resources.� Tayfun shook his head. �If he chose to go back to that desolate place, that means that he has given up the chance to fight for the throne of the Kingdom of Graycastle. In this way, he�ll naturally not hinder our plan.�

�Yes, theoretically. However, it becomes interesting to view the situation with this new information.� Heather took out a note. �My personal information.�

Mayne unfolded the note and scanned through it. �Witches?�

�Uh-huh, a witch organization, which calls itself the Witch Cooperation Association, claims that they have settled down in Border Town and beckon other sisters to gather there. This may be a rumor without any confirmed evidence, and I shouldn�t have brought it here for discussion, but we all know that the name �Witch Cooperation Association� isn�t made up. Since the association was attacked by our Judgement Army in the forest east of King City, its members fled to the west and ultimately disappeared in some place to the west of Longsong Stronghold. And Border Town is just outside of the Western Region of Graycastle, at the foot the Impassable Mountain Range. Your Excellency, don�t you think that this is too coincidental?�

Witch Cooperation Association� Mayne had a vague impression of that name. They were hunted by the Judgement Army, and yet insisted on fleeing toward the Impassable Mountain Range even after losing many of its members. Through interrogating a captured witch, they knew that the witches wanted to find Holy Mountain in Barbarian Land. This was a suicidal act. Therefore, he did not put much effort into chasing them. There were several witch organizations like that over in the Kingdom of Wolfheart and the Kingdom of Dawn. Those witches who hid in the city were far more threatening than those who rushed to Barbarian Land.

�You mean that this prince is afflicted with the witch organization?� Tayfun�s face was gloomy after hearing the news.

�Maybe or maybe not.� Heather curled up her lips. �It�s a simple speculation of mine. What�re witches most afraid of? �Being exposed.� Apparently, using the name Witch Cooperation Association will receive attention from the church. However, they�re still using that name in their underground messages. Why?�

�Because to us, this is a familiar name,� Mayne said calmly, �as it is to the other witches.�

�Exactly!� Heather clapped her hands. �That way, it could lower the vigilance of wild witches. And perhaps someone will be attracted by this news and go to Border Town. It�s difficult to imagine they dare to do so without the support of the lord. We always say that we choose the lesser of two evils. Apparently, they believe that the consequence of not being able to recruit witches would be more serious than being exposed�� Her voice grew gloomy. �I feel that we�ve underestimated.�

�This isn�t a problem of underestimating or not,� Tayfun said in a furry. �Once the witches have settled down, they�ll be able to use their power without worries. They�ll probably soon discover that the so-called Demonic Torture can be avoided. That�s why we need to annihilate any residing witches and force them to hide or live in exile. Only by that way can we maintain the secret.�

Mayne knew that Tayfun had the right points. Witches themselves were not a threat to the church. However, as a group, once they got rid of their identity of �sinner,� they would be impactful to the church�s propaganda and even influence the foundation of the church�s control.

He found that he had fallen into a dilemma. In normal situations, they should launch the Judgement Army to annihilate the witches. However, Border Town was too distant from Hermes. In addition, the church�s army would soon attack the Kingdom of Wolfheart, so it was difficult for them to arrange the army to destroy this remote town. In addition, at such a turning point, if they commanded a large army to enter the Kingdom of Graycastle, it would raise the vigilance of Graycastle and the other two nations. This might affect later plans.

He decided after a long cogitation.

�I�ll send an emissary delegation to Border Town. There�ll be 10 members of the Judgement Army and a priest. They�ll investigate this issue with the help of Priest Tylo. If the prince isn�t involved with the Witch Cooperation Association, then this emissary delegation will eradicate the witches on its own.�

�What if the prince is involved in this?� Heather asked.

[God�s Punishment Army only obeys my orders and that of a few trusted priests. This is a rule personally set by the pope.] Thinking of that, Mayne said word by word, �Bring the news back to Holy City and I�ll lead the God�s Punishment Army to the town.�

As the woodland on the south bank of Redwater River was gradually cleared, the days of plowing drew closer and closer.

In order to facilitate the movement of people across the river which spanned nearly 100 meters, Roland had ordered the construction of a floating bridge. It was supported by dozens of timber rafts, which were made by carpenters, bound together by hemp rope. He specifically instructed the carpenters to make sure that the two ends of every raft were sharp so as to reduce the resistance to water impact. On each bank, the ends of the hemp rope were tied around four wooden poles to keep the position of the rafts as stable as possible. Four long wooden planks were placed on every raft to form the deck. They extended two meters off the rafts, such that four people could walk abreast on the bridge.

The assembly of the floating bridge was simple and highly durable. As long as there were no incidents of water rising or falling violently, and thereby causing the hemp rope to snap, the bridge was guaranteed to last for two to three years - the timber from Misty Forest was of excellent quality and was also used to manufacture the columns and pavement of Bordertown�s jetty, such that the lifespan of the jetty is said to be as long as Bordertown itself. Although it produced a creaking sound when stepped upon, there were never any signs of collapse.

Across the bridge towards the west, the first piece of land to be plowed was Leaf�s experimental farm. At present, it was already securely boarded up on all four sides, while its entrance was guarded by the First Army soldiers. These days, apart from eating, attending class and sleeping, Leaf spent the rest of time on the farm. Roland could vaguely see the scene enclosed by wooden boards from a window in his third-floor office�wheat was growing at such a frenzied pace that what was only green ears of wheat in the morning would become a sea of gold by the afternoon.

These Golden Ones, which depended on magic power to grow, took only one day to ripen. Any outsider who saw this would probably kneel down and hail this miracle.

Seeing that the land, population, and grains were fully prepared, Roland decided that it was time to add the final piece of the jigsaw: supervisors.

He summoned over Assistant Minister Barov, who had been terribly busy of late.

�By now, your apprentices should be ready to take on leadership roles, right?� Roland asked, �I�ll need to set up two new departments in the City Hall.�

�Your Highness, but� we don�t have enough manpower,� Barov replied awkwardly.

[You�d normally agree right away before discussing the details. But it seems that you�ve learned how to complain recently.] Roland bemoaned in his heart while remaining indifferent on the surface. [How can that be? Didn�t I recently allot you a fresh batch of knights?�]

In the first round of examination, Roland had picked out more than 50 knights who made the grade and were able to read and write. As there was no need of too many teachers, he ultimately assigned only nine of these knights to be elementary school teachers, while the remaining knights were assigned to the city hall and started off as apprentices.

�Your Highness, that bunch turned out to be tardy, lazy and unresponsive. They even make mistakes while copying notes. They�re completely unfit to be apprentices.�

�It�s up to you to discipline them.� Roland thumped lightly on the table. �If they don�t follow your instructions, send them straight to the northern slope mine. I�ll definitely need to set up these two departments.�

�Alright, Your Highness, as you say,� Barov replied in resignation.

Roland explained, �The first is the Ministry of Agriculture, which will be responsible for supervising the planting and growing of crops within my territory.�

Barov was surprised, undoubtedly because this was the first time he had heard that the City Hall would take charge of farming matters. �Your Highness, why not let the serfs handle these things themselves? How they plant or harvest has nothing to do with us. We just need to collect the right amount of tax.�

�That�s why your� no, I mean to say, that�s why the crop harvests have been so low.� Roland lifted his cup and drank a mouthful of water, as if to cover up his slip of the tongue. �A responsible City Hall needs to take care of how the people eat, drink and sh*t.�

�Eat, drink and sh*t�? Your Highness, are you kidding?�

�Of course not. I don�t have to talk about the importance of eating and drinking. If my subjects don�t have enough food, both the City Hall and I are guilty of dereliction of duty. As for sh*tting, don�t you think the public toilets project is done for this purpose?� His casual tone turned serious. �I don�t know how the City Hall in King�s City operates, or if the lives of the common folk are of no great concern to them. But, in Border Town, I want to establish an all-purpose government agency which understands clearly the various conditions and situations that the people are in. Only this way will I be able to obtain the wholehearted support of my subjects, and thus ensure that the decrees I issue will be carried out effectively. Make sure you remember what I�ve told you about the setting up of this department, as well as the tasks that it�ll be responsible for.�

�Yes, Your Highness.� Barov wiped away the sweat on his forehead.

�Go to the archives and find three or four people who used to do farm work, and recruit them into the Ministry of Agriculture. Then choose two of your apprentices to be in charge of records and statistics. In total, six people should be enough.�

�Wait� you want a few commoners to serve as the City Hall officials?� Barov revealed an expression of shock.

�They�re not only obedient but also highly enthusiastic when doing things, so why not? Officials aren�t equivalent to nobles. And the Ministry of Agriculture will require a few professionals to guide the farming from now.�

�But most of them aren�t even literate��

�That�s why you�ll have to assign two apprentices to manage the paperwork.� Roland interrupted. �This state of affairs won�t last for too long. Soon, I�ll implement a universal education program throughout my territory to teach everyone to read and write. When that time comes, you�ll no longer have to worry about lack of manpower.�

Clearly, this piece of news was even more startling to Barov than the decision to allow commoners into the City Hall. He gaped in silence at Roland for a long time.

Roland was not concerned about gaining his acceptance, and continued saying, �Back to the matter of the Ministry of Agriculture, when the serfs cultivate their own land, there�ll inevitably be different standards and results. Some will dig the soil deeper while others will sow more densely. This will be an excellent opportunity to observe them. The six people of the ministry will need to number every plot of land, record every step undertaken by the serfs, and provide detailed information about how deep they dig and how much spacing they leave between every seed. I�ll give the ministry the necessary measuring tools and teach them how to use these.�

�Your Majesty, is this� comparison work?� Although Barov was old-fashioned in certain aspects, his brain worked faster than he usually got credit for.

�Indeed. For the first round of cultivation, the harvest amount won�t be too important. We�ll continue to import grains and� use a few new varieties of wheat to ensure that our people don�t get hungry. What I need is to find out the most suitable method of all and compile it into a manual. We�ll then use this method widely, with the Ministry of Agriculture in charge of promoting, guiding and supervising it.�

Although Roland was not well-versed in farming, it did not prevent him from using scientific thinking to devise a set of the best farming methods. Once it was completed, the average yield per plot of land would be maintained at a relatively high level even if the acreage was increased or inexperienced hands were added.

Barov nodded in agreement but hesitated for a moment before responding. �Your Highness, there�s something I don�t understand. When the serfs were promoted to free citizens, why did you only collect two-tenths of their harvest as land tax? Even if you decided to collect half of their harvest, you would have been seen as big-hearted like no other.�

�Because money piled up underground has no meaning,� Roland explained, �and after they turn over that two-tenths, I�ll purchase their excess grains at a fixed price�in Border Town, the Lord franchises the grain trade. This way, the castle obtains the grains while they get their due remuneration. Once they accumulate some savings, they�ll think about buying things� such as farm cattle, iron-made farming tools, beef, cotton clothing, as well as top-grade brick houses. I�m the only person who can provide these. Similarly, the townspeople can only purchase grains from the castle. Eventually, money flows back to me, but within this cycle, it allows the living standard of the people to increase continually. Do you understand now?�

Barov frowned and did not answer for a long while. It was obvious that he had fallen into a state of complete bafflement.

Roland laughed and shook his head. �You can go back and try to comprehend everything on your own time. But first, do as I�ve instructed.�

The assistant minister, still visibly dazed, stood up and made his way out. When he reached the door, he abruptly turned his head back. �By the way, Your Highness, you mentioned two ministries earlier. What�s the second?�

�A Ministry of Education,� Roland answered, �I�ll personally handle this one.�

Barov returned to his office in the City Hall and immediately bolted the door.

[My goodness.] He felt the God�s Stone of Retaliation on his chest. [His Highness has truly been possessed by a demon.] He had vaguely guessed this previously but was almost certain now�the person whom he talked to was definitely not the fourth Prince.

It was still understandable that there was a dramatic change in his personality and way of doing things, but not to he suddenly comprehending things he had never come into contact with, and acquiring knowledge he had never heard about. This only happened in fairy tales, and even then, the story would always be about a deity who possessed a common people and led humanity out of their predicament. Since when did demons do the same thing?

Barov would not have felt surprised had Roland Wimbledon copied the methods of managing his territory from King�s City, as difficult as that would have been nevertheless. Even if the fourth Prince was known to be ignorant and incompetent, he could easily have faked his personality, and it was possible that someone had secretly taught him how to govern a city or even a country.

However, the assistant minister had never heard of the ideas and plans that the prince spoke of. Having served some 20 years in the City Hall, including as the treasurer�s assistant, he was highly knowledgeable about the structure and operation of the City Hall. Usually, the ministers took charge of their respective functions and did not care about each other�s business, saving for a few private agreements.

Whenever the king issued a decree, the ministers would assign work to their subordinates. Every minister had his own influence and style of doing things. Take for example Steelheart Knight, who was in charge of defending King�s City in Graycastle. He had hundreds of patrolmen and mercenaries at his disposal, and also had some influence in the underground world of the city. His style of doing things was aggressive and reckless. Any criminal eyed by him, even if it was a noble, would find it difficult to remain in the city. They would either have to flee or wait to be imprisoned.

This applied not just to King�s City, but every other city as well.

Therefore, to become the subordinate of a lord or the king, one had to first be a noble from an important family and line of work.

If one did not have enough money and food to recruit men, it would not be possible to get many things done. Conversely, the more men that one had, the more valued he would be by his superior�everyone understood the principle that many hands make light work.

However, the prince�s new way of doing things completely subverted Barov�s beliefs. One new rule was that everyone, including ministers and their subordinates, would be recruited and paid by the City Hall. This implied that whenever a minister was absent, he could easily be replaced, and someone from below could be directly promoted.

This was a novel system altogether. Barov was certain that the prince wanted to create a political system that was entirely different from the upper levels of Kingdom of Graycastle.

Some people might think that this was simply Roland�s fantasy or the bumptiousness of a layman. Instead, the assistant minister did not think so. He picked up a quill and recorded His Highness� requests on paper.

As he read through the plans, he realized that they were all interlinked and consistent, and took into consideration every small detail.

The first thing to do was to take care of the people�s �eating, drinking and sh*tting�.

Barov naturally understood that the greater the control over the people, the faster the decrees ordered by the Lord would be carried out. However, this significantly increased the number of supervisors needed. Where was he going to find so many literate people? Furthermore, not many of the Lord�s subordinates would be willing to see funds diverted to pay for the increased amount of salaries, which was sure to be a huge burden.

Barov then read the other two requests, which were respectively to recruit commoners into the City Hall, and to make education available to everyone.

He swept through these two lines of writing with his fingers, and his heart shuddered unbearably.

If His Highness successfully realizes these plans, how would Border Town be like?

Anyone would be able to read and write, and thus when the city hall wanted to expand, it could easily find a large number of suitable people. Conversely, this would promote the universalization of education�it would become widely known that those who received education would have the opportunity to enter the City Hall, secure a well-paying job, and increase their social status. But Barov was afraid that in less than two years, everyone would actively request an education, or, if they were incapable themselves, they would want to send their children to school.

Coupled with the aforementioned plan for the City Hall to take care of all salaries�which meant that Roland would be paying, the commoners who entered the City Hall would not need to fork out a single bronze royal to recruit their own men. This was tantamount to eradicating the extant restriction that only nobles who had sufficient capital could serve as officials.

Without a doubt, only a demon could have conceived such a revolutionary system.

Barov inhaled deeply and clutched the God�s Stone of Retaliation in his hand. He only had one question left: do kindhearted demons exist?

He would be the first to disagree with any suggestion that Roland was a follower of evil.

In his eyes, the fourth Prince�s deeds were on par with that of a noble king. In fact, even in the tales of the legendary kings in the history books, there was none who cared as much as Roland about the life and death of his subjects. He had remained behind to guard Border Town together with his people and spent large sums of money to purchase grains, so that everyone could get through the Months of Demons safely; introduced monstrous technology and equipment to develop the town; and somehow persuaded witches, who were considered to be the Devil�s minions, to use their abilities to improve the lives of the people.

Barov suddenly thought that if Roland ever became the king of Graycastle, it would not necessarily be a bad thing.

He recalled his father�s teachings: �Don�t say what you shouldn�t say, and don�t ask what you shouldn�t ask.� He decided that it was the best to keep his discovery to himself for the moment. If Roland was indeed a demon, he would have to deal with the church sooner or later. When they discovered something wrong with him, Barov could then emerge as a divulger and witness who hid within the demon�s camp.

He rang a bell and summoned in the City Hall�s newcomer, Sirius Daly.

Compared to the stupid and haughty knights, this young fellow from the Wolf Family could be regarded as outstanding. Although he retained some of the arrogance of a knight, he was at least willing to listen to Barov�s instructions.

�Teacher, what�s the matter?� Sirius bowed as he entered the room.

�His Highness wants to set up a new ministry to be in charge of crop harvest and supervision. Two apprentices will be needed to help with the paperwork.� Barov repeated Roland�s request. �In addition, you�ll need to go to the City Hall�s archives to find 10 people who meet the requirements, and then pick out four of them. Although they�re commoners, His Highness insists on bringing them into the City Hall. Anyone of them who performs outstandingly may even become the Chief Supervisor of the Ministry of Agriculture. Aye�� He sighed and continued, �You�ll follow them to record the results. When the spring harvest is completed, I�ll transfer you back here.�

�Teacher, I�ll only need to pick out two people.� Sirius raised his chest and proclaimed. �I�m also very experienced in this area.�

�You?� Barov seemed surprised.

�Yes! Before I became a knight, I used to help my father to manage the farm. I know a lot about wheat cultivation.� Sirius paused. �However, when His Highness asked me whether I had other proficiencies, I didn�t mention this� because I was worried that he would assign me to the farms to work with the serfs.�

Barov quietly felt happy. If Sirius was to be believed, he was knowledgeable about farming while also educated. Even if commoners joined the Ministry of Agriculture, he would undoubtedly be the clear choice to become the chief supervisor. As things were at present, Sirius was on Barov�s side, and therefore if he became the chief supervisor, Barov would have some influence on the ministry as well.

�Great.� He framed these considerations into a promise of benefits, and nagged at Sirius. �Do your job properly. Who knows, you may even climb to a higher position than ever before.�

After Sirius departed, Barov leaned back on his chair and exhaled lightly.

Since he now knew that Roland was a demon, he believed that he had to hold on to power tighter than ever before. As the legends often depicted, demons were always highly appreciative of ambitious people. And to Barov, power, whether conferred by the king or by a demon, was equally sweet.

Not long after the assistant minister left, the prince received a piece of good news regarding someone�s return.

It was his personal guard, Sean, who had earlier gone to Port of Clearwater to purchase crop seeds.

Roland followed the guards who reported the news to the garden. He saw Sean and several other bodyguards unloading many bags from several horses� backs.

It had been more than a month since they set off for Port of Clearwater. Sean was noticeably more tanned and skinnier than before.

When he saw the prince, he immediately stood up straight and raised his hand in salute. Roland quickened his footsteps, walked up to Sean, and patted him on the shoulder. �Good job. What types of seeds have you brought back?�

Sean crouched his body and untied the bags on the ground. �Pearl rice, ground egg, sugar stalk� I�ve bought all of the plants you described at Port of Clearwater. They�re indeed mostly originated from the Fjords, but Port of Clearwater also has many farms to grow these kinds of crops now.�

�Did you ask the merchants how these crops are cultivated?�

�I did, but they weren�t able to explain the specific methods. They even said that these plants are very difficult to cultivate outside of Southern Territory.� Sean dug out a bunch of orange-yellow granules from a bag and showed it to Roland. �Your Highness, this is pearl rice. A merchant told me that if I bought it together with the pearl stalks, he would offer it to me at a cheaper rate. But the stalks were too heavy and inconvenient to carry, and thus I only brought one back, while the rest are peeled seeds.�

Undoubtedly, what Sean referred to as pearl rice was actually corn, which Roland was familiar with. He excitedly pinched a corn grain and observed it under the sunlight. Its fruit was a bit shriveled, as though it had been stored in a warehouse over winter. The yield of corn was naturally higher than that of wheat by some distance, and perhaps, after Leaf made some modifications, it could soon replace wheat as the staple food of Border Town.

Sean opened another bag and took out a plump and brown-skinned crop. �This is a ground egg. I ate some in an inn in Port of Clearwater. It�s usually cut into strips and soaked in water. It�s very crunchy and has a slightly sweet taste.�

When Roland saw the familiar shape, he felt exhilarated. This was clearly a potato! He used a finger to scratch away the dirt-covered skin to reveal the dark yellow potato flesh inside�compared to the latter-day potato he knew, the size of this potato was relatively small, and the tuber�s color was darker. Also, not every potato had the same egg shape. He noticed that there were potatoes with carrot-like long shapes in the bag.

�This thing�s even tastier when grounded and steamed into a paste.�

�Uh� Your Highness, you�ve eaten this before?�

�Yes, at a palace banquet.� Roland decided to lie, if only because he felt that the name �ground egg� was too unpleasant. �The royal chefs don�t call it �ground egg� but �potato� instead. The steamed delicacy is called �mashed potato�.�

�I see. Your Highness is indeed knowledgeable.� Sean exclaimed. He then opened the final bag, which stood up perfectly straight, and took out a black-skinned stick. �Your Highness, I feel that this crop will be the most important. Honey is extremely cheap in Port of Clearwater largely because of it. I heard in a tavern that many of their farms have switched to growing these sugar stalks instead. This amazing plant tastes sweet, and after peeling off the skin, it can be squeezed to extract sugar. Its price is one-tenth that of honey, and yet it�s no less sweet than honey water.�

��� Roland wanted to comment that he had also seen this crop before, as well as suggest to change its name to sugarcane, but after some thought, he dropped the idea and decided that it would not be too late to change its name after allowing his subjects to cultivate the crop. The raw material that sugarcane used to produce sucrose could also be used to refine ethanol, and therefore, it might be considered to be a crop that could greatly enhance the happiness of the people. It was not too difficult to imagine that if some white sugar was sprinkled over the usually-tasteless flour pancakes, it would improve the taste by severalfold. Even Roland, who much preferred salty food, would fall in love with this.

�Are there any other crop seeds?�

�Those are the only ones from Port of Clearwater.� Sean fished out six small leather bags from an inside pocket and handed them to the prince. �You also asked me to bring back plant seeds which are found in Graycastle but not in Border Town. These bags contain plants which I picked while passing by Willow Town and Fallen Dragon Ridge. There are grapes, soybeans, cotton, flax and olive seeds. The only thing to note is that a farmer told me that grapes are mostly grown by sticking a branch in the soil. Although seeds can be used as well, the germination period is very long and the resulting grapes won�t taste too good.�

[None of these is a problem with Leaf around,] Roland thought. Now that he had grape seeds, he could even attempt to create a grapevine version of wheat. As for the soybeans, cotton, flax and olive seeds, they were all highly useful crops. He would first let Leaf modify the seeds to suit the Western Region�s climate and soil, and then pass them to the serfs to cultivate on a small scale, and finally get the Ministry of Agriculture to make the final improvements and compile a cultivation handbook.

�Your Highness, I have some other news to report,� Sean said in a low voice, �It�s regarding the situation in Port of Clearwater.�

�Does it have anything to do with Princess Garcia?�

Sean nodded. �I stayed in Port of Clearwater for nearly two weeks. Aside from purchasing seeds, most of my free time was spent in the taverns.� �There was an ongoing rumor that your elder sister, Garcia Wimbledon, had struck an agreement with the people of Sand Nation. She would offer the Southern Territory�s border regions for their people to reside, and in return, they would proclaim her as their queen and heed her call-ups and commands. During my time in the port, I indeed caught sight of the figures of several Mojin Clan people.�

�The Mojin people of the Southernmost Region�� Roland got caught in his thoughts. �They yearn most for oases and sources of water. Garcia has truly found their soft spot this time. However, even if she�s as bold as the Queen of Clearwater should be, she�ll most certainly not dare to invite too many of the people of Sand Nation, or else the safety of Port of Clearwater will be compromised.�

�The people of Sand Nation are divided among themselves into many factions. It�s not possible that they�ll all listen to her orders. Do you know which clans she made the agreement with?�

Sean shook his head. �The people of Sand Nation are extremely wary of Graycastle people. I won�t be able to obtain more detailed information even if I paid gold royals. However� something extremely odd happened. A day before I intended to leave Port of Clearwater, Garcia returned triumphantly from Eagle City, and throughout the city, people celebrated their queen�s victory over the fake king Timothy. However, the next day, there were four or five cases of murder throughout the city, and one victim was even torn into pieces on the streets.�

�Subsequently, Port of Clearwater was put into lockdown, and thus I had to spend another three days there. The taverns were closed and everyone gathered in the lobby of the inn to discuss this matter. Some said that this was the revenge for the fake king, while others said that this was committed by the people of Sand Nation. A merchant from the Fjords claimed that he personally witnessed one of the murders. The murderer wasn�t big in stature, and was clearly not a person of Sand Nation, but his strength and speed were extraordinary. The security team that came as soon as they heard the news was completely destroyed by him. Although he was stabbed several times, he seemed unaffected by his blood spilling all over the place. Only when more security members arrived in quick succession were they able to put him down with shields and spears. When the lockdown was lifted, I didn�t dare to stay any longer, and immediately hopped on a merchant ship and returned here.�

�You did very well.� Roland pondered for a moment. �Don�t bother returning the excess gold royals for purchasing seeds to the City Hall. Treat it as your reward.�

�Thank you for Your Highness� reward!�

�Extraordinary strength and speed, and unaffected by the pain caused by stab wounds, these sound like� the church�s pill.� After the guards made their leave, Roland heard Nightingale�s voice ring out in his ears.

�I think so too. But then it makes even less sense,� Roland replied, frowning, �and according to Sean�s explanation, Garcia would receive the pill earlier than me. If they�re supporting both sides to fight for the throne� what exactly are they thinking?� He soon had a faint and nasty thought in his mind. �Could it be that the real purpose of the church isn�t to see a stable Kingdom of Graycastle?�

At night, Roland sat in his office and began designing the new equipment.

The appearance of the pill in Port of Clearwater made him feel a strong sense of crisis. Without thinking about why the church simultaneously supported him and Garcia to vie for the throne, just the fact that Garcia�s military strength comprised of thousands of soldiers terrified him greatly.

He imagined thousands of steel-clad warriors charging at cavalry speed towards him in an unstoppable manner. His weak line of volley fire would find it hard to stop them. If one of these warriors charged into a group of soldiers, it would cause heavy damage to the First Army.

Fortunately, this kind of pill could not provide immunity to its user, who thus remained flesh and blood.

What Roland needed was higher-speed and more precise weapons, so that he could continually fire at the enemies from an even greater distance.

He also had to come up with a way to overcome the problem of lacking mercury fulminate to serve as primer. He decided to first manufacture a batch of substitute equipment which would be used to cope during a possible crisis.

Anna�s new ability gave him immense confidence. At present, as long as he could draw a blueprint, Anna would be able to produce the weapon with high accuracy and astonishing efficiency�unlike in the past when he had to rely on the blacksmiths to hammer out the flintlock�s components one at a time, Anna could stack several parts together and cut them into shape together.

The universalization of education and the standardization of weights and measures were intended to prepare for industrial mass production, but that did not mean he would not take shortcuts. Anna�s new ability was virtually a goldmine of its own, possessing an endless well of potential to be tapped. In recent days, Roland would go to North Slope Mountain every afternoon to do research together with her on the usage of Blackfire. When he did not have time for that, he would let her practice controlling her ability by carving a few small playthings, such as garage kits of the witches.

Although, at present, she was still an amateur in sculpturing human figures, Roland believed that there would come a day when the display sections of his bookcase would be crammed with garage kits of witches� perhaps?

He took out a steel ruler and pressed it down on the parchment. When he had only drawn two lines, he heard someone knocking on the door.

As his guards did not inform him of this arrival, he could guess that it was most likely a witch. And at this time, most witches would be in the parlor on the first floor, learning how to read words and perform the four arithmetic operations from Scroll. There was only one witch who did not have to attend elementary class and thus had time to visit him right now.

�Come in.�

Indeed, the person who pushed the door and entered the room was Anna.

She gently closed the door and walked up to Roland�s desk. She was carrying a book that was inlaid with golden edges in her arms.

That she was able to borrow the Book of Illusions, which Scroll could only reveal once a day, and furthermore to do so before Scroll�s lesson, it must be said that although Anna did not talk much, her popularity within the witches� community was evidently yet unexpectedly high. He thought about Nana, who used to follow behind Anna like a tail on her back; maybe Anna was naturally born with a charm that enchanted witches?

�What�s the matter? Did you run into a problem hard to understand?�

�Yes.� She nodded in agreement and opened the book in front of Roland. �Here� Your Highness, you said that all things in this world are made of small balls and that these balls are all different from each other, but you then mentioned that they can turn into� waves?� Anna asked. �What�s a wave?�

�When you throw a stone into water, the vibration created is a wave.� The prince coughed twice before continuing. �This is a concept. You can observe it, but you don�t have to research it too deeply.�

�Why�s that?�

[Because I don�t know more about it myself.] Roland did not know whether to laugh or cry. The micro quantum field was one of the most abstruse theories to him. He suddenly felt that he should not have written this paragraph in the book, but his reply did not match what his brain thought. �Therefore, these balls have both wave and material properties. We�re also made up of small balls and thus we�re like that too. The only difference is that the quality of our bodies is too high, which makes it difficult to observe fluctuations. As for an even deeper reason, it would take many generations of mankind to discover.� He thought for a while before adding. �Because there�s a considerably large conflict between this kind of phenomenon and our common sense, it may be very difficult to comprehend. It�s like how those of us living in the three-dimensional world find it hard to visualize four-dimensional space. You don�t have to worry about these things.�

Anna curled her lips as though she was not satisfied with Roland�s explanation. She then asked, �What�s the four-dimensional space?�

���

By the time she stopped asking further questions, the prince had spoken until his mouth was completely dry. He had utterly underestimated Anna�s curiosity and thirst for knowledge. If this continued, he would soon have nothing left to teach her.

Notably, when Roland asked her about her progress in mathematics, she replied with a calm face, �That�s much easier than this. I�m currently studying equations and matrices, which are rather interesting.�

[Much easier, rather interesting�] Roland suddenly felt that the disparity among humans was too large. How long had this been? She had progressed from the basic functions of mathematics to equations and matrices in only a week�s time, and after this would be calculus. If placed in a school, Anna would be a terrifyingly quick learner.

And� a very pretty quick learner to boot.

Roland gazed at the young girl as she lowered her head and flipped through the book. For a short while, he was spellbound. He observed the fine fringes on her forehead and saw as strands of hair fell beside her cheek sporadically. He could not help reaching out his forefinger to gently roll up her hair behind her ears.

She turned her head and looked at him with a smile in her eyes. Her turquoise pupils were no longer as calm as water, and seemed to ripple. They looked into each other�s eyes from this close distance until Anna opened her mouth to say something�she did not make a sound, but Roland could still interpret what her lips said.

�Nightingale isn�t here right now.�

The meaning of these words could not have been more straightforward. Roland felt that he would be stupid if he pretended not to understand. The room was completely silent, such that he could practically hear her breath and heartbeat.

As he moved closer to her, she closed her eyes and her cheeks started to blush. He sniffed the faint scent on her body and gently kissed her lips.

A lush and soft feeling spread through his body. Time seemed to freeze at this moment, and it was God knew how long before they briefly separated.

Without waiting for him to say anything, Anna tipped her toes, allowing the couple�s lips to make contact again.

�

�Yee� haw� hey!� Mystery Moon sat cross-legged on her bed deep in meditation. She raised her arms high and chanted lines of words.

�Are you mad?� A frowning Lily asked while wrapping a towel around her damp hair.

�I�m trying to think of myself as a composition of particles, She opened her eyes and said, �I�m particles.� Then she pointed her hand at Lily. �You too!�

�Nuts.� The latter rolled her eyes and climbed into her soft bed.

�Aye, it doesn�t work.� Mystery Moon sighed. �I�ve clearly imagined everything around me to be compositions of particles. Why can�t I develop a new ability like Anna did?�

�Because you don�t believe it at all.� Lily posited.

�I do!�

�You don�t.� She shook her head. �The only person that we can�t deceive is ourselves� Although Anna wasn�t clear about Roland�s reasons, she trusted unconditionally in him from the very beginning. And of course, she�s always been much smarter than you. This is another important reason why she was able to obtain her new ability.�

���

�In any case, don�t imagine too much. Have a good sleep.� Lily shrugged her shoulders.

�Don�t you wish to have this kind of ability?� Mystery Moon pouted her lips. �I want to be able to do more work for Roland.�

�By developing an ability that�ll keep food fresh for a longer time?� She yawned. �I�m not interested. Besides, why would you want to do more work for him? Men are all heartless and capricious. Echo is an example right in front of you.�

�You say you�re not interested, but yet you�re always so attentive during class,� Mystery Moon whispered softly, �and you�re the most serious student after Leaf.�

Lily grabbed her pillow and clapped it on the former�s face. �Go to sleep!�

It had been half a month since Roland conquered Longsong Stronghold. The five noble families in the stronghold had already delivered the needed people and supplies to Border Town.

After the Ministry of Agriculture was completely organized, spring plowing of a new year finally began, and it was the first step for Roland�s agricultural technique revolution. The serfs, who saw the dawn of life as freemen, were filled with motivation to work. The scene that a supervisor whipped the serfs and forced them to work was never seen again on the southern bank of Redwater River. Some serfs loafed on the job, only to find that no one came to supervise them again. They heard from the officials who were busy measuring in the fields with strange tools that His Highness did not concern himself about the harvest of one or two fields. From now on, the serfs would work for themselves, and the more they plowed, the more they gained.

Not all officials of the Ministry of Agriculture understood the principle of �distribution to each according to his work�. They were actually required by Roland to unceasingly repeat these ideas to the serfs in order to instill these ideas into their mind. To satisfy His Highness� nostalgic feelings, red flags and banners were decorated along the banks of Redwater River. On the banners were written slogans such as �Labor is the only way to get rich�, �Labor brings honor and glory�, �Labor leads to freedom�, and �Labor changes destiny� and so on.

Of course these measures met objections from others, for example, Barov was the first one to stand up and express his disapproval.

�Your Highness, this is totally meaningless. Most serfs aren�t able to read, and they don�t care about what�s written on the banners. These people are just stupid and ignorant. Whips can�t even make them better, let alone these banners with strange words.�

Roland, however, gave a simple answer, �Those banners aren�t meant for them.�

�Then why did you do these things?� hearing this, the assistant minister asked rather confused.

�To create living models.�

He never thought the serfs were stupid and unchangeable. It was true that they were not educated, but it did not mean that they had no thoughts. No matter how dull a man might be, he would be driven by desire and interest, which was simply human nature. The repeated words said by the officials of Ministry of Agriculture seemed to produce little effect at first, but would actually inspire them and thus lead them to subconsciously change their old ideas, like little streams would gather to form a sea. When the first group of serfs was promoted to freemen, when they exchanged their harvested crop for money to buy decent clothes and delicious food and even solid and warm brick-houses, the often repeated slogans would become a reality and be deeply engraved on their mind.

As for the banners along the riverbank, they were for the subjects of Border Town after they received a universal education.

By their own hands, the serfs were able to get rid of poverty, become a formal member of Border Town and even have a better life than the native inhabitants. All by the power of hard work.

By comparing it, people could feel the gap between them. They would then pursue a better life of their own initiative. Only in this way could an individual�s efficiency be raised to its highest level.

�

Iron Head stood at the mine entrance waiting for the latest delivery of ores.

Since half of his face was burned by the hot steam during the last Months of Demons, he never dared to stand beside this black machine ever again.

Fortunately, there was a kind angel, Miss Nana, in Border Town. Iron Head touched his face which was completely healed, and his heart was filled with gratitude. When he was wounded, he had the nerve to suspect that she was one of the devil�s minions. What an offense to her! After the winter, he took two salted fish and a wild boar leg, and then went to the house of Mr. Pine to apologize for his mistake.

More surprisingly, though Tigui Pine was a viscount, unlike those arrogant nobles who held their nose high in the air, he generously accepted his apologies. For the first time, Iron Head felt that not all nobles were cruel and merciless.

�Old Iron,� a miner who was covered with dust ran out of the mine and shouted, �The ropes have been fastened.�

�Okay,� he turned back to the direction of the steam engine and shouted, �everyone, clear the area. Flacke, lift up the green rod and then press the red rod. If you make a mistake again, I�ll twist your head off!�

�Trust me, Old Iron. You can count on me,� Flacke responded loudly.

Since Nail was sent to join the First Army, Iron Head arranged Flacke to operate the steam engine. At first, Flacke often made mistakes with the order, which caused steam pipes to burst. Iron Head had thrashed him many times for it. Fortunately, His Highness did not blame them for this matter. Instead, he sent people to replace the damaged parts of the machine. And they even did not have to pay money for the damaged parts. Iron Head originally had thought they would be fined a month�s salary for it.

With the opening of the inlet valve, the steam engine spurted out a tremendous amount white smoke and the main wheel began to slowly rotate, leading the capstan to stretch the ropes straight.

�Cheer up! Watch the ropes. Watch them carefully!� Iron Head shouted.

Besides the steam engine, the way of pulling the ores out of the mine had changed too.

His Highness ordered the carpenters to chop many long wood sticks, which were laid end to end to form rails along the whole mine�s tunnels. And then other wood sticks were placed under the parallel wooden rails. At the first glance, it looked like a long wooden ladder.

His Highness called it a wood rail transportation system, an awkward name. It did not seem to be very complicated, but it had amazing effects after they used the special trams! How efficient! The ores, which cost them three or four days to carry out of the mine in the past, were packed in several trams and pulled out by the steam engine in a breath.

Iron Head had eagerly observed the four-wheel tram running along the wooden rails. It was completely made of iron and so it was extremely expensive. The key to making it move along the narrow rails without falling was its wheels. There was a larger flange on the inside edge of the wheel which fixed it firmly on the rail. Above the wheel was a square iron pot that had hooks at the front and back to connect the trams in a line.

He could not help but admire His Highness�s wisdom. With such a simple design, he had made the transportation of ores become much easier. Before the invention, the transportation of the heavy ores out of the mine was the most time-consuming and energy-consuming labor.

However, this system was not perfect. For example, after they used it for five days, two pieces of wood rails had already been crushed, and other ones were soon broken. The situation was improved after His Highness ordered to wrap the top side of all rails with a thin iron sheet.

In addition, the ropes broke once and caused a serious accident. Iron Head still felt his heart was violently beating when he recalled it. According to the regulations, they were only allowed to pull four trams at a time. But on that day, the miners wanted to finish their work more quickly, so they linked six trams together. The tram was halfway there, when a half arm-thick rope suddenly broke, rebounded and hit a miner who was standing beside Iron Head. It broke his arm and several ribs. The trams slid down along the rails, knocked down two miners and crushed the legs of another unlucky miner.

Luckily Iron Head knew what they should do in such cases. He immediately organized people to carry the wounded miners to the house of Viscount Tigui. As long as they were not dead, Miss Nana would be able to heal them completely.

�Old Iron, the trams are out!� shouted the man who was observing at the entrance.

Hearing this, Iron Head ordered loudly. �Flacke, wait for 10 breaths, then turn off the steam engine and mind the order!�

�Yes, gotcha.�

Four trams slowly stopped at the end of the tramroad. Iron Head went over to record the ore yield. The first two trams were filled with reddish-brown iron ores, which were found the most in the mine. In the third tram, there were gray ores with a slight yellow tint, which should be copper ores. When he saw the ores in the fourth tram, he was a little shocked, as he had never seen this kind of ores in previous records. They were dark brown and emitted a dim metallic sheen in the sun.

Another unknown ore, Iron Head shook his head. North Slope Mine had so many tunnels, so it was normal that they often dug out some strange ores. He drew a cross on his paper and ordered miners to send all ores to the yard. As for these dark brown ores, whether they would be thrown into the furnace or not had nothing to do with him.

A sailing ship from Longsong Stronghold slowly berthed at the dock of Border Town.

After the gangboard was lowered, the passengers, with all kinds of luggage on their back, began to walk down the trestle. Most of them had never set foot in this strange land before, so they seemed quite confused. The sailors behind were urging them to hurry up, making them feel terribly uneasy.

As the crowd began to thrust forward, a middle-aged woman accidentally slipped. She lost her balance and nearly fell from the trestle. Luckily, a younger woman instantly stepped forward and grasped her wrist, saving her from falling.

�Thank, thank you.� The middle-aged woman thanked her profusely with one hand on her chest to calm herself.

The younger woman, however, just smiled and waved her hand, indicating that it was no bother.

Ferlin Eltek was waiting at the dock. He immediately recognized this agile young woman. She was Irene, his beloved wife, the Flower of Tomorrow of Stronghold Theatre. She wore a white dress, and her long hair was coiled up on top of her head, making her beautiful and graceful as before.

Though the heart of the First Knight was beating with excitement, he waited until she had safely landed on the dock. Then he immediately rushed forward to hug her tightly, in spite of the looks and shouts of the people around them. She was startled by the unexpected hug, but once she recognized Ferlin, she responded to his hug gently.

�I was so terrified to hear that the duke was defeated. When you were in Longsong Stronghold, I never got the chance to see you,� she whispered into his ears, �Fortunately, you�re safe now.�

�I was imprisoned in the dungeon of the lord�s castle. The guards wouldn�t have let you in,� Ferlin let go of his wife and said, �how have you been these past two weeks?�

She was silent for a while and then told him, �I left the theater.�

Ferlin immediately understood what was left unsaid. When he was still the First Knight of the Western Region, only the duke would dare to harass her. But when he became a captive of His Highness, those who coveted her beauty no longer hid their desire. They had been waiting for the opportunity to possess her. If she had continued to go to the theater to work, it would have been a suicidal effort.

�That�s all right. I got a job here, and the salary isn�t bad.� He reassured her. �Let�s go home first.�

�Home?� Irene was surprised. �We don�t have to live separately?�

Generally speaking, the prisoners who were neither redeemed nor sentenced to death, would work as poor laborers. They had to live in tents or barracks which were crammed with prisoners. They had to sleep on the ground which was covered with wheat straw. The families of the prisoners would be treated similarly. The women had to live in another barrack and also sleep on the ground. When the prisoners were working, the women had to tidy up the men�s barracks, prepare meals and do laundry.

Thinking of that, Ferlin felt touched by his wife�s choice. If she stayed at the farm of Longsong Stronghold, at least she had her own spacious room with a comfortable and soft bed. Yet she still chose to come to Border Town alone, just for him. Even though she thought she had to live with other women in a small room or a tent and would be forced to work, she did not hesitate.

�I�m a teacher now.� He picked up Irene�s luggage and held her hand, heading for the New Civilization District. �As a teacher, I got my own apartment for free.�

To be honest, when he first heard the treatment of the teachers from His Highness, he did not expect much. As a prisoner, having his own room would be great. Even if it was a wooden hut with a leaking roof and broken windows, it would be a good shelter after he tried to fix it. He had never expected that the houses for teachers turn out to be so� regular.

Entering the new district, the streets became wider, and the ground was paved with gray gravel. The roads had been flattened by the stonemasons so that it was comfortable to walk on them. At first, Ferlin could not understand why the stonemasons would bother to waste labor and time. Then he saw how heavy rainwater flowed along the gravel, sinking into the ground and then into the deep drains on both sides of the road. Compared with the narrow alleyways in Longsong Stronghold, which were often muddy and covered with puddles on rainy days, these streets were obviously much better.

Irene looked around and asked with confusion, �These houses seem to be newly built. Have we gone the wrong way?�

�No, my dear. We�re almost there.�

After they had passed two more corners, Ferlin Eltek stopped in front of a two-story brick house, and said to Irene, �We�re here.�

�Where?� She looked around and then turned to the new house in front of her. She covered her mouth with surprise. �Is this whole house our new home?�

�Of course not.� He smiled. �This is the Teachers� House, and we live in an apartment in the middle of the second floor. Let�s go upstairs.�

He opened the door with a key from his pocket, and led her by her hand into the new home. There were a living room, two bedrooms, and two auxiliary rooms, and were well decorated with furniture. It was not large, but surprisingly comfortable. From the living room decoration to the bedroom layout, they were all refreshing. Now with Irene, the hostess of the home, it became even more perfect.

�Oh my goodness. Are you really taken as a captive here?� Irene ran from one room to another eagerly, carefully looking at everything. She was as excited as a child. �We�re really going to live here, right?�

�Yes, of course.� Ferlin, with a smile of content on his face, took some bread and cheese from the cupboard and laid them on the table. �I�m guessing you didn�t eat anything on the ship. Come, let�s eat something. I have to go out to work later.�

�Yes, you�re a teacher now.� Irene ran back to her husband. �Which noble family�s children are you going to teach?�

�Not the nobles. The subjects of His Highness.�

�Subjects?� Irene was dazed for a moment, and then asked, �What do you teach them?�

Ferlin picked up a book from the desk and handed it to her. �I teach them how to read and write. His Highness gave me this� �textbook�.�

When he had chosen to be a teacher, he had been afraid that he was not competent enough to do it. After all, teachers were usually knowledgeable, white-haired masters. But His Highness said he only needed to teach according to the textbook. When he read the so-called �textbook�, he got to know that there were many details and methods in teaching others to read and write.

Everything was listed inside, from the methods of teaching to the content. On the first page, there was a list of dozens of frequently asked questions and answers for new teachers. For example, the question for how to become an excellent teacher, how to motivate students to learn or how to test the students, and the answers were plain and easy to understand, but yet gave the reader lots of inspiration. Before he even began his first course, he was already deeply intrigued by this book.

So was Irene, clearly. She had lived in the theater since her childhood and had read more books and scripts than Ferlin did. He had once thought, with her beauty and wisdom, if she had been born in a noble family, she would have been a distinguished lady known by the whole Western Region.

After reading through several pages, Irene suddenly raised her head and asked, �Did you say� the salary for teachers isn�t bad?�

�20 silver royals per month, with an increase of five each year.�

�There isn�t any theater here, right?�

�No� there isn�t.� Ferlin hesitated, as he had already guessed what his wife was thinking.

Sure enough, she closed the book and smiled. �Then I�ll also be a teacher, dear. Just like you.�

In the backyard of firing area of North Slope Mine.

Nightingale picked up the wine glass on the table and held it above her head. The crystal clear glass body was shining under the light without any trace of mottle.

She was aware that these glasses were called the Crystal Cup, and its firing process and formula were top secret information in the alchemical workshop. Only the goblet in her hand was valued around one gold royal. The crystal glassware which was matching the exquisite silver tableware had always been the noble and rich businessmen�s favorite to show off their wealth.

Now, these crystal containers from the royal palace would soon be melted into raw materials.

�Your Highness, you�re not burning the glass but gold royals.� Nightingale exclaimed.

�I don�t have time to study how to turn the sand into the colorless glass, so I can only combine it this way for now.� Roland threw a beautifully crafted crystal pot into the furnace made of Anna�s Blackfire. Nightingale could not help but feel pity as she still remembered that Prince Roland used to fill it with ale for the tea parties in the castle garden and for the celebration feast of the Months of Demons.

The pot quickly melted and became a sticky paste under the stable high temperature.

�Blowing glass� with sand?� Anna asked, �Are they the same substance?�

�Well, the main ingredients are similar, but the sand contains a lot of impurities. The glass that was blown with sand is mostly close to the brown and green in color, which won�t meet the requirements.�

�So, glass is actually purified sand?�

Roland smiled. �You could consider so. When I put this knowledge into a book on how the particles formed into a substance, you�ll understand once you read it.�

Nightingale curled her lips and thought, [I wouldn�t understand. Besides, the color of the glass doesn�t affect its function as a container. You wouldn�t be using it as a water cup, so why must it made by the glassware?]

Although they still looked colorless and transparent, their appearance was incomparable to the previous crystal cup.

Some looked like a tube with a round bottom, looking thin and long. And some looked like a bottle and the bottom was as large as a kettle and the bottleneck was only as thick as a thumb.

The strangest one was a tube that was bent into a horseshoe shape with both sides unsealed, and it was not even a container.

�What do you intend to do with the crystal glassware?� Nightingale could not help asking.

�It isn�t for me but for the use of the Border Town alchemist,� said Roland while stirring the paste in Blackfire with a glass stick, �they can use these glasswares to extract some acid and alkaline in order to produce some chemicals for the new weapons I created.�

[Acid? Alkaline? Chemicals?] Nightingale blinked, realizing that she did not understand what His Highness said. It made her feel a little bit depressed. Of course, she could always ask about them one by one, but she felt that it seemed too ignorant and she did not want to expose that side of her in front of Anna, so she could only pay attention to the nouns that she could understand.

�Since when did Border Town have an alchemist? There�s no alchemical workshop even in Longsong Stronghold. You can only find alchemists in Redwater City. I heard that their salary is higher than the lord, and it�s rather hard to recruit them with only gold royals.�

�You know quite a lot,� Roland answered with a smile, �that�s right. I�ve sent people who�re already on their way to Redwater City. We�ll likely receive a message in about two weeks. However, I�m not recruiting them with gold royals, but some alchemical secrets. As for our chances, I�m not very sure myself� But it�s worth a try.�

The compliment from His Highness during the first half of the conversation had suddenly blown away Nightingale�s depression, and she contentedly walked back to the center of the yard and stuffed a pastry from a roundtable into her mouth.

Since Roland changed the main experimental site from the castle backyard to the firing area of North Slope Mount, the afternoon tea was also shifted.

On the roundtable were all the Royal snacks that were specially made by the chef for His Highness.

For example, this snack was called steamed bun. The skin was made from the wheat flour which was specially handled, making it extremely soft and chewy. There was also a meat stuffing wrapped inside. The meat was finely chopped and it was extremely juicy� Unlike the salted meat which was hard and difficult to swallow, the minced meat and juice would be integrated into one in a bite.

Nightingale put her fingers into her mouth and sucked them one by one while sitting on the couch. She felt a slight sleepiness.

[Am I getting lazier recently?] she thought.

The afternoon sun shone on her which felt like the warm water slowly wrapping around her. The spring breeze was blowing on the leaves making a shuffling noise. She felt extremely calm and quiet. She took off her shoes and curled her legs up, lying down on one side.

This perspective led to the view of the backyard to the side door of gunpowder making room. A curtain was hanging down from the door, which was used by His Highness to prevent her from sneaking in. Thinking about it, Nightingale found it slightly funny. Both the courtyard wall and the gunpowder making room wall were just a flat ground which she could freely walk into. She had even entered the mysterious house and listened to His Highness who was talking about the production method quietly at one side, but just that, she did not take away the finished gunpowder.

While Roland thought that no one knew about it, he himself was the one who did not know the truth.

Nightingale shifted her head to look at Anna.

She was holding a flat cup, which was just blown and she was talking to His Highness. She looked serious and focused.

Nightingale really admired Anna. She was a girl who came from a civilian family and yet she was so extremely talented.

It was Anna who brought the sisters of Witch Cooperation Association to escape the fate of the displacement and freed them from the magic power bite. If it were not her who changed Prince Roland�s view of the witches, all the subsequent changes would not happen.

If His Royal Highness would marry a witch, Anna would be the only person she could think of.

Although she still had a slight expectation, Nightingale chose to deeply bury it in the bottom of her heart. As long as she could just stay around His Highness most of the time, she would be contented.

She closed her eyes and imagined a scene uncontrollably.

Roland was royally ascended in the palace. He wore a golden crown and held a gemstones scepter while walking towards the castle terrace to accept the public respect and cheers.

The girl in a white satin gown walking arm in arm with him was Anna, who also wore a golden crown on her head. Her face was covered by a veil. She smiled and waved to the people.

Lightning was hovering in the air, sprinkling the bright red rose petals. The melodious bell rang from the king�s city belfry afar.

She herself was standing with the other sisters, applauding and sending their blessings.

She was increasingly drowsy and her consciousness gradually became hazy.

Roland turned around, opened the veil of the girl, and lowered his head to kiss her on her lips.

The last scene became very vague, with the veil falling on the floor, Nightingale faintly saw that the girl with her eyes closed� appeared to be herself.

She smiled and fell asleep.

Theo walked into a pub, where he could smell the strong smell of the hot and humid air that was mixed with beer smell.

Under the dim light, the men were bare-chested, their sweaty backs revealed. They sat at the bar table in the center, gulping down pints of cheap beer while chatting noisily with their companions. The scantily-clad maids were interspersed among the beer tables filling up the guests� glasses.

He looked around and found himself a target�a petite man who was sitting in the corner, and there was a withered wild rose on this table.

Theo walked towards the bar and ordered a pint of beer. He slowly savored the bitterness while looking around to see if there was anyone else secretly watching the petite man. He was very satisfied with what he saw. Although patrons would occasionally glance towards the corner, most were inadvertent. Only one person at the center table made the effort to cover his observation with his beer glass.

One person to connect, another person to coordinate was the practice of Rats in the Black Street, which was coincided with Theo�s understanding.

�One more,� he shouted at the bartender, �iced.�

�Sir, the price of cold beer is double,� the bartender reminded.

Theo threw a silver royals out and said, �The icier the better.�

Theo walked towards the petite man with the foaming beer in hand and poured it onto the wild rose. The cold beer flowed down the curled petals. The man raised his head and said impatiently, �Pouring such a good beer on the table instead of drinking it, are you crazy?�

�Paying respect to the rose,� Theo smiled and sat opposite the other party. �We�ve been looking for you.�

�It only proved that you weren�t looking at the right direction,� he rudely said, �but since you�re a customer� go ahead, how can I help you? Ask for a clue, to steal, to redeem the lost property, or stolen goods?�

�Neither, I hope you can help me to spread a rumor.�

�That�s not within the business scope of the Wild Rose.� He shook his head.

�No, no, no. You would be interested in anything as long as it could be paid with gold royals.� Theo shook his finger at him. �Young man, I�m not a layman. In order to get the prey hooked, we sometimes need to create a bait and rumor is the best bait, which has no evidence and arresting point. It�s safer than stealing.�

�This sounds very reasonable, �the other party straightened, showing a trace of a smile. �You�ve commissioned Wild Rose before?�

�I once entrusted your competitor from a small place. The name isn�t as elegant as yours, and they can�t do much.�

�The business scope is too small and it�s hard to find the right business whereas in Silver City, competition is fierce.� He picked up the wild rose and shook it off a little before putting it into his pocket. �So, what kind of rumors do you need to spread?�

�News about the witches.� Theo smiled. �An organization called the Witch Cooperation Association has found Holy Mountain in the Western Region, and they�ve overcome the Demonic Torture and gained eternal peace.

�Brother, this news is really�� The petite man clucked. �Really old school. Although I rarely abet the customers on deceiving, you have to at least come out with one that makes more sense. Let me guess, either you�re trying to abduct a witch or to act against the church. For the latter, you would only be waiting for the Judgement Army to hang you to death, so I would think it�s the former�� He showed a nasty smile. �Unfortunately, as far as I know, almost all of those who wanted to catch the witches and sell them for money are dead. Even though they all have God�s Stone of Retaliation with them, those women aren�t idiots.�

�Why doesn�t it make sense?� Theo asked curiously.

�A union organized by the witches is just like the moon in the dark night sky. If it was true, the church would certainly flock there, and if I were a witch, I wouldn�t go to that kind of place. If it was false, then I would have no reason to go there. As for the Demonic Torture, brother, are you serious? Witches are the embodiment of the devil, and this is such a big lie that even the witches will scoff.�

�Then just spread it like this,� Theo said without taking it seriously.

�The customer has the final say.� The petite man shrugged. �Anyway, I have to remind you that it costs 20 gold royals.�

�Do I pay in one shot?�

�Yes, Wild Rose doesn�t accept any deposit or final payment,� he said, �and the trade is entirely voluntary.�

Theo sighed. He took out a sack from his pocket and poured 19 gold royals on the table, and then he seized a handful of silver royals which were only the size of a fingernail and counted out 100 pieces before pushing the money toward the man in front of him. The latter only checked the authenticity of the gold royals and swept all the money into his bag.

After receiving the money, the petite man was much more relaxed. �It�s rare that Wild Rose can�t deliver what was promised. As I told you before, the competition in Silver City is very fierce, and our reputation would be ruined if we deceived the customers. If you�re not in a hurry to return to the Western Region, you could stay here for a few more days. You�ll hear the news everywhere not before long.

�Will it spread to the witches� ears?�

�Of course, but it depends if they�re willing to go. In short, I wish you success. You�ll be able to cover the cost if you sell one to the church or you can earn more by selling them to the noble. Of course, if you can�t find a way out and afraid to be found by the church, you can always come to us, we only charge a 10% of the introduction fee.�

The petite man snapped and walked away with the bag. The man who was responsible for the coordination also got up and left soon after him. Theo finished the rest of his beer with a gulp after waiting 15 minutes and hiccupped before walking out of the pub.

His Highness� task was now complete. Theo had gone all around, first from Fallen Dragon Ridge, then to Redwater City, finally to Silver City, to find the Rats from Black Street and spread the news. Every city had a group of them in a dark corner. They formed an orderly and hidden organization even under the acquiescence of the lord, including the king�s city of the Kingdom of Graycastle. What they could do was far more than those who spoke. As to what extent was mainly dependent on the number of gold royals the customers had.

The only difficulty was in finding a connection with the Rats. Not to mention it was rather difficult for him as an outsider to gain their trust. It cost him at least five gold royals just to speak to them. If it were not for his similar experience in the king�s city, he would probably still be in the Fallen Dragon Ridge right now.

Walking on the way back to the hotel, he was aware of the strange atmosphere.

He was followed.

Although the other party was acting very subtly, however, Theo as a professional guard was aware of the presence of her. He quietly drew the dagger at his waist and turned into an alley on the edge.

Was it Wild Rose? He had purposely emptied the sack to find the 19 gold royals when he paid to avoid others from coveting. In general, they would not loot for a few hundreds of silver royals.

He leaned against the wall, counting the footsteps that were getting closer and closer. He rushed out suddenly as the other party was about to pass through the alley. His dagger suddenly appeared on the other party�s neck.

�Don�t move!� Theo shouted.

The other party suddenly turned into a mass of fog and disappeared.

[A witch!] He realized and before he could make a noise, his neck was hit heavily from behind. He suddenly felt a sense of dizziness and lost all his strength, falling to the ground.

Theo awoke, the back of his neck tingling with pain.

�Damn it, these women are ruthless.� He opened his eyes and tried to move but found his hands were tightly tied behind him and that his feet were tied to the chair.

�He�s awake.� He heard the voice of a woman.

�Your name?� One of them came to him and lifted his chin. �I suggest you not lie, or your corpse shall be found in the city moat tomorrow.�

Theo blinked. The woman was wearing a veil over her head and her body was covered in a robe. She obviously did not want to reveal her appearance.

�Theo,� he replied truthfully while looking around.

It was a narrow room surrounded by dusty plaster statues. Some of the statues had been completed while some appeared to be only carved halfway. The accumulation of dust dyed the plaster gray and it looked like the place had been abandoned for a long time. There was no window in the room and so it was impossible to speculate the time, and the only light source was from an oil lamp on the wall.

�You�ve been relentlessly looking for us from Fallen Dragon Ridge to Silver City,� the woman coldly said, �Why are you looking for us?�

�I�m not the one who�s looking for you, and it�s the Witch Cooperation Association.�

�What�s the Witch Cooperation Association?�

�A witch organization just like yours. I was sent by them to spread the news.�

�Nonsense.� She snapped. �I don�t know where you heard the name, but the Witch Cooperation Association was far away at Seawindshire in the Eastern Region. You think we would believe you simply because you recited a name?� The woman drew a dagger out from her waist. Theo noticed that it was exactly the dagger he used earlier on. �I�ll give you one last chance. Don�t test my patience!�

�I�m telling the truth!� he said in a suppressed voice as he wanted to shout but did not dare, �They intended to go to the Impassable Mountain Range to look for Holy Mountain. They had not only found Holy Mountain but also settled down in Border Town. The Demonic Torture has also disappeared and therefore, they want to save more witches. I swear I�m not lying!�

�Why did they look for you?�

�It�s because I helped them before. A member of the union was besieged by the Judgement Army of the church, and I helped her to distract the soldiers. Their mentor was Cara. It was Wendy and Scroll who asked me to come here!�

The masked woman kept quiet for a moment after listening, and then she put the dagger back into her waist and walked behind him. Soon, Theo heard the whispering sound of two people behind him.

�Newbie,� he thought, �These two women are pretty accurate on the sneak attack, but the trial is completely and utterly the work of a novice.�

The taboo of a trial was to get only one chance to choose. If there was no answer given, it could easily give the interrogator nowhere to go. To kill or not to kill? If it was to kill, the possibility of getting the information was lost. If it was not to kill, it was equivalent to failing to achieve the threatening effect the interrogator mentioned. It would seriously damage the majesty of the interrogator, and the effectiveness of the next threat would also be significantly reduced.

If it were for him to interrogate, he would certainly start with finger torture. A finger would be cut off for every lie, so even if there was a mistake, it would not be a big problem. The threat that was acted upon accordingly would quickly collapse the will of the enemy. It would be hard to carry out such a trial for those that had not been professionally trained.

The other party was in doubt as soon as he acted frightened. That exposed the fact that they simply could not identify whether or not he was lying.

The information of Cara, Holy Mountain and the Witch Cooperation Association were all true and reliable, which would further strengthen his position.

After a while, the masked woman appeared before him. �When did they go to the Western Region?�

�Two or three months before the Months of Demons. After the winter, they returned to the town and announced that they had found Holy Mountain.�

�How many� of them?�

�About 40 of them? I�m not sure, except Cara, the other witches did not appear very often.� Theo decided to add a little more bargaining chips. ��The Snake Witch� Cara, did you hear about her? Her ability is to summon the Snake of Magic, and one kind of it called �Nothingness�. It can quickly remove any toxins. I have seen it myself and it was so magical.�

�You�re not afraid of the witches?� The woman sounded a bit puzzled.

�Why should I be afraid? The witches in the Witch Cooperation Association are all� beautiful! They aren�t the demonic beasts with bare fangs and brandish claws that people have said they are and they don�t hurt ordinary people. If I�m afraid, I wouldn�t come this far to help them spread the news.�

�If someone went to Border Town, how should they contact them?�

�One of them can sense magic power, and then they�ll find any witch once that goes there.�

�Shadow, what do you think?� The masked woman looked behind him.

�I don�t know,� said the witch called Shadow, �Let�s wait for sister to come back and make the decision. She would definitely know what to do.�

��Yeah.� She nodded. She found a chair which could be considered clean and sat in front of Theo.

�Who�s your sister?�

�The guide.� The masked woman�s attitude had softened a lot compared to before, and it was probably due to him saying that he was not afraid of witches. �She�ll take us out of here.�

�Leaving? Where are you going?�

The other party shook her head and did not answer.

�You�re not the witch from Silver City, right?� Theo continued, �Your accent doesn�t sound like the people from the king�s city.� Silver City is close by, so the people here are proud of imitating the accents of the king�s city.�

She hesitated for a moment, �I� am from the Southern Territory.�

�The witches from all over the kingdom have gathered here and are soon to be led by the guide to go somewhere else�� Theo thought to himself, �I have no doubt that this is a witch organization, and they�re recruiting companions, just like the Witch Cooperation Association. But, where are they going?�

This was when footsteps came from outside of the shed again.

�Sister is back!� Shadow cheered as the wooden door squeaked opened. Theo held his breath in his heart.

�Is he the one that had been using the underground channel to spread the message?� The voice of the newcomer was mature and steady. �What information did you get from the interrogation?�

�He seems to be telling the truth.� The masked woman repeated the investigated content and stated her thoughts, �It�s not possible for him to know so clearly if he did not have a lot of contact with the Witch Cooperation Association.�

�Well, that�s true.� She walked past Theo and stood in front of him. Different from the masked girl, and she did not cover her face. Her long black hair almost reached her waist and she looked around 25 or 26 years old. The most interesting part of her was her eyes. Theo found her pupils appeared to be gold in color, and her star-like eyes could be seen so clearly that even when she was standing in the dark they were visible.

Theo thought that he had seen many witches around His Highness, but the appearance of this woman was still considered as one of the best. There was a deep scar that went across her eyebrow and extended down to her cheek. The scar did not destroy her beauty but added a sense of seriousness to her look. Since seeing her face, Theo felt that this woman was a warrior.

�If the Witch Cooperation Association really found Holy Mountain, they should not send people to spread such a message.� She shook her head. �This will only bring the church. If they don�t leave Border Town as quickly as possible, I�m afraid disaster is around the corner.�

�Then� what should we do?� Shadow asked.

�The ship will arrive at midnight. There�ll be other witches on board and so you, have to leave,� she said without hesitation. �I�ll escort you on board.� As for the Witch Cooperation Association�� the black-haired woman looked at Theo who was tied to the chair and said, �Please help me to get a message to Tilly. Tell her that I�ll be there a few days later. Perhaps I can bring more companions.�

�Are you going to Border Town with him?� Shadow said in shock, �What if this is a scam��

�So, he�ll only kill himself.� She smiled, her words full of confidence.

Alicia had never thought she would one day be a part of the emissary delegation.

After all, whenever the church sent an emissary delegation, the members were always elite warriors. They were not only blessed with civil and martial virtues, but also looked good enough to represent the church. She was very confident about her fighting skills and the rites of the church. But when it came to her appearance, how good-looking could a woman who was swinging her huge sword in battlefields all day long be? Thinking about this made her uncomfortable.

According to Priest Mira, their delegation would head to a small town in the Western Region of the Kingdom of Graycastle. Their purpose was to deal with the blasphemous event of a prince harboring witches. Aside from the priest leading the delegation, there were another 10 members of the Judgment Army. One of them was even the stony-faced cool captain she had once met in Hermes Defense.

But from the looks of it, the man was still stony-faced even in the absence of combat. Alicia felt the temperature dropped a fair bit just by standing next to him.

Priestess Mira was completely different. She was over 40 years old and had a pair of wise-looking eyes. She wore a constant smile on her face when she discussed anecdotes about the church. She was sophisticated and warm without losing an ounce of grace. Even in front of the archbishop, her poise was unabated. Alicia had heard many times that she would likely be the next bishop.

What surprised Alicia, however, was that Mira as a civil official rode her horse as well as those in the Judgement Army. In these two days, she led the procession, from the forest in the mountains to the town tracks. She kept her horse moving at a stable pace while minimizing any physical exertion. This was a skill that would take a person of the Judgement Army a long time to master.

�We�re heading south, aren�t we?� Someone in the procession asked after leaving the Hermes area and entering the Kingdom of Graycastle.

�No. Border Town is too far away from us. I don�t want to hurt my butt if we travel by land,� Mira waved and said, �and we�ll go east to Deep Valley Town. There�s a river that can take us directly to Redwater City. From there, it�ll be an easy path to Longsong Stronghold.�

�When did you join the church?� Alicia asked curiously, �You�re not only familiar with anecdotes of Holy City, but also well-versed with the secular world.�

�12 years ago. I was exactly 30 years old then,� Mira replied.

�That�s so late!� Alicia exclaimed. �As far as I know, the older a person is, the more difficult it�s for her to comprehend the teachings of the deities. But you took only 10 years to promote yourself from a believer to a priest. That�s incredible.�

�Yes,� Mira smiled. �That�s the charm of the church. I was the daughter of a merchant. I followed my father and learned to do business in the Four Kingdoms. We bought ordinary local commodities and resold them for higher prices in other places. The price could go several times higher. Take the emerald coral of Seawindshire for example. We bought it from a local fisherman for 20 or 30 silver royals. We then put it into a water tank, carried it to the Kingdom of Everwinter, and sold it for a gold royal. If the coral had a good color and well-distributed branches, we could sell it for over five gold royals. I used to wonder why the same item would have two different values.�

�Because� it was rare?� Alicia replied.

�That was what I thought at first.� The priestess nodded. �But something happened and my opinion changed. There was a noble in the king�s city who harbored a witch capable of changing the temperature. He came up with different ways before he finally succeeded in growing Seawindshire corals in the Kingdom of Everwinter. He modified the basement under his yard into a huge pool with an overhead skylight. His harvest was about once a year. The corals he grew were more than our yield for 10 back-and-forth trips. But the trade road was so long that my father only took it once a year. As a result, the emerald corals flooded the market. The noble even sold them both to the palace and aristocrats. If a rare object became more common, it was only fair that the price would drop.�

�But just two years later, the palace refused to accept low-priced emerald corals, thinking they were counterfeits. Not only did my father not slash the prices by half, he even doubled it. As for the noble, he was discovered by the church and charged with the crime of harboring witches. He, together with the witch, was tied to a stake and burned to death. But I knew his corals were not counterfeits. They were exactly the same as the ones my father sold.�

�The idea that a rare object is priceless isn�t wrong. But there are other factors affecting the price of an item. This is the simplest example. Since the palace of Kingdom of Everwinter treated the emerald corals as a symbol of luxury, they set its value. When more emerald corals appeared, the rules of royalty were impacted. Thus on the day of the noble�s execution, the queen even threw a big celebration. Do you think these items are like those of us who�re secular?�

�Like� what?� Alicia was lost.

�Like the people, the children under the throne,� said Mira word by word,�we are born with a price, and this price doesn�t reflect our real value. Just like this emerald coral, we are obviously same, but some are at a low price, and some are too high to be reached.�

�Too high for us to attain� You mean the nobles.�

�The nobles are like the corals of the palace of Kingdom of Everwinter.� The priestess smiled. �We�re all born having the same hands, feet, a pair of eyes, and a mouth. However, their prices are set at the highest value. That�s not determined by their own abilities, but by the rule of the royalty. So I joined the church. At least, in the new Holy City of Hermes, your birth doesn�t limit your value. If we could turn the entire continent into the final holy city of the church, then that would be our so-called divine state.�

�You�ve made a very good point!� Alicia nodded repeatedly with excitement coursing through her. If they really manage to build Kingdom of God as per Mira�s descriptions, where people were born without classes and there were no lowlifes and serfs, it would make a beautiful landscape.

�Kingdom of God?� The stony-faced captain of the Judgement Army scoffed and stepped forward. �How many more people do they want to turn into cold-blooded monsters? Honorable Priestess, and how much do you know about God�s Punishment Army?�

�Hey, you�� Just as Alicia was about to reprimand him for his lack of courtesy, Mira stopped her.

�The God�s Punishment Army is made up of the most powerful fighters in the church. They�re faithful, willing to devote themselves, and brave enough to join the God�s Punishment Army.�

�Not bad. You�re right about them being the most powerful fighters and converting into the army. But what they convert into aren�t warriors, but a group of emotionless monsters instead!� Having coldly spat out this sentence, he rode away and ahead of the team.

�How rude!� Alicia said angrily. When she met him in Hermes, she considered him a calm person with the steadiness of a general and the bravery of a soldier. How did he become this kind of person?

�It�s alright. He�s just distracted.� Mira shook her head. �Setbacks and sacrifices are inevitable in the building of Kingdom of God on earth� But at least we�re willing to do so.�

When the team arrived at the next town, it was already dark. The priestess led the delegation to the church to take a rest. After dinner, they went back to their rooms. Alicia followed the captain and stopped him in the hallway.

�Priestess Mira is our leader. What did you mean by saying those things earlier? Have you forgotten all the rules of the church?�

�You�re Alicia, aren�t you?� he only spoke after a moment of silence.

�Yes, I�m a caption like you. I asked for your name as early as in the Months of Demons, but you said nothing. May I know your name now?�

�Abrams,� he answered without expression, �as for why I said that�? Do you have any siblings?�

�No.� Alicia suddenly remembered that Abrams once said his elder brother was a member of the God�s Punishment Army.

�I have one. We grew up together in the church. We knew each other so well like we were one person. Later, he took the initiative to accept the conversion and I never saw him again. The chief justice told me that his conversion was so successful that he was now doing special missions for the church. I was very happy for him.� He paused. �That was until I saw him again in a cathedral one day. I called his name and want to go forward to hug him. Guess what I saw.� His expression showed a hint of pain. �A stranger. It was as if he didn�t see me. He walked straight past me. There was no light in his eyes at all, which only stared straight ahead. His movements were completely inhuman.�

��� A shiver ran down Alicia�s back. She badly wanted to shout that he was lying, but when she opened her mouth, no sound came.

�The God�s Punishment Army deprives their fighters of human emotions. They�re nothing more than a group of walking corpses.� He pushed stunned Alicia away and returned to his room without looking back.

Border Town finally had a rainy day. The sky was overspread by thick clouds. The rain poured in torrents and pattered on panes and windows.

Spring was usually a wet and warm season. This was not the case. After the Months of Demons, there was hardly any rain in Border Town. Fortunately, farmlands were just by the river, making it easier for farmers to water their crops. The heavy rain had dispelled the sultriness in the air. Nightingale opened the window to let the scent of soil fill the room.

Across Redwater River, young buds were shooting forth from the field at a distance. The endless green wheat wound underneath the canopy of the sky until it disappeared from sight. Quite contrary to the somber river, the crops appeared fresher and more vivacious than ever after the rain.

Roland stretched himself and threw the quill in his hand into a pen holder.

�Done?� Nightingale asked.

�Yes. A brand new weapon which can increase the shooting speed of flintlocks by several times.� Roland stacked up a dozen sheets of blueprints and then said, �I call it a revolving rifle. Do you want to take a look?�

�No.� Nightingale twitched her mouth. �I don�t understand it anyway.�

�This is just a prototype. If I shorten the barrel, it�ll turn into a portable revolver. But I need to solve another key technical issue before I can put it into use. If everybody has one such kind of weapon, we won�t need to be afraid of the Judgement Army from the church anymore.�

�Are you saying it�ll make an ordinary woman as powerful as a fully armed strong man?�

�Not just one, but several.� Roland smiled triumphantly. �If we�re lucky, we can make this number into five.�

Nightingale appeared perfectly incredulous. She was about to say something when suddenly there was a knock on the office door.

�Your Highness, Barov�s apprentice just returned from the king�s city. He also brought a merchant who sells saltpeter. They�re waiting for you outside the castle at the moment.�

�The apprentice of the assistant minister?� Roland thought for a while and recalled the matter. As the gunpowder had been running out when he had attacked Longsong Stronghold, he had sent his guards to Fallen Dragon Ridge and Redwater City for new saltpeter suppliers. Barov�s apprentice, whose destination was the king�s city, was the last one to commence his journey. After all, King�s City had everything. As summer was around the corner, the production of saltpeter must be increasing rapidly.

Roland had not expected the last to take his departure was actually the first to bring good news.

�Take them to the living room. I�ll be right there.� Roland looked up at the sky and added, �Ask the kitchen staff to prepare some desserts as well.�

By the time he turned around, Nightingale had been out of sight.

But he knew she was right beside him.

�

When Roland entered the living room, the merchant who sold saltpeter was just walking into the hall under the guidance of the guard. She took off her drenched cloak and straw hat before bowing to the prince. �I�m Margaret Farman from the king�s city. Please accept my warmest regards, Your Highness.�

Roland was taken by surprise when he noticed the merchant was a lady. It was far less safe to do business in this era than in the modern world, as tradesmen frequently encountered bandits and refugees when they traveled, not to mention the harassment of local bullies and underground gangsters. Because of this, not many women engaged in business.

Like Lightning, Margaret also had fair blonde hair, but hers was denser and longer. She looked in her thirties. Probably because she was not a noble but simply an ordinary woman, she already got wrinkles around the corners of her eyes and on her forehead. Her skin was a bit dark, and even a little coarse at the first glance. From her appearance, however, Roland felt she did not look like a Mojin but instead a Fjords native.

�Please take a seat.� The prince motioned her to sit down and seated himself in the host�s seat. �You aren�t from the Kingdom of Graycastle, are you?�

�Why did you say that?� Margaret smiled.

�You�ve got a hair color that�s pretty rare in inland countries. As far as my knowledge goes, most people who live across the channel have beautiful blonde hair. I know an explorer from Fjords as well.�

�You�re indeed a learned man. My native town is at Fjords, but I�ve been here for over 10 years. I�m currently living in the Kingdom of Graycastle, and I consider myself as a half native of the Kingdom of Graycastle.� She paused for a moment and then said, �You just left the king�s city not a while ago. Perhaps we�ve met somewhere else before. I feel honored to live in a city that Your Highness once stayed at.�

Apparently, every successful merchant had exceptional communication and diplomatic skills. Roland knew Margaret was trying to flatter him, but he still felt quite pleased with the comment. Just when he was absorbed in the compliment, Nightingale pinched his right shoulder with great strength. [Well, Nightingale, you�re being over-responsible. In this case, there�s no need to check the credibility of her words.] Roland said within himself.

�But speaking of explorer, it�s a highly-respected title in the Fjords.� Margaret went on. �You probably don�t know. There are few lands in the Fjords that�re suitable for a dwelling. As the tides rise and recede continuously, some islands will be swallowed by the rising seawater. Some, on the other hand, constantly erupt into flames and smoke. Rocks will melt into a dark red river at such a high temperature. Only those who have discovered a new sailing route or a new island suitable for life are qualified for such a title. Ordinary people won�t call themselves explorers.�

�Haha. She not only calls herself an explorer but also calls her father the greatest explorer ever.� Roland shook his head with a smile. �She�s just a kid. Kids always like to imagine themselves as some sort of great men.�

�Even kids won�t be so reckless as to regard themselves as explorers in the Fjords.� Margaret frowned. �Did she say who his father is?�

Roland realized he had just made a mistake by the look on Margaret�s face. It seemed to Fjords natives, the word �explorer� contained some sacred, spiritual meanings, which could not be used unscrupulously. �Her father�s name is Thunder.�

To Roland�s surprise, Margaret�s eyes widened as soon as she heard the name. �You�re acquainted with Mr. Thunder?�

�No, but I know his daughter. Have you heard of him?�

�Everybody in the Fjords is familiar with that name! Mr. Thunder discovered Doublepeak Island and Sea Dragon Bay, expanding our living area almost by half. He also drew a detailed map of the east coast and Endless Cape. 80% of the current routes on this continent were discovered by him. Every kid knows Mr. Thunder�s stories by heart. He�s one of the most extraordinary explorers in the Fjords!�

�But I�ve heard Thunder died in a storm��

�No, Your Highness. A true explorer won�t be easily defeated by a storm. He encountered numerous dangers but always managed to escape. Mr. Thunder at present must be recruiting new crews somewhere, just like what he did before.� Margaret leaned forward a little bit. �Your Highness, do you know where his daughter is?�

Roland was also surprised by the fact that Lightning�s father was such a well-known figure. Did that indicate all those adventures, as bizarre as the Arabian Nights, were indeed true? �She�s living right in the castle at the moment. She headed west after the storm until her arrival at Border Town, where I took her in.�

�In your castle?� Margaret could barely hide her anticipation. �Can I� have your permission to meet his daughter?�

�Well, I�m afraid not now.� Roland was pretty sure that Lightning was currently flying around the Misty Forest trying to locate the relic marked on the �treasure map�. �She�s now practicing� her jungle exploration skills. If you intend to stay over, you should be able to see her.�

�Then please excuse my intrusion.� Margaret nodded instantly.

�So, can we now jump into the business?�

�Of course, Your Highness.� She smiled. �Please feel free to start.�

�Do you primarily sell saltpeter in the king�s city?� Roland came straight to the point.

�No, Your Highness.� The smile on Margaret�s face was no longer a fake one of formality but became more sincere and cordial. �I sell many products, from gemstones to fabrics, and I also run inns and taverns. In fact, I just started selling saltpeter a month ago. The previous business owner lost everything in my casino and had to put a lien on his plant.�

[She not only sells various goods but also involves in the service industry. What kind of businesswoman is she?] Roland knew it required more than capitals to operate a casino in the king�s city. He knocked on the desk, but Nightingale simply pinched his neck, which meant Margaret was wearing a God�s Stone of Retaliation that blocked her scrutiny.

Hang on� If Nightingale can�t detect lies, why did she pinch his right shoulder earlier?

Roland coughed and suppressed the desire to turn around and question her.

He had heard some merchants from Fjords, after settling down in the four kingdoms, expanded their business and accumulated incredible fortunes. After all, Fjords natives were all born businessmen who were not only fearless and adventurous but also good at sniffing out a business opportunity. Although many of them were ripped off by the government, some managed to establish themselves. By lobbying with local authorities, they formed a relatively stable alliance with some distinguished figures. Could Margaret also be one of the successful ones?

If this was the case, Roland felt it would be better to save the small talks and directly state his needs. �I want a large quantity of saltpeter. The more, the better.�

�But the Western Region of the kingdom isn�t hot, especially for the towns close to the Impassable Mountain Range. Do you really need that much saltpeter, Your Highness?� Margaret asked curiously, �I own three plants in the suburb of the king�s city, which will suffice the needs of nobles in a medium-sized city.�

[Three plants!] Roland was internally exhilarated by the news but still remained expressionless. �I plan to build a freezer in the basement of the castle to preserve some food that goes bad easily. If you offer me a reasonable price, I�d like to purchase all your saltpeter.�

Margaret nodded. �Well, since you�re being so straightforward, I�m willing to ship all my saltpeter to Border Town and give you a 10% off on the current market price. But��

�But what?�

�I don�t really want gold royals. My warehouse is full of them. I�ve heard you have some unique products, which I�m really interested in using as a substitution for gold royals if you don�t mind. I�ll be happy to make the deal with you if you agree to this term.�

�Some unique products?� Roland was surprised. Margaret was the first person that he had ever known who did not want gold royals.

�Yes. For example, an automatic machine made of black iron.� The merchant leaned forward a little bit and said, �Your servant told me it only requires some boiling water to produce immense power. In fact, this is what made me decide to come to Border Town in person. Otherwise, I actually prefer to sell my saltpeter to nobles in the king�s city. Border Town, after all, was very far, and the shipping costs a lot.�

[This is indeed unexpected,] Roland thought. Although he did not know how Barov�s apprentice found her and how they turned their subject to steam engines, it was evident that this merchant from the king�s city was very interested in it.

Roland knew very well how enormous the profits industrial goods could bring, especially for those machines that only he knew how to manufacture. He had been worried that the money in the duke�s mansion would exhaust eventually after Border Town stopped selling ores. Now, a great business opportunity had just been presented to him.

�I know what you�re talking about.� The prince smiled. �It�s called a steam engine. Its operation mechanism is pretty simple, which is to convert the steam of boiling water into power. But only Border Town manufactures this kind of machine.�

�So it does exist?�

�Of course.� Roland spread out his hands. �But its manufacture process is very complicated and the price is steep. If you�re interested, I can show it to you.�

�I would love to see it.� She rose in excitement.

�

When Margaret saw the roaring steel monster slowly pull the mine car out of the mine at the North Slope Mine, her eyes almost bulged out under her lids.

�Your Highness, it, it�s� so inconceivable.� There was a tinge of tremor in her voice. �I thought your messenger was just exaggerating, but the truth is actually more fascinating than his description� I�m afraid one� steam engine can replace� more than dozens of people�s labor.�

Margaret wanted to take a closer look but was stopped by Roland. �It�s too dangerous to approach an operating steam engine. Don�t get too close to it. See that white steam puffing out? A little can burn you.�

�Do you use it only to ship ores?� As the machine was too loud, Margaret had to crane her neck and raised her voice.

�There are two in total at the mine. The first one is responsible for pulling mine cars and the second one for drawing water from the mine,� Roland replied, �In fact, the machine can also replace windmills and watermills to grind wheat. It won�t be affected by water currents or wind and can save a lot of manpower and animal labor. It can even set paddles in motion and thus be used as a power source for a sailing ship. With a steam engine, you can operate a sailing ship even without wind.�

Roland knew what a boat that did not need to rely on wind power and wind directions meant to Fjords people. As he had expected, Margaret�s eyes were glowing with excitement. �Make an offer. I want to buy it.�

�I can�t sell this one to you, as the mine needs it for production. You can preorder some new steam engines. Once your saltpeter arrives, I�ll send you my invoice.�

�What about the price��

Roland led her to a quieter spot slightly away from the mine. �500 gold royals,� Roland answered. It was definitely overpriced, for the number was almost equal to the annual income of a knight in the territory. The overhead cost for a steam engine was around 20 gold royals. It would be no more than 50 gold royals in total after adding smelting costs, labor costs and installation costs, but it created big room for bargaining.

�Then that�s the deal! I want to purchase 10 steam engines!�

��� Roland was speechless for a second. 10 steam engines meant 5,000 gold royals, which was pretty much a five to six years� savings of Duke Ryan�s. As Margaret did not even bargain, Roland wondered if this was normally the way an ultra-rich merchant did her business. He cleared his throat and asked, �Are you sure? This is a big sum of money. Plus, it isn�t going to be a one-time investment. You have to spend a lot as well on future maintenance.�

�I know. It�s just like maintaining a boat. You need to clean it annually to get rid of algae and tiny marine creatures nested in the hull and replace new sails, ropes, etc.,� Margaret said carelessly, �let me know what needs to be changed or added, and I�ll purchase them. If that doesn�t work, you can just sell me the labors who maintain and operate the machine altogether at another price.�

Roland shut his mouth. There was only one idea in his mind: it felt so good to have incessant money.

Lightning was flying above Misty Forest.

The world seemed to shrink in her eyes. All the details had become obscure in her sight, with only various color blocks left. The brown one was earth, gray the mountains, green the forests and blue the rivers.

Green, however, occupied most of the landscape she saw.

Unlike the bright, vibrant green color of the fields in Border Town, the green color here was dark and intense, mingled with some gray and black shades. The endless dark green landscape extended from the west all the way to the north. If Lightning gazed at it for a long time, she would feel like going to crash to the ground. Therefore, she had to divert her attention to the azure of the sky every now and then to dispel the increasing sense of constraint.

The low, thick clouds behind her, meanwhile, overspread the peaks of the Impassable Mountain Range and enveloped Border Town with a thin film of mists and rain.

Lightning was currently looking for a relic of 450 years old in Misty Forest. There was no doubt that this was a great exploration. Half a month ago when Roland had given her the task, she had promised to find the relic with great confidence. Unlike Supervisor Cara, the Snake of Magic, who strictly followed the hints in the ancient book with incredible obstinacy, Prince Roland stressed over and over again that the map was no more than a reference. He told Lightning to stay safe and that she did not need to feel sorry for failing to keep her promise. These words made the little girl quite happy.

Lightning knew His Highness was right. Even if it used to be a grand castle, it would be ultimately swallowed by bushes and shrubs and reduced to ashes in the elapsed 400 years. But she still wanted to find that place. By locating the Star of David, she could thereby spot where Holy City of Taquila was. After hearing the full account, Lightning had instantly known what Taquila stood for.

Down the relic, it was very likely that she could help the prince uncover the real reason behind the battle between the church and demons, which the church strenuously tried to conceal.

This was going to be much more fun than exploring new routes with her father!

Using the method of making nautical charts, Lightning first drew some grids on a square parchment and then filled each grid out based on the distance she covered in a certain period of time. When all the grids were filled out, her task was done.

She had filled out half of the grids already.

The rain clouds behind approached her faster than she had anticipated. The little girl could even hear muted thunders when layers of clouds rolled by. She lowered the height and flew toward the forest below at a tremendous speed.

Just then, she caught a glimpse of a transient white gray shadow from the corner of the eye.

For a second, Lightning was not sure what exactly she had seen. So, she stopped flying, hovered in the air and turned around to glance about the area she had just passed by.

Nothing particular was found.

Lightning wondered if that was an illusion. She decided to examine the area once again.

This time, she flew even lower, low enough to make out peeling tree trunks, splitting twigs and leaves in various shapes out of the entire green forest. She again saw the details of the color block.

A few minutes later, Lightning suddenly discovered a small part of a white stone tower sticking out from layers of branches. As the top of the tower was chopped off and its lower part was hidden in the forest, it was pretty hard for her to see it from the sky. If it was not because of the rain clouds, she probably would have missed it.

Lightning�s heart was pounding in her chest. [Could that be the relic marked on the map?]

She flew around the stone tower but did not perceive anything unusual. Therefore, she decided to take a closer look.

After landing, the little girl noticed it was not technically a white stone tower.

Instead, it was covered with vines and mosses and turned out to be a grayish green color when she drew closer. The tower was slightly tilted as if it had been struck by some great forces. Stones of the same material and color as the tower littered on the ground, which appeared to have fallen off the top. Some bigger ones were still visible, while other smaller ones had been buried in the grass and soil. The tower was colossal, whose base was almost as big as Prince Roland�s castle. For this kind of edifice, there was usually a basement beneath the ground.

Lightning should have recorded the location of the relic and returned to Border Town immediately.

A sensible voice in her head was telling her it was not a good idea to enter a relic of hundreds of years old, for the toxic underground gases were sufficient to kill her.

But Lightning was rooted to the ground and was burned with curiosity. Another dauntless voice was urging her to take a peek, to take just one peek. She looked up at the sky. The cloudless sky now appeared sullen. Apparently, a heavy rain was on the way.

Lightning finally found a justification for herself to enter the tower: since it was not comfortable to fly in the rain, she had to get into the tower to keep herself from getting wet. If she found the basement, she would absolutely not go down there alone.

After making up her mind, Lightning, driven by her great curiosity, went up to the entrance covered with vines. She pulled out her dagger from the waist and managed to drill a small hole for her to creep in. The wooden door frames had been rotten long before, and she went into the tower without any difficulties.

As the top of the tower had been chopped off, Lightning could clearly see everything without a torch. She searched the first floor of the tower but found nothing. Evidently, anything exposed to sunlight had been wiped out by the sands of time without leaving the slightest traces behind. There was nothing left on the ground floor of the tower other than the ruins of the wall. Lightning also found some holes for staircases that started from the floor to the ceiling, but no staircases were ever found.

It was fairly easy for her to locate the passage leading to the basement. It was on the southwest side of the ground floor, right across the entrance to the tower. Lightning suspected that she could probably find Holy City of Taquila mentioned in the ancient book if she advanced toward Barbarian Land in this direction.

While she was pondering, she felt something dropped on her nose. It was rain. She thus slowly entered that passage winding down to the basement and took a turn. There, she reached a wooden door. Although the door had not been completely eroded, it was quite dilapidated as if it were going to crack into pieces upon a gentle touch.

Presently, the light drizzle turned into a pouring rain. The rain pattered on the ground in torrents and obscured her vision. Although Lightning was standing somewhere dry, puddles soon overflowed and the water started to trickle down the stone staircases. In order not to get her shoes wet, she managed to float above the ground with her two feet dangling in the air.

Suddenly, Lightning heard a feeble, obscure yell in the rain.

The sound made her hair all stood up on its ends. The little girl glanced about in horror. The narrow passage was littered with nothing but a few dead vines here and there. With the help of the dim light from outside, she opened her bag and took out a portable torch and flints, attempting to light the torch for a further examination.

At that moment, she again heard the shout. This time, she realized the sound was coming from the wooden door behind. Lightning shuddered in fright and turned around immediately. The torch fell to the ground and the water splashed over her body.

This time, the voice was clearer. Although still pretty quiet, it was loud enough for her to figure out it was a woman.

[Is someone in the basement?] Her back was instantly covered with cold sweats at this thought. [How could that be possible? The stone tower should be a relic of over 400 years old. As it situates in the middle of nowhere deep down in the Misty Forest, who could have come here other than me?]

�Help me��

By the time the woman yelled for the third time, the voice had become fairly clear. It was indeed behind the wooden door. Someone was truly asking for help. Lightning swallowed hard. She put her hand on the doorknob cautiously and then gently pushed the door open. The wet, goopy wooden door fell backward and hit the ground, accompanied by a muffled clunk.

A tall, stout figure appeared before her abruptly!

Lightning felt all her blood froze. The figure looked exactly like the demons Soraya had drawn. In the dismal light, Lightning sensed that the demon was also gazing at her. Its giant stature slightly leaned forward. In its hand, which had only three fingers, was an axe glistening with dark red blood stains. In a second, she recalled the day when these fiends had slaughtered the witches from the Witch Cooperation Association.

�Ah�!� Lightning shrieked at the top of her shrill voice. She threw the flints in her hand at the demon and darted out of the passage as fast as she could. She flew straight into the rain and headed toward Border Town.

Lightning did not notice, however, that the flint hit the demon on his chest at a crisp and clear sound. Some tiny cracks soon appeared around the area that was hit and then started to expand all over the demon�s body. The demon gradually shattered into pieces as more cracks emerged. It finally reduced to some white ashes that eventually melted into the wind.

After visiting the steam engine, Roland and Margaret returned to the office in the castle and continued to discuss the details of the business contract. If such a discussion involved bargaining, it could commonly take one or two days. To save effort, the lord would usually entrust its treasurer to do the negotiation, while revealing the number and bottom line to him. But this time Margaret insisted that the price was non-negotiable, which saved Roland a lot of effort.

�I guess I�ll be here again after one month, with three sloops full of saltpeter,� the businesswoman said as she hastily took notes on a parchment, �Calculated by 90% of the market price, it is worth about 315 gold royals.�

�By then the little town would have manufactured two steam engines.� Roland lowered the number deliberately. �They�re worth 1000 gold royals. You can pay the price difference with gold royals or with other goods.�

�What kind of goods?�

�Iron, copper, lead, green alum,� Roland said, �Nothing but common minerals. But for the first three items, what I need are not ores, but metal ingots. In addition, I also need 10 sets of crystal glass vessels. As to whether I need them with or without carvings, be them kettle or wine glass, it doesn�t matter to me, as long as they�re the finest products from the alchemical workshop of the king�s city. If they�re worth more than two steam engines, I can pay you in gold royals or you can deduct the price difference from the next month�s two steam engines.�

�You seem to take me as your exclusive businesswoman,� Margaret said with a smirk. �Although I�m not involved in mine management, I do know a few peers who�re in this line of business. What surprises me is there are so many opportunities in this barren isolated area. Not many nobles are living here and yet your saltpeter consumption is enormous. The town was established because of North Slope Mine but yet it needs to outsource ores. All that�s happening here really contradicts my common knowledge. Your Highness, your domain is remarkable.�

A major feature of industrial production is that it takes in massive raw materials and gives out end products. Roland laid out his hands and said, �This town will need more raw materials in the future. I think we can reach a long-term��

At that moment, Margaret was suddenly surprised looking behind Roland with her eyes wide open. Roland was startled and then turned around subconsciously. He then saw Lightning, who was soaked to the skin, standing next to the French window. Her hands were clinging to the glass, and her face pale, on her forehead were fringes of hair with water flowing by�she looked like just being salvaged from a pond.

Roland hurriedly stood up and opened the window. Lightning flew in and threw herself into Roland�s arms. At that point, her nerves were able to loosen up, and she totally rested her body on Roland and then passed out.

�Nightingale, go get Nana,� Roland said anxiously.

�Yes sir.� A reply came from his side without anybody shown.

�What happened? Since she could fly, she shouldn�t have encountered demonic beasts or demons. Or they could fly too?� Roland roughly checked Lightning�s physical condition and found no obvious injury. He was slightly relieved.

�Your Highness, is she� the Lightning whom you mentioned?� Putting one hand on her mouth, Margaret slowly walked to the prince and carefully examined the little girl in his arms.

Roland was startled. �Damn it! How could I forget about her.� He shouted toward the door, �Sean!�

The guard then walked into the office.

�I�m sorry, Miss Margaret. I have no choice but keep you here for some time.� Holding Lightning in his arms, Roland stood up and said to the guard, �Take this businesswoman from the king�s city to the guestroom on the first floor. Keep a close eye on her. Don�t let her out without my order.�

�Yes sir!�

�What? No, Your Highness� wait a moment.� Margaret suddenly realized something. �I hold no grudge toward witches. Besides, she�s the daughter of Thunder. I won�t tell the church��

�Just in case.� Roland interrupted her. �I�ll come back to you for verification later.�

�

�Your Highness, she woke up,� Nightingale opened the door and said.

Roland nodded. Following Nightingale, he walked into the bedroom. The water bucket at the bedside was giving off steam with Lightning�s wet clothes randomly hung on. A group of witches surrounded the bed. Wendy sat on the head of the bed combing Lightning�s hair. Her hair was still wet, but yet her face was not that pale anymore. Lightning leaned at the bedside with two pillows on her back. The quilt was pulled so high that only the upper half of her face was shown. She stared at Roland motionlessly.

�How is it going now?�

�No injury. It was a trauma caused by the exhaustion of her magical power,� Nightingale replied, �After Wendy helped her with cleaning, she soon woke up in bed.�

Roland walked to the bedside and said with a smile, �What happened? Why did you fly back in such a hurry in the rain?�

�I�ve found the ruin,� Lightning murmured, �but demons are inside.�

The crowd was startled upon hearing this.

�You went in?� Scroll asked.

�No.� Lightning shook her head, and then began to tell the whole story. �A Demon was guarding the gate. I heard someone inside calling for help, but I was so scared that I had no way to save her but to escape by myself.� She slightly shrunk her head in the quilt. �Am I no longer being qualified to be an explorer?�

�No, you�ve done well.� Roland consoled her. �An excellent explorer understands to act according to the situation, while not putting him or herself in danger. When you couldn�t save her, escaping was your best choice.�

�Is she a witch in the stone tower?� Wendy asked, �Because except for witches, no one else could reach so deep into Misty Forest.�

�Witches won�t go there either.� Scroll shook her head. �It�s a ruin from 450 years ago that we�re talking about. Without the guidance of a map, to locate the stone tower among the countless trees is as difficult as climbing up to heaven. Unless��

�Unless what?� Roland asked.

�Unless they have been living there all along,� Scroll slowly replied.

�Do you mean they didn�t go there from the kingdom but had been living there since 450 years ago? They had lived in isolation, generation after generation?� Although not saying so, the prince had deep down denied this speculation. �What would it mean by living in a primitive forest! It�s full of elusive beasts, horrible insects and toxic animals, no stable source of food� and even Bear Grylls couldn�t live in such a place for long. Not to mention in this world there�re months of long snowy winter, and demonic beasts and demons running wildly. Settling down in Misty Forest basically means committing suicide.� Roland looked at Lightning. �Was there any trace of people living near the ruins?�

�No,� the little girl said while shaking her head.

�Perhaps there�s more than one map,� Soraya said, �Perhaps there�re other people searching for the whereabouts of Taquila just like us.�

�No matter what, we can�t help them.� Leaf sighed. �Except Lightning, no one can reach the stone tower quickly.�

�I�m afraid we won�t know the actual situation until we get there.� Roland stroked his chin. �Anyway, it�s cheering that you returned safe and sound. Tonight�s class will be dismissed. Everybody get a good rest. The truth will be revealed when the time is ripe.�

After leaving Lightning�s bedroom, Roland said to Nightingale, �We�ve yet another problem to deal with.�

�As long as she�s removed of the God�s Stone of Retaliation,� Nightingale said with a smile, �I�ll do the rest.�

The rain had basically stopped. The layers of clouds were dyed red by the setting sun.

Roland pushed open the guestroom door to see Margaret walking back and forth in front of the fireplace seeming rather agitated. The moment the guard Sean saw Roland coming, he bowed and left. Upon seeing Roland, Margaret hurriedly walked up and asked, �Your Highness, how�s Lightning doing?�

Roland was startled, unexpecting such a response from her. He had speculated that she might be peaceful, angry, or maybe cold, but never expected that she would show any concern for Lightning.

�She�s fine� only tired.�

�Really? That�s good.� She looked relieved.

�You seem to care about her.�

�She looks very much like her father, especially that pair of long and narrow eyes and her pointed nose� I can tell she must be Thunder�s daughter.�

After saying this, Margaret unbuttoned her collar and took down a string of gold jewelry on her neck. �The verification you mentioned� you mean to judge me with the help of a witch�s magic power, right? If my sincerity can be proved like this, then could you ask her to also join the conversation? I don�t like being spied on.�

The string of jewelry was composed of a gold chain and a light blue gemstone which was cut into a polyhex. �It must be a high-quality God�s Stone of Retaliation,� Roland thought.

Roland was surprised by her proposal because he had just been thinking about how he should bring that up without making her uncomfortable or suspicious. To be honest, he kind of admired this Fjords woman. Although she was in a fairly disadvantaged situation, she was still trying to take the initiative of the conversation. Both her negotiation skills and her conduct proved her a successful businesswoman.

Roland took the God�s Stone of Retaliation from Margaret�s hand and hung it on the clothes rack beside the fireplace. With such a good quality, this God�s Stone of Retaliation might be able to restain any magic power within a one-meter range. In Nightingale�s eyes, this was the same as a huge black hole. Perhaps Nightingale had dodged far away to escape from this stone.

�Let�s talk in the living room,� Roland said. Since the woman had shown sincerity, Roland did not want to appear too harsh. When the two of them stepped into the living room, Nightingale had already shown herself and sat on the seat of the host. Holding her chin with hands, her position looked as if she had been waiting a long time. �It seems she�s thinking the same as me,� Roland thought.

After everybody was seated, Roland started to introduce them. �This is Nightingale. She can tell whether you�re telling the truth.�

�Hello, Miss Nightingale.� Margaret nodded toward Nightingale, and Nightingale greeted her likewise.

�You once said that you meant no harm to the witches. What do you mean by that?� This was the first question that Roland posed, which was also the thing he wanted to know the most. �As far as I know, the church also has power in the Fjords.�

�But its influence is incomparable to that of the Three Gods. Or in other words, most of the people in the Fjords have similar beliefs to Sand Nation. They worship the sky, the ocean, and the earth. As to me�� She paused. �I used to have a very close friend. Once we encountered a storm when we went fishing in the sea. Our sailing ship was cut into two by a giant wave. Through this disaster, my friend became a witch who could breathe like fish. I lost consciousness in the ocean, and it was she who found me and dragged me ashore.�

�What happened next?� Nightingale asked curiously.

�When I woke up, she�d left� Perhaps compared to staying with me, she yearned more for living in the sea,� Margaret said regretfully, �Since then, I�ve never seen her again. The villagers use to say that when there was fog on the sea, she would guide the fishing boats with her singing to avoid reefs. No matter what, my friend can neither be an evil person, nor can she be the devil�s minion.�

Roland nodded. �Witches are awakened commoners. If one has had a profound understanding of the witches before their awakening, the impression one has on them won�t be easily altered by what the church advocates.�

�You seem to know much about witches� abilities. How did you guess that I have more than one witch here by the few words that I said?�

�To be honest, because of this childhood friend, I became very curious about witches. I even considered taking in such special girls,� Margaret said with a smile.

Up until then, Nightingale had not found any evidence of Margaret lying, which basically ruled out the possibility that she would be a snitch to the church. Roland felt relieved and then said with a bit of guilt, �It seems that I�ve been too suspicious. I hope you won�t mind.�

�Of course not. I understand that Your Highness was doing this for the safety of Lightning and� this girl,� Margaret said while waving a hand, �It�d have meant you�re too irresponsible if you did nothing but stand by.�

�Are you familiar with Thunder?� Roland asked, �Your concern toward Lightning indeed exceeds the kind of concern one person shows toward the children of a hero.�

Faced with this question, Margaret hesitated for a moment. Then Roland said it would not matter if she did not want to answer, but slowly she began to tell the story, �To be honest, after I left the village, I used to join in Lord Thunder�s expedition team and went through a fairly long period of going on exploration trips with him. As a new member of the team, Lord Thunder and his wife showed particular care to me. When Lightning was born, I was there to witness it.�

�Was she born on a ship?�

�Yes, during a fierce storm. Out of the cabin, the thunder and lightning never ceased. Not long after her birth, Lord Thunder�s wife passed away due to an infection of septicemia, and I� acted half of her mother. Since there was no breast milk, I chewed oatmeal, mixed it with fish roe and fed her bit by bit.� Margaret�s voice became very tender. �Lord Thunder was extremely sad, but yet he still managed to command the whole crew. Without a backbone, the crew was likely to collapse through the months� long voyage. I lived in the cabin and watched Lighting growing. That expedition ended when Lord Thunder found Shadow Islands and we returned to Sea Dragon Bay. After that, I� left the Fjords and settled down in the king�s city of the Kingdom of Graycastle.�

�That�s what happened!� Roland thought to himself, �No wonder when she heard the name of Thunder, she reacted so strongly. As to why she stopped following Thunder with his expeditions, it�s not hard to guess. Not every story started with a love scenario ends up with a love scenario.�

�But what a twisted and turned coincidence� having such a connection with her. Will I get a bigger discount on my trade with her?� Roland coughed twice. �Miss Margaret, you and I are sort of acquaintances now, so our business��

�Your Highness, that�s not how it works,� Margaret said with a smile, �Business is business. That�s our unwavering principle.�

Kyle Sichi walked into the alchemical workshop.

When the apprentices saw Kyle enter, they immediately bowed and said, �Respected Chief Mentor.�

He waved his hand. �Carry on everyone.�

The apprentices sat back down to continue their work.

The outermost part of the workshop was the washroom. Here was where the materials arriving from all over Kingdom of Graycastle were cleaned, sorted, filtered, and ground. The design of the washroom was very clever, where there was a stone surface placed flat over a creek, acting as a walkway, leaving both side access to two flowing streams. Passing over the smaller creek, you would find a cleaning area at the farthest side.

At first glance, the long and narrow washroom looked like it was divided by the two streams into three sections. The light coming through the side windows would reflect off the stone and the streams surface, sending long strips of light throughout the room. The overlapping of light and shadow resembled the skin of a snake.

There were nearly one hundred apprentices leaning against the walls, dealing with the materials assigned to them. If the debris to be removed were lighter than water, it was just tossed into the stream. If the material sank in the water it was then placed into a basket and taken to the washroom to be discarded. Cleaning with running water was several times more effective than using the stagnant water in a wooden bowl.

The apprentices would study here for the next three to five years. Only when they had become adept at sorting and cleaning all kinds of materials, would they get the opportunity to be selected as a disciple by an instructor, and then moved to the next room.

Kyle, stepping on the dark and light stripes, entered the core area of the alchemical workshop, the refining room.

When he opened the door, a large room opened up before him. 12 giant wooden pillars had been brought from Misty Forest to support this spacious room. Many windows liked the walls and there was even a skylight on the roof making the room bright. In the center of the refining room there sat six wide wooden tables. On them, there were all kinds of alchemical utensils: round-bottomed flasks, beakers, protective glasses, scales, mortar and pestles, furnaces, crucibles� Each instructor managed and was responsible for their own table. As for himself, being the Redwater City�s Chief Alchemist, he naturally got the longest table, with the most tools on it.

The room was always full of clutter and in disorder, just like the alchemy process itself. Mixing all kinds of raw materials together and then heating, performing dry distillation, watering or incinerating them, the results were ever changing and fascinating.

After experimenting, if the combination worked out, that specific process would be written down as a formula. As long as a person was able to create their own unique, successful, formula they were considered an alchemist. He had already conducted 10 successful alchemy experiments, and each of them worked as if it were coming from the deities themselves. Kyle believed that if his alchemy was perfected he would not only be able to break things down into their separate parts, but also combine all things.

�Chavez, how far have you progressed with your imitation powdered snow?� he asked.

A young man around 20 years old came over and shook his head. �The damn alchemists in the king�s city definitely added extra materials to it. The powder has been crushed too finely and it�s near impossible to extract anything useful.�

He was the youngest alchemist in the alchemical workshop�generally, the creation of an alchemical formula required a long accumulation of knowledge and tryouts and sometimes even a bit of luck. Many people in the workshop had stayed as students their whole life, unable to ever progress further. Chavez, however, had an innate talent for alchemy. Two years ago, he had concluded how to obtain acidic liquid through dry distillation of green alum. From that moment, he won the respect of the five alchemists, claiming his own long table in the room.

�Take it easy and be patient.� Kyle smiled and patted the young man�s shoulder, comforting him. Being a chief instructor for eight years, Kyle naturally understood the difficulty of finding true logic through disorder and chaos. �However, I did manage to create something good yesterday evening. We can at least show something to those arrogant people now. Come with me.�

He went to his table and asked two students to bring him a storage box. The box was about half the height of a person and made completely out of iron, making it nearly impossible to be stolen or destroyed. He pulled out the key and opened its first drawer. In the middle of the drawer, laid a small piece of transparent crystal.

�Did you cut off a crystal?� Next to him, Chavez took the crystal carefully into his hand to examine it, holding it in front of the window. �No, this is� crystal glass! God, you succeeded!�

�Correct.� Kyle smiled proudly. �I can�t wait to see the expression on their faces when they discover that their proudest alchemical discovery has been successfully duplicated by me.�

Chavez, unable to control his praises, drew the attention of the other alchemists. They all left their work and came over to see for themselves.

�Is this what you were working on until late last night? It�s incredible.�

�It�s so beautiful, looking just like a crystal.�

�Congratulations. With this, the status of our alchemic workshop will once again rise in the eyes of the duke.�

�How were you able to achieve this? Can you tell us?�

Kyle nodded. �It�s widely known that the composition of glass greatly resembles that of river sand, but in the end when it�s burned, the glass color will still vary because the sand contains impurities. So, we have to either find a way to remove all of the impurities or obtain purer sand. Everyone was trying it using these methods and so was I. However, the reason for this time�s alchemical success was largely attributed to luck. I selected a fine white sand from Willow Town and the sandstone from Fallen Dragon Ridge��

Everyone around him was listening quietly, and when he had finished his explanation, the alchemists exclaimed together. �So that�s how it was done, telling us that was very thoughtful of you.�

Crystals were both rare and expensive gemstones, but a transparent crystal was even rarer. Only the purest glass of all could be considered as crystal glass. This was the product that the Alchemist Workshop in King�s City relied upon in order to dominate over the Redwater City�s Alchemic Workshop. In addition, the gold royals it brought them every year had the Duke of Redwater City greatly envy them.

Now, everything would soon change. If Chavez could also figure out the composition to create the snow powder, in addition to his method of creating the acid, they would finally be able to outrank the Alchemist Workshop in the king�s city. By that point, the people who looked down their nose at them would have to bow their arrogant heads. Thinking about this greatly boosted Kyle Sichi�s mood.

As he was preparing to screen the raw materials needed for the second batch of crystal glass, a panicking student ran to his side. �Respected Chief Mentor, a messenger from the Western Region�s Border Town wants to see you, who has brought you a letter from the fourth Prince Roland Wimbledon.�

�Prince Roland?� Kyle frowned, it seemed that there was indeed such a person in the royal family from the Kingdom of Graycastle. He did not know much about the noble, but as far as he was concerned, they were all uneducated and ignorant, always fighting for power and wealth. �What does he need me for?�

�I don�t know, the messenger said that once you read the letter, you�ll naturally understand what His Highness want.�

���The chief alchemist revealed an impatient look, assuming that the content of the letter would be either an offer to recruit him for a lot of money or to denounce alchemy as a devil�s trick. However, since the other person was a prince, he still had to maintain a basic level of etiquette. �Take me to him, and after I get the letter, send him on his way!�

�Yes, respected Chief Mentor.�

�

By the time Kyle Sichi returned home, it was already dark outside.

After he had dinner with his family, he returned to his study and recorded the formula and the raw materials for the crystal glass in the book he was writing��The Door to Alchemy�. In it, he had recorded his biography starting from the day he had become an apprentice until the day he became a chief alchemist. In addition, he also included the alchemic formulas they had discovered over the years at the Alchemical Workshop of Redwater City.

Kyle believed that with this book, he would earn a place in history. Thousands of years later, alchemists would still remember his name.

Only after the candle had burnt out completely, did Kyle finally put down his pen and prepare to go to bed.

Suddenly, he remembered the letter from the prince. Glancing at the soon dying candle, he decided to use the last of its light to finish the letter so that he could give a verbal reply to the messenger the next day. The tiny candle would not allow him to write more than a few dozen words, but it was more than enough to read this worthless letter by.

He opened the envelope and saw that it contained three pages. The first page was the usual formal introduction full of titles and territory. Kyle did not even bother reading it and just moved straight to the second page.

The content of the second page took him by surprise, and there was no recruitment offer or denouncing. Instead, there were five strange formulas written on it. After carefully examining them, he noticed that each formula was composed of the same three sentences.

[Oh, this is interesting.�] He smiled even though he still did not know what the purpose of the letter was. The prince was quite good at mystifying.

He glanced over the first line.

�Dry distillation of saltpeter produces nitric acid.�

Saltpeter� dry distillation� nitric acid, all these were terms used in alchemy. Wait a minute, Kyle�s heart suddenly stopped. [Isn�t this one of the double-stone acid-making methods of the alchemic workshop?]

The acidic liquid produced by the dry distillation of saltpeter had to be collected in a special container. It looked just like water vapor, so it was hard to recognize. It was, however, very corrosive. Apart from skin removal, it could also dissolve specific metals.

[This� is actually an alchemic formula? Does this mean that there�s an alchemist in Border Town?]

He quickly moved his sight to the next line.

The first sentence had already surprised him, but the second sentence was even more incredible.

It consisted of a bunch of weird symbols, one after another, forming an equation. Kyle frowned, for he had never seen such strange symbols.

Looking further down the letter, it appeared that the third sentence was the explanation for the previous two. This line included the names and meanings for each of the symbols. However, these words were so difficult to pronounce that it almost seemed as if they were made up. To help him link the words with the symbols he read them over and over. Even so, he was still having trouble understanding the full meaning of the entire sentence.

At this point, the candle flame sputtered twice and then flickered out.

Damn it! Kyle cursed silently, and without hesitating, he took a new candle from his drawer and lit it.

�

By the time the second candle had burnt down halfway, the hands of the chief alchemist were shaking slightly.

For a letter that appeared to mean nothing, it had taken him a very long time to read.

The fives formulas on the second page were actually all alchemical formulas!

It was not unimaginable that an excellent alchemist would manage to come up with five formulas on his own, but the amazing part was that four of them, excluding the first one for the acid-making process, were all connected to each other. Certain words would appear repetitively, creating what seemed like a balanced cycle.

�Nitric acid reacts with silver to form silver nitrate, just like water with nitric oxide.�

�Silver nitrate reacts with iron to form ferrous nitrate and silver.�

�Silver nitrate reacts with copper to form copper nitrate and silver.�

�Copper nitrate reacts with iron to form ferrous nitrate and copper.�

He had previously also tested the alchemical reaction by putting a silver bar into the acidic liquid and part of the silver bar was clearly dissolved beyond recognition, which was an attribute of the acid. It would dissolve anything, but according to the letter, because silver nitrate was soluble in water, it would seem that it had disappeared, but in fact, it still existed in a different state and had not been destroyed.

How was that even possible?

No� Kyle shook his head. Apparently, the other side had already anticipated his doubts. The connection between these formulas was not coincidental and he realized that he was given the opportunity to personally verify them. He could try it with silver, iron or copper, and these were all common minerals. If he was to perform alchemy according to the later formulas, the silver would reappear, proving that it was not destroyed but still existed within the acid.

Seeing the orderly and neatly arranged formulas on the paper, he started breathing heavily. If these alchemical formulas were proven to be real, his years of accumulated experience, the efforts of his colleagues, as well as everything he had written in his book �The Door to Alchemy�, would be nothing more than a joke!

�You and the kid can go to sleep first, and I have to go back to the alchemical workshop!�

Disregarding his wife�s surprised look, Kyle put on his coat and rushed out straight into the night.

Arriving at the alchemic workshop, he immediately called the three students on duty and told them he had to conduct an alchemical experiment. He had them light the torches and candles, saying the more the merrier. Everything was soon arranged on his long table that was now brightly illuminated by the flames. The students began shuffling between the materials warehouse and the refining room, preparing the experiment materials for their Chief Alchemist Kyle.

There was still plenty of acid, that had been produced by the dry distillation of saltpeter in storage, so he was able to start verifying the second formula right away.

He took some of the acid and poured it into a glass. Then, he placed a silver bar into it. As the reaction started, the bar gradually dissolved, creating several bubbles.

As he waited anxiously, Kyle turned his attention to the third page of the letter.

There was only a short sentence on it, �This was merely a small part of my work, for more answers, come to Border Town.�

[Damn it! Writing this sentence is totally useless! Once I verified the formulas, I would definitely have to pay a visit to this unknown alchemist master.] Otherwise, he would not have been able to sleep again for the rest of his life.

Once the bubbles dissipated, he removed what was left of the dissolving silver bar and put a small piece of copper into the cup in its place.

Soon, something incredible started to happen. A thin white crust began to appear on the surface of the copper, much like a beetle�s skin. The white crust continued to expand and soon covered the entire surface of the copper. As for the previously colorless acid in the glass, it gradually turned a shade of blue.

Exactly as it had been described in the letter!

�The white matter is the silver, and the newly created substance, copper nitrate, is soluble in water just like the silver nitrate. However, it�ll turn the acid sky blue.�

Staring into the cup, Kyle Sichi stood there motionlessly.

�

The next morning, when Chavez arrived at the alchemical workshop, he was shocked to see the chief alchemist. He looked completely exhausted and had big black circles around his eyes indicating he had not slept.

�Didn�t you go home to sleep last night?� Chavez asked surprisedly, �Did you decide to stay up and wait for the second batch of crystal glass?�

Kyle shook his head while dragging Chavez over to his table and he said tiredly, �You were once my most valued student, so I want to ask you, what do you think about alchemy?�

�Uh� just like what you taught me.� His attention was drawn to the table where a number of glasses had been placed, filled with solutions of varying colors. The most eye-catching one was the one that was sky blue. Was this the reason the chief alchemist stayed up last night? Although Chavez was confused, he still replied honestly, �Like you, I believe that the essence of alchemy is to find the logic within all the disorder and chaos��

�No, no, Chavez, I was wrong.� Kyle interrupted him. �Everyone is wrong. That isn�t alchemy.�

�Not true�?� Chavez felt that his teacher was acting strangely. First, he had spent the whole night performing alchemy, and now he was asking weird questions. Before he could ask for an explanation, the chief alchemist continued, �Unlike what you and I previously believed, there�s more order in alchemy. An order that might even be considered a strict order, like in mathematics where one-plus-one will always equal two. No matter what changes are performed, the material amounts don�t increase, decrease or disappear, for they just change forms.�

�Will never increase, decrease, or disappear? What�re you talking about? Isn�t that what alchemists do? They combine common materials, to create new and incredible things,� Chavez asked confused.

�Yes, that�s also what I used to think, but after receiving a letter from the Lord of Border Town�� Kyle patted his shoulder, and what he said next shocked Chavez. �I�ll soon leave for Border Town to find answers. You� do you want to come with me?�

Roland obtained his first ever purchasing order since the manufacture of the steam engine, and the transaction volume was the largest one so far.

The price of a bare machine was 500 gold royals. Two machines had to be delivered in the first month, and then the amount would increase by one every following month, until he reached a total of 10 machines. Technical support, parts replacement, and equipment upgrades would all require additional gold royals. As for after-sales service and a three package commitment, Roland said he had never heard of it before.

Barov was excited about the deal because, in his opinion, any activity that could add revenue to City Hall was worth praising, whether it was trade or plunder. There were also those who opposed to it, such as Carter, Scroll, and Nightingale who had all questioned the deal. They thought it was too early to sell these machines to outsiders, as there were not even enough for Border Town itself.

Roland did not bother explaining too much because he was not looking at it from a lord�s point of view. He made the decision as an industrial promoter.

It was almost impossible to push the process of social industrialization alone, even though he had the knowledge to do so. The town�s consumption capacity was extremely limited, and the manufactured industrial products were no different from scrap iron if nobody bought them. More people were needed to be brought into this change to set off a new wave of operation.

What could he gain by selling steam engines?

Enough money, lots of jobs, and a number of skilled workers which was the most important.

This was also the reason Roland lowered production.

Anna�s ability had improved a lot, and the production efficiency was enhanced. As long as there were enough raw materials, she could produce a steam engine every day.

But selling such products was only �selling� machines.

If he wanted to promote the development of this industry, he had to set up a special team to be responsible for production, assembly, and maintenance. In Roland�s plan, he needed to open a factory, making tools for production, such as a plant or mill so that the production of the steam engine was handed over to the workers. What could be expected was that production efficiency would be low in the early stage, and the product quality would be appalling. But everything would improve bit by bit. With the help of tools made by Anna, as long as the workers were familiar with the manufacturing process, the production rate would be greatly enhanced.

The next step would be to expand the scale of production and train more skilled workers about the profits of machines. Experienced workers would give the town the ability to produce more advanced products, such as steam trains, steamships, etc. There was no doubt that this was a virtuous circle. And the steam engines that had been sold could also create benefits indirectly; they could be used for mining, which could reduce ore prices; if used for shipping, it could promote trade; if used for textiles, it could make up for their shortboards.

Roland wanted to make steam engines popular throughout the country, as long as these machines were from Border Town. Once he unified the Kingdom of Graycastle, it would save a lot of work.

He also considered the possibility that buyers might imitate steam engines, but the new steam engine used boring machine drilled round cylinders, coupled with some deliberately designed complex parts. Relying on the current level of technology, it would be difficult to create qualified machines in a short time. Even with a witch like Anna, it would be difficult.

He should have been happy to have such a big order and find the channel to sell industrial products, but Roland was not content.

�The sky is clear. Why are you still unhappy?� Nightingale sat at his desk with her legs up, holding a dish of dried fish in her lap. �Are you still worried about the church?�

When Scroll was not there, Nightingale behaved casually, and the corner of the desk and the armchair were her usual places. For other lords, this would obviously be offensive, but Roland did not care, and she knew it.

�I have been wondering why the church supported both me and Garcia to compete for the throne at the same time, and now I understand. If I guess right, I believe Timothy also received an invitation from the church,� he said with a frown.

In addition to the order, Margaret had also brought many pieces of intelligence for him, one of which made Roland surprised. The church had attacked and taken over the Kingdom of Everwinter. And according to the merchant�s statement, they intended to invade the Kingdom of Wolfheart. This news came as a shock, as it confirmed all of his suspicions.

�It supports all three of you to compete for the throne?�

�Not support, but exhaust,� said Roland shaking his head. �The church doesn�t care that the war is spreading to the whole country. Rather they�re happy to see Kingdom of Graycastle falling into civil war, and they�re not concerned whether the churches and believers are involved in the war. Kingdom of Graycastle isn�t as weak as Kingdom of Everwinter, with its vast territory and numerous citizens. If they were to use plain force, the Judgement Army would suffer many losses. Only after we kill each other, will they be able to occupy Kingdom of Graycastle at the lowest cost. At that time, they can have as many believers and churches as they want.� �Those pills� are only traps that they�ve prepared. �

The Royal Decree on the Selection of Crown Prince issued by King Wimbledon III was equivalent to giving the church an opportunity to manipulate the situation. If the Kingdoms of Graycastle, Wolfheart and Everwinter were destroyed, the Kingdom of Dawn might not exist. The real purpose of the church was probably the reunification of the four kingdoms, taking into account the slowness of the message, as well as the people�s political indifference. Everyone might come to their senses when facing death.

It was also the reason Roland was perplexed.

In this period of time, they had not developed the notion of a unified battlefront. It would be a disaster to depend on the support of the noble of the Kingdom of Graycastle. When the time came for the church to attack, these few people in the Western Region would be the only ones he could rely on.

�But you have a new weapon. The Judgement Army isn�t much stronger than the average knight, so I don�t think they could defeat you.�

Roland remembered that in the past, when it came to the church, Nightingale was terrified. But the confidence she had nowadays had exceeded Roland�s expectation.

He smiled weakly and sighed. [It won�t be difficult for Anna to produce revolving rifles that can trial a revolving rifle and two revolvers. Whether it has a trigger reset or an automatic wheel, the performance is excellent. But if the firing problem was not solved, there would be no actual value in the new weapon. In the absence of the development of mercury fulminate, I�ll need to use an alternative material to fire the guns.]

Roland hoped the guards would bring good news from Redwater City.

At this point, the momentum was restored, and Lightning flew into the office. She brought unexpected news. On the east side of Border Town, the flags on the soil slope had been replaced with blue.

According to Roland�s secretly spread rumors, the agreed communication signal was that a blue flag meant that a new witch had come.

Theo climbed up a small hill. From here he could vaguely see the outline of the Lord�s Castle in Border Town.

Finally, he had arrived back. It had taken him nearly one and a half month to go there, while it had taken only seven days to get back. Most of his time had been spent getting from Silver City to Redwater City. Even if Ashes did not care, he still chose the most secluded roads, to reduce the possibility of being found by the church.

Ashes led the way, but Theo could not be sure whether her name was real or not. She always dressed in a black robe, with a large sword wrapped in cloth on her back. Her long black hair was tied up simply in a ponytail, swaying on her waist. Whether it was riding or sailing, she paid little attention to him, walking alone in the front, looking at the scenery around her. It seemed that this trip to Border town was just a relaxed sightseeing tour.

Sometimes Theo would doubt his judgment. Was she really a soldier? The robe would interfere with her movements and the long hair was another disadvantage. Furthermore, it seemed Ashes was not afraid of being attacked from behind, during this time what he had seen most was her back. He did not think that the witch had a trustful nature. He could only assume that she had enough self-protection capability, that even a God�s Stone of Retaliation would not pose a threat to her.

Theo searched around the hills and quickly found his target, a flagpole with red stripes on it. He dug a cloth out of the mud in the edge of the flagpole and replaced the red flag with blue cloth. Then he clasped his hands and sat on the ground.

�That�s it?� Ashes asked.

��Go to the foot of the hill in the northeast of the town, follow a stone road and find the flagpole at the top of the hill, then replace the flag with a blue one, and our people will notice.� That�s what they said to do.� Theo wiped the sweat on his forehead. �The Witch Cooperation Association will only take action at night, let�s just wait here.�

Ashes nodded, and sat in a clean spot, and asked if he had any food.

�Uh� wait.� He untied his backpack, and took out a piece of meat. He ate half of it, and then gave the other half to her.

When Theo saw the witch chewing the dried meat slowly, he sighed. Except for her large sword, she had not even one bronze royal. Penniless as she was, she dared to rush to Border Town. Along the way the accommodation and meals were all paid for by him. She had to have the upper single bedroom and meat. Moreover, she was unaccustomed to portable food like dried meat.

Maybe the domain was strange to her, she was quite cautious. However, would not the most prudent approach be to prepare food by herself?

�The place we�re going to is opposite the strait,� Ashes swallowed the meat, and suddenly spoke, �I don�t know if you have ever heard the rumors of the Fjords. There are countless islands, some of which are very harsh. We had to build a home suitable for a witch.�

Theo was surprised, no matter how much he inquired, the witch had never said anything before. Why had she taken the initiative to mention this issue now?

�Are you wondering why I didn�t reveal anything to you before?� she explained, �because if you were a liar, you would send a message secretly to the church when I was asleep at night. Then those girls would have likely been stopped halfway, but now they should be on the merchant ship to the Fjord. And the church is unable to stop them. I came here to take away the helpless witches in the Witch Cooperation Association. Sooner or later they�ll know the news, so there�s no sense hiding it.�

�Even though I�ve brought you here, you can�t rule out the possibility that I�m a liar.�

�Yes, that�s true,� said Ashes, �and if people later coming here was not the witch, you would die here, with those who tried to kill the witches.�

�Okay,� said Theo, �can I ask another question?�

She thought a little and said, �If I can, I�ll answer it.�

�Do you come from the Kingdom of Graycastle? I�ve never seen such eyes before.� Theo decided to start with her origin, for this topic was not sensitive, and it would decrease her suspicions.

�I was born in the Kingdom of Everwinter, but this has nothing to do with the color of my eyes. My eyes have been like this since I became a witch.�

�The Kingdom of Everwinter? It�s so far from the Kingdom of Graycastle. There are kingdoms in the middle, how did you come to Silver City?�

�I was sold to the church, and later�� She paused. �I wandered from the cloister in Holy City to the Kingdom of Graycastle until� I only stopped the vagrant life when I met her.�

�Her?� Theo was curious.

�Tilly Wimbledon,� said Ashes with warmth in her eyes, �she took me in.�

The guard was suddenly startled when he heard the name. He had at first thought it was a duplication of the name, but the meaning was completely different adding Wimbledon. The person leading the witches to the Fjord was Roland Wimbledon�s sister, Princess Tilly? His voice stuttered. �She, she�s your leader?�

�The leader? You could say so.� She nodded. �But for me, she was the most important person� No one could replace her.�

As night fell, the two lit a bonfire on the hillside.

Ashes took her sword, and opened the cloth slowly. The blade of this terrible weapon had been close to her waist. It was covered with traces left behind from the collision. The dark gray blade did not have an edge, and it was clear that it killed people only by its weight. It was hard for ordinary people to lift this weapon, but in her hands, it was as light as a single-handed sword.

[How many blacksmith�s shops had been robbed, in order to make up the necessary materials for this sword?� Theo thought, �and if His Highness� witch didn�t show up, I might become a victim of the sword.]

�I heard that the Lord of Border Town is also called� Wimbledon.� He decided to find something to say, otherwise, the wait would be particularly tough.

�Roland Wimbledon, Prince Roland of the Kingdom of Graycastle,� she said quietly, �I�ve seen him before.�

�What?� Theo was surprised.

�When I was taken in by Tilly and served as her bodyguard in the palace, I had the opportunity to meet her brothers and sisters.� Ashes seemed to know Prince Roland very well. �Incompetent, arrogant, a man without knowledge or skills. It�s hard to believe that he�s Tilly �s brother, but in some aspects, he�s quite daring.�

Her tone became colder.

Theo could not help shuddering. He had heard a lot of rumors about His Highness when he served in the palace, his outspoken behavior, his flirting with the maids. Although he had never abused his power, it was inevitable to take advantage of others. He could not have�

At that moment, Ashes suddenly stood up and stared in the direction of the path. �People are coming.�

Theo followed where she was looking, and figures of people gradually appeared in the night. The witch leading the way was the personal guard of His Highness, Nightingale.

The newcomers were all witches. Theo did not lie. Ashes could feel the magic power coursing in them and could even roughly differentiate the strong ones from the weaker ones�particularly the leader in front of her. Her magic power was like a sharp knife cutting into Ashes� suffer when she tried to feel it keenly.

�I�m Ashes. Nice to meet you, sisters from the Witch Cooperation Association.� She put her great sword on one side and went forward to hug the four witches� No, she knew there were five of them. Ashes looked up at the dark spot circling in the sky. �Is she not joining us?�

�She�s showing us the way,� the leader smiled. �I�m Nightingale.� She then pointed at the three other witches. �Scroll, Leaf, and Echo.� She nudged her lips at the sky and said, �That little girl is Lightning.�

When Ashes stared at Scroll, she was stunned. The magic power in Scroll was fairly weak, like a cloud scattered all over her body. It surprised her and she asked, �Are you an extraordinary witch?�

Nightingale also looked surprised. �You can see magic power?�

�No, but I can feel it,� Ashes explained. �An extraordinary witch can sense the form and flow of magic power because all parts of her body have been altered. I think this sister here has the same feelings as I do.�

Scroll smiled and nodded. �You�re right. This ability has helped me find a number of companions in the sea of people.�

�Is an extraordinary witch that rare?� asked Nightingale.

Nightingale�s focus was on the numbers instead of the meaning of an extraordinary witch� Ashes wondered if they had never heard of the term in the Witch Cooperation Association. This was a heavily-guarded secret of the church. That was because that an extraordinary witch used her power directly on herself and therefore was not limited by God�s Stone of Retaliation. Any known extraordinary witch would make herself the top enemy of the church.

�In a thousand witches, perhaps there�s only one.� Despite her thoughts, Ashes remained calm when she answered, �I�ve only met three extraordinary witches including Scroll in my life.� Ashes momentarily paused. �Right. I remember that Cara is the leader of Witch Cooperation Association. How is she?�

�She died.� Nightingale shook her head. �She died on her way to find Holy Mountain.�

�� That�s such a pity,� said Ashes, her voice lowered. What concerned her was the lack of sadness in Nightingale�s expression when she spoke. �Who�s your new leader?�

�Let�s talk about that when we go back to Border Town.� Nightingale smiled. �You�ll be able to meet him very soon.�

�

When they entered the town, Ashes sensed that something was off. The witches actually dared to walk boldly on the streets while holding torches. Besides, the town was not tranquil even though it was already dark. She could see dim flames from the paper windows of many homes and hear the sound of children reading.

Though candles were not expensive things, commoners would probably not light them until it was necessary due to their limited savings. But there were many households in Border Town that could afford candles. It was incredible. In addition, children were reading word by word. Were their parents teaching them to read?

But they did not explain and she was also unwilling to ask. After all, this was not a permanent residency for them. What she needed to do was to take them away as soon as possible.

Walking through crisscross streets, they got closer to the castle. Ashes could see the dark walls and guards in the darkness. �Where are we going?� she asked.

�The castle of Border Town. We�re almost there,� replied Nightingale.

�Wait.� Ashes slowed down. �That�s where the lord lives.�

�Yes. But it�s also home to the witches.�

�Have you reached agreements with the lord?� Ashes frowned. Even though Witch Cooperation Association had huge influence among the locals, it would boldly go against the church and the lords possessing God�s Stone of Retaliation. The association was forced to work with them. That was a choice some witches took. Most lords, however, were reluctant to discuss conditions and endlessly oppressed and exploited the disadvantaged witches. Such collaboration was quickly put to an end.

�Kind of.� Nightingale did not sound oppressed, but rather joyful. �We�ve all at least signed an agreement with His Highness.�

Ashes could not feel happy for them. Agreements written in ink and paper had little binding force. Once the lord was sick of protecting witches or wanted to terminate their equal relationship, he only needed to scrunch the agreement and throw it into a fireplace. No one would feel indignant in the witches� place. They were like lonesome boats in the vast sea, and they risk being capsized at any time.

Fortunately, here she was. She wanted to lead them away to the other side of the sea. There was a habitat there built by witches. They can stay away from the threats of the church and the secular world.

After through the gate of the castle, guards were really used to the presence of the witches. They even exchanged greetings.

Compared with the palace of the king�s city, the lord�s castle was not as spacious. Only several torches were hung on the walls along the hallway and the swaying lights were unable to light up the entire place. Walking through the gloomy hallway made one felt rather depressed. It only got brighter when they entered the guest room.

In the hall, Ashes saw more witches who seemed to have waited for a long time. The moment they saw her, they all applauded to welcome her. Just as Nightingale stepped forward to briefly introduce her, a witch rushed over.

�Wendy!� someone shouted.

Ashes noticed the witch�s behavior and did not take any defensive measures. She could feel the other girl�s pleasant surprise, but there were no traces of hostility. She was quickly enveloped in a warm hug.

�You actually survived.� The girl�s voice was full of excitement. �Thank you for saving me back then.�

Ashes was stunned. �You�re��

�I�m Wendy.� She loosened her hold and looked straight at Ashes. �I�m the little choir girl. Do you remember me?�

�

In the bedroom on the second floor, only Ashes and Wendy remained.

Ashes never thought that she would meet a companion from the cloister here.

To be precise, calling her a companion was a stretch. If not for their encounter that night, they would not have known each other. Honestly, she did not realize there was another unfortunate person like her who was dragged and forced into that underground cell. Most of all, she did not expect that person would become a witch.

�After escaping from the cloister, I settled down in Seawindshire,� Wendy said after a long silence, �I later heard that there was a huge fire in the cloister that day and all children there disappeared.�

�A fire?� Ashes shook her head. �The church did that to cover up the scandal. I killed some managers and Judgement Army soldiers who tried to stop me until� the God�s Punishment Army arrived. This scar on my eyes was left by them. Had I not made up my mind to run away immediately, I�d have died there when the rest arrived.�

�God�s Punishment army�� Wendy repeated those words with wide eyes. �What�s that?�

Ashes explained to Wendy, �God�s Punishment Warriors are the strongest fighters of the church and confidential weapons to destroy Extraordinaries. They could absolutely compete with me in terms of strength and speed. What�s more�� She hesitated and then continued, �They appeared to be unconscious. Once in a fight, I cut off the right hand of a God�s Punishment Warrior, but he immediately lifted his left hand trying to gouge my eyes without any hesitation. As I turned around to escape, he didn�t overbalance at all. It�s nothing to do with willpower. Losing an arm, a tough warrior can continue to fight but he won�t be adjusted to the unbalance in such a short time.�

�I only heard of Judgement Army of the church. Given that the church people had such powerful warriors, why didn�t they use them when rounding up witches in the previous times?� murmured Wendy.

�I don�t know,� Ashes said slowly, �and until I came back to the old Holy City, I heard the name �God�s Punishment Army� from some people.�

�You� came back?� Wendy was surprised.

�Uhm, how could I let go of those craps easily.� Ashes stood up and walked to the window. �I attacked some chapels and a station of Judgement Army where there was even a chief justice. I had thought that they weren�t afraid of death at all.� In fact, the chief justice had acted no better than a common person facing death and painful torture. He had been frightened and begged Ashes for mercy. �From him, I know the name of God�s Punishment Army and the fact that they�re converted from the Judgement Army by a rite. According to him, only the best warriors are blessed with such an honor and they should be voluntary to accept the conversion. It seemed that a successful conversion has a lot to do with their determination. In other words, unlike witches, God�s Punishment Warriors aren�t gifted. They�re altered artificially.�

��� Wendy was dumbfounded by the news.

�I guess that the reason why they couldn�t put God�s Punishment Army into battles like what they did with Judgement Army is that the conversion has side effects. Unconscious warriors, in some degree, aren�t different from monsters.� Ashes sighed and continued, �During that period of time, I hid in water channels or deep wells in the daytime and attacked believers of the church at night. I wasn�t forced to evacuate from the old Holy City until the church launched a citywide search. The day I left, my clothes were so sticky with blood. Ferocious as I was, in others� eyes, I also looked like an unconscious beast.�

With these words, Ashes felt Wendy put a hand on her shoulder. �It was all gone. Here, you can live like a commoner and Prince Roland is very nice to us. Having undergone attacks from the Months of Demons and Duke of Stronghold together, we�re accepted by most local people. Hence, this small town is Holy Mountain we�ve pursued before.�

Ashes stared at Wendy who now was standing beside the window together with her. In her memories, children in the cloister were all thin and weak with dull eyes, but now Wendy looked completely different in terms of figure and appearance. It was hard to imagine her childhood look based on her present appearance. Furthermore, Ashes felt peaceful and calm in her naturally gentle tone.

However, there were some words she had to tell Wendy. �I won�t settle down in the town. It isn�t the reason why I came here.� She paused. �I come to take all of you to a really safe place, as Border Town isn�t a permanent settlement.�

�You won�t stay here�� Wendy was startled and remained speechless for a moment. �Why?�

�As long as we live on this continent, we�ll be threatened by the church. Tilly�s gathered most witches of the Kingdom of Graycastle to the Fjords where a country of witches would be constructed.�

�But Fjords is also under the influence of the church, isn�t it? �

�Due to a special landscape of archipelago, islands are divided from each other so the church only exerts influence on a certain island. Besides�� Ashes curled her lips. �There�s no God�s Punishment Army on the Fjords.�

It was the high time for the church to try witches� rage. They planned to uproot local churches in the Fjords one by one in much the same way as the church eradicated witches.

Ashes continued to persuade Wendy. �You and your sisters must leave. It�s a mistake to spread the rumor to summon companions since the church may also hear that. They never let a witch organization expand. After a while, the army of the church will come across Kingdom of Graycastle to destroy you. Confronted with the invincible God�s Punishment Army, do you think Prince Roland will still protect you? No secular lords want to coexist with witches. He�s nice to you now, but he�ll abandon you without any hesitations upon the dangerous moment.�

After a while�s silence, Wendy said, �I don�t know about the other sisters� thoughts, but I won�t leave Border Town.�

Ashes frowned. �Here�s already the edge of the cliff. The longer you stay here, the more dangerous your situation will be.�

�It�s cruel to leave Prince Roland behind just to avoid the upcoming danger and to prevent us from being abandoned by him. I don�t want to be such a person. Besides�� Wendy paused to take a deep breath. �I don�t think that Prince Roland would be subdued to the church. Nightingale�s asked him the same question and he answered that even if it meant fighting against the church, he would still ensure that each witch in his domain would live like a common person.�

��� Ashes remained speechless this time, as she did not know what to say at the moment. She had seen many promises broken up by its promise. In addition, what was the point of Prince Roland protecting witches down the way? It only resulted in sacrifices in front of overwhelming power.

By now, she had basically known the situation of the Witch Cooperation Association. After �The Snake Witch� Cara died, the rest members of the association were accepted by the Lord of Border Town. She guessed that Theo who spread the news in Silver City was not a commoner saving witches coincidently but a guard of the lord. Though she did not know what cunning measures the lord had adopted to make witches trust him, she believed that his meticulous camouflage would be fallen apart in front of her great sword.

�I want to talk to your lord, Roland Wimbledon,� Ashes said in a deep voice at last.

�

The next morning, she met Prince Roland.

Led by Nightingale to an office, Ashes met this disgusting man once again.

She was clear that he had the same blood as Tilly, but she was indisposed to admit that. His long gray hair was simply banded behind and shinning silver lights in the morning sunshine, the hair color was a shared feature of royal family members of Graycastle. His forehead and nose were similar to Tilly�s, but the more similar they looked, the more unhappy Ashes felt. Different from his usual appearance in the palace, he dressed uniquely neat without any ornaments�no earrings, necklaces, rings, or bracelets. He simply sat on a chair and looked at Ashes who now felt that he was looking down at her.

The temperament of a superior.

The term immediately struck her.

[Well, you�ve improved a lot in appearance, but how long can you stay that way?] Ashes mocked coldly in her heart.

�Welcome. You�re Ashes, the envoy dispatched by my younger sister, right?� Roland took the initiative to talk.

�No, it�s my personal decision to come here.�

�Even so, you�re still an envoy, aren�t you?�

��� Ashes frowned and wondered what was the point of stressing the envoy? She did not want to play character game with him and said, �Kind of.�

�Very well, Envoy Ashes.� He put on a strange smile. �I�ve heard that you want to take my witches away?�

Theo had informed Roland about the situation in detail, prior to Roland�s meeting with the new witch.

He had not expected that the long-lost Tilly Wimbledon would have become the leader of another witch organization. What was more, she had already recruited more than half of the witches in the Kingdom of Graycastle. And the more intolerable thing was, now she actually wanted to expand her power in his territory.

Nightingale had informed him that this witch was an Extraordinary, and her ability was likely to be combat type.

Any Extraordinary was worthy of careful treatment. Therefore, when he met with Ashes in the office, Roland had Nightingale standing by, invisible. He also arranged for Anna to be nearby, just in case. In front of the desk, there were several extremely slender Blackfires, it looked like a wall, undetectable to the naked eye. If she dared to rush at Roland, these fires would tear her into several pieces.

When combat witches were not wearing the God�s Stone of Retaliation they were not dominant in a civil war, but once they wore the stone, they possessed an unrestricted, destructive power. Fortunately, God�s Stone was hated by the vast majority of witches. Ashes had probably taken this point into account, and was not carrying the church�s iconic item when she came to Border Town to recruit witches.

�Your witches?! Don�t be so arrogant,� Ashes said coldly, �They�re living people, not your personal belongings!�

Roland felt suddenly choked by her words. This was the first time he had suffered from a feeling of failure in eloquence since he had arrived here. He was used to saying words like �my subjects� and �my people�, however, he was now being criticized unpredictably for his democratic speech. He felt extremely embarrassed. Although in the practice of this era, there was nothing wrong with words like �lord� and �territory�, it was not wise to emphasize this point in front of Nightingale and Anna. It seemed that these words brought the wrong type of emotion.

So he coughed twice, acting as naturally as he could and then he said, �I never thought that way. It�s their will to stay in the town, and I believe that this is the best place for them. As for the Fjords, the weather there is unpredictable, and you suffer from storms and tsunamis all year round. Plus, the Fjords are very dangerous, so it isn�t really a suitable place to live.�

�But at least the power of the church is minimal there. Witches are able to build their own homes, and using their power, they can resist natural disasters. There�s no way to resist the church with the God�s Stone of Retaliation, let alone resist God�s Punishment Army,� Ashes said without any mercy, �Do you know how foolish you are to do so? The news you spread will only lure the church to you. To be honest. I think that you have no chance of winning against God�s Punishment Army. You should let the witches leave your territory, and avoid the tragedy that�ll inevitably happen.�

Roland had heard about the intelligence of God�s Punishment Army from Wendy. He knew that to persuade her with power would be much more efficient than any words could be. Of course, he could choose to completely ignore Ashes. If he were to do so, it would mean completely giving up the witches under Tilly Wimbledon. Although there was little hope, he still wanted to try.

�How many God�s Punishment Army soldiers can you fight at one time?� he asked.

Ashes looked puzzled, but finally stretched out three fingers. �If there�re three of them I think I can cope okay.�

�Then let�s have a duel,� Roland sat up straight and said seriously, �Let the results tell you if I could win against the God�s Punishment Army.�

�What, what�re you suggesting?� Ashes asked. She was shocked momentarily, but then her cold face finally gave way to a different expression.

�A fair duel, one to one,� he said, �If I can beat you, it�ll prove that I have the ability to resist the church, OK?�

Ashes� facial expression showed that she thought he was crazy. She asked, �Just you and me? Or do you want the witches to fight?�

�No, of course not me. And not the witches either. God�s Punishment Army would have the God�s Stone of Retaliation,� Roland said smiling. �Your opponent is an ordinary knight.�

Although it was regrettable that he could not personally fight in this battle, he knew that the opponent was an Extraordinary, with superb power. From the description he had gotten from Wendy, he knew that this Extraordinary had killed all her enemies in the cloister and escaped the God�s Punishment Army�s chase. Even if she held only a wooden sword or even without weapons, she would unleash her full lethality. Also, the actual effect of the pistol needed to be developed. For safety reasons, he decided he would give this glorious task to Carter. If he had been holding an AK47, he would fight her Ashes himself.

�An ordinary knight�� Ashes said and then she recovered her original cold face. �If I win, will you let the witches go with me?�

�Of course not. Just like if you lose, you would never force Tilly to bring her witches to Border Town, right?�

�So what�s the purpose of this duel?� asked Ashes.

�It�s not a battle but a test,� Roland answered, �The purpose is to show you that I won�t lose when I face the church. And if you lose in this battle, you�ll naturally remember that when you�re back, if you can�t stay in the Fjords, there�s a border in the west where witches can live comfortably. Of course, if you win, at least it�ll be more convincing when you persuade Wendy and others.

�I won�t lose,� said Ashes, �Tell your knight to come at once.�

�Not now.� Roland waved his hand dismissively. �In a week, I�ll finish the preparation for the duel. During this week, you can live in the castle, and experience life in this small town with the witches. Maybe you�ll change your views.�

She stared at the prince for a while, then nodded. �Perhaps it won�t take seven days. They�ll change their views, and leave Border Town with me.

Roland shrugged.

When she turned back to the door, he suddenly stopped her and asked, �Wait� Have we met somewhere before?�

Although he had never seen her face before, from the shape of her back, there was a sense of familiarity. Roland slightly recalled in his memory, this sense of familiarity seemed to come from the king�s city.

�Didn�t the guards tell you?� She did not look back. �Back in the palace, if Tilly hadn�t stopped me, I�m afraid that you would have only one hand.�

After the door to the office closed, Nightingale appeared whistling. �Did you grab her ass before too?�

�What?� Roland was astonished. �I don�t remember this kind of person being in the palace. And what do you mean by �too�?�

Nightingale made a face, he discerned it was �Tyre�. To hell with her. Although he really had touched the maid�s ass, it was a situation that he failed to see anything wrong with it, many others did it as well. Nightingale still owed him credit for her peeping.

�Ahem.� Anna interrupted their talking. �Are you sure that the knight will defeat the Extraordinary? If he fails, it may affect other witches� confidence in you.�

Fortunately, Anna looked calm, so Roland was relieved. �The self-strengthening type of witch isn�t affected by God�s Stone of Retaliation, but she can still fight based on her physical function. Compared to our weapons which can shoot rapidly, her defect is obvious. We have a 70 percent chance of winning.�

But he would have to complete the development of ammunition within a week.

Roland had been thinking about bullets for the revolving firearms. Circular lead bullets and loose gunpowder were an arrangement that was simply too backward. Taking Anna�s ability into consideration, the direct manufacture of copper shells for ammunition was technically feasible. The key concern was that there did not have a reliable primer to ignite the black gunpowder in the cartridge for reliable firing.

In early times, the outer shell of the ammunition was generally made out of mercury fulminate which was extremely sensitive to impact. When one pulled the trigger, it would stimulate the firing pin, and hit the base of the bullet. The mercury fulminate would flare up, igniting the black powder, and eject the bullet from the chamber.

It was unfortunate that even after breaking his head over it, he still could not recall the necessary raw materials he needed for the mercury fulminate. From a literal point of view, he would definitely need nitric acid and mercury. However, if he looked at the result of the chemical equation he had written down, it became apparent that these two substances would only produce nitric acid together.

In addition, knowing the raw materials was not equal to the successful production of finished products. Roland would still have to discover the right concentration and temperature for the reactive process, and whether he still needed to add another catalyst or not were also key factors in the production of the finished product. Moreover, because of the sensitive properties of mercury, it was easy to trigger an explosion during the manufacturing process. If it exploded one could easily lose a few fingers, so Roland was afraid of trying it out personally.

So, Roland had no alternative but to settle for the second-best option, using metal shells but keeping the old flintlock ignition. This required that the spark could enter the interior of the shell to ignite the gunpowder. So, he had to leave a hole in the bottom of the shell, but he still had to find a method which would prevent the gunpowder from leaking.

Obviously, these two points were contradictory to each other: the greater the opening, the faster the leakage of gunpowder. Yet if the opening was too small, it would become too difficult for the spark to ignite the gunpowder.

He needed something that would allow the spark to ignite the powder, while at the same time blocking the hole, to prevent the leakage of gunpowder.

Roland�s first thought was nitrocotton, also known as guncotton.

It was one of the few chemicals which he still remembered that could be used for weapons because it had such a simple production method: the cotton just had to be soaked in two strong acids. The two acids it used were the commonly available sulfuric acid and nitric acid, and there would be no danger involved in producing them. Even though he had wanted to wait for the hopefully soon, arriving alchemist, he now had a deadline of seven days. It was time to roll up his sleeves and get to work.

Taking the quill, Roland began to write down his long-standing idea on draft paper.

The first ingredient he needed was cotton, and the best cotton was yarn that had not been woven or dyed. It was exactly this kind that he had brought back with him from his visit to Duke Ryan�s castle, and was now also piling up in his warehouse. The cotton yarn needed to be skimmed. Otherwise the grease attached to its surface would prevent the nitrification. He was already familiar with the material required for removing the oil, which was sodium hydroxide, also known as lye or caustic soda. It was also one of the raw materials needed for making soap. To produce soap, one had to add fat to caustic soda, and then stir it until it became solid. Afterward it could be used as washing soap. But Roland had been too busy developing industrial and agricultural technology and defending Border Town against foreign enemies. He had not found any time to invent this kind of daily necessity yet.

As for how to prepare sodium hydroxide, the simplest method was probably to electrolyze salt water. So the prince found that in order to build a new bullet, the first thing he had to develop was a DC generator.

*******************

Ashes walked along Redwater River, feeling somewhat depressed.

Since the other witches now knew that she had come to Border Town to take the witches of the Witch Cooperation Association away, their attitude towards her had cooled down considerably. There was no longer any of the warmth she had received last night.

Moreover, she noted that most of the witches practiced their ability in the castle backyard. Roland had also found the way to avoid suffering the demonic bite. Originally Ashes had wanted to use this vital piece of intelligence to show her goodwill toward the other witches, but that plan had been unexpectedly shattered right from the beginning. She had nearly nothing else left to persuade them to move.

What surprised Ashes the most was Roland Wimbledon. His appearance had not changed much, but there was an indescribable temperament in his gestures, very different from his previous image as a dandy.

How could this be? Previously, he had been fairly incompetent. When he was in trouble the first thing for him would be to escape, he had never stood up for others, and even if a problem was clearly caused by him, he had been afraid to take on any responsibility. That time when he had thought about harassing her, she only needed to throw him a hateful look, to make him fall to the ground in panic. But she had later heard from Tilly, that he had claimed that he had fallen by accident, and that Princess Tilly was at fault for having such an ugly woman as her personal guard?

Since then, Ashes� impression of Prince Roland had fallen to the lowest possible ranking.

Previously she had believed that such a type of person would be easy for her to handle, but during today�s negotiation she had failed to gain the upper hand. Especially after he suggested a one-on-one duel, she discovered that her threat of using military force would not work, since he had not thought about escaping. Instead, it might even have had the complete opposite effect. Threatening him personally had also reduced the other witches positive impressions on her.

Ashes sighed. If she could be as smart as Tilly, every problem that appeared before her could be easily solved. If Tilly were faced with a situation like this, she would surely have been able to come up with a solution, right? If she had not wanted to help Tilly as much as possible, Ashes would have taken the next ship heading to Port of Clearwater and left the Kingdom of Graycastle as soon as possible.

Unconsciously, she found herself outside the town. On the other side of the river, there was no longer a lush wheat field, but instead unclaimed woodland.

When Ashes was ready to turn back, she suddenly felt the fluctuation of magic power behind her. Subconsciously turning her head, she saw a dagger coming directly towards her cheek, slicing horizontally. The magic power fluctuation had transformed into surging waves, and Ashes suddenly felt a piercing pain in her cheek. The other person�s systematic and coherent skills were clearly nothing one could expect from an ordinary person. Ashes no longer hesitated. Putting aside her passive attitude, she concentrated on avoiding the dagger. She put all her strength on one foot and jumped out of the way.

Her opponent disappeared into thin air, and then appeared behind her within a blink of an eye. Ashes was totally unable to follow her opponent�s movement.

She drew her giant sword and rotated quickly, creating a dull roaring sound. Dust rose up from the ground. She launched an all-directional attack with her sword but the enemy evaded. In front of this unknown enemy, even this trick attack of hers ended in complete failure. When her sword swept through the attacker�s vanishing position, it encountered nothing.

�This is terrible,� she thought. Every muscle in her body became tight, and she was ready to encounter the next round of attacks, but then the shadow disappeared in front of her. Dust settled slowly, and the person again appeared near Ashes, playing with the dagger she held in her hand.

It was Nightingale.

�Is this a warning?� Ashes asked, frowning.

�Of course not,� Nightingale said, putting her dagger back on her waist. �I just wanted to see the strength of an Extraordinary.�

�Really? I thought that you wanted to say��

�Do you think I would force you into leaving Border Town so quickly, or otherwise be rude to you?� Nightingale interrupted her. �If that was the case, there would be no difference between Cara and me.�

Cara? Why would she mention the former leader of the Witch Cooperation Association? Ashes was confused.

�You can rest assured that I won�t hinder you from approaching any of my sisters. If anyone is willing to leave with you, I don�t think His Royal Highness will stop you. I certainly won�t. But�� Nightingale paused. �If you threaten to hurt His Highness, I guarantee you that next time I won�t be deliberately stabbing the air beside you.� Here she grinned and then disappeared into thin air. �Enjoy your time in Border Town.�

Sure enough, it was a warning. Ashes shook her head.

Roland had known from his childhood experience back in the modern world, that DC generators were simple machines working on simple principles. He had disassembled a dozen of motors from his four-wheel-drive toy cars, including both ordinary whiteboard motors and legendarily high-performance Jinchaoba motors, and he had wound rotor copper wires by hand� All of them had been typical DC motors.

Based on his knowledge, DC motors had the same structure as DC generators, and they were basically the same thing. A DC motor, added a mechanism for driving its motor rotor, could double as a DC generator. The rotor, namely the conductor, constantly rotating inside a magnetic field and cutting the magnetic lines, would cause electric current to flow.

With the help of Mystery Moon and Anna, Roland spent only half a day building a simple DC motor in an easy, quick way. Besides the metal rotor part, he made a stator out of wood simply by asking Mystery Moon to add magnetism to it and chose a section of a log for commutator base. He embedded motor commutating segments into the log where there was a hole allowing itself to be connected to the rotor of a steam engine. Such formation was convenient to be built and ensured that segments were insulated from each other.

After that, it was Anna�s job to make the new type steam engine. Roland and Mystery Moon just stood by, watching her wondrous skills. Every time she needed to make large machine parts, she would start up by spreading her Blackfire to wrap up a pile of iron ingots. She would burn and melt them first, and then she would squeeze the Blackfire to press the metal into plates with demanded sizes. In the end, she would cut the parts she wanted out of those plates.

The next day, when Roland was going to test the generator in the calcination room, his guard brought him a piece of exciting good news. The Chief Alchemist of Redwater City�s alchemical workshop had arrived at Border Town, with lots of people following him.

***************

After reading Roland�s letter at the night, Kyle Sichi had made up his mind to leave for Border Town. The very next day afternoon, he had boarded a merchant ship to the town with his family and a dozen of his students. Unfortunately, Chavez, his best student, had refused to join him after a long period of hesitation.

Kyle had not leaked the content of the letter to the other alchemists, as the more alchemists knew about it, the more delayed his departure would be. He had also worried about the duke. Hearing the news about the success of crystal glass, he must want to hold the lucrative luxury goods business firmly in his own hands and stop him from leaving the city.

As payback for the duke�s generous investment in building the alchemical workshop, Kyle had left a parchment recording the formula and firing process of crystal glass in his drawer in the workshop. He had been so eager to find out those alchemical answers in Border Town that neither crystal glass nor alchemical workshop had been able to stop him.

Five days later, Kyle finally met Roland Wimbledon, the Lord of Border Town and the one who had written the letter to him.

In a reception hall of the lord�s castle, Kyle bowed to Roland and then hurriedly opened his mouth to make a request as soon as he sat down. �Your Highness, if you don�t mind, I�d like very much to meet and talk with your alchemists.�

�My alchemists? There�re no alchemists in Border Town before your arrival. But now, you�re my alchemist,� Roland chuckled and said.

�You mean� those alchemical equations were written by you?� Kyle directly neglected the prince�s last sentence and turned a little pale. At the moment, another possibility struck him. [Prince Roland must have learned those alchemical things from his court mentors. Given that the prince knew that much, the Alchemist Workshop of the king�s city must have already mastered the rules of alchemy. If that�s true, it would be ridiculous to say that I wish to be ranked above them.]

�Well, not exactly. Those equations are recorded in ancient books which are over 400 years old. I just happened to find them. This knowledge seems to be called �chemistry� at that time,� Roland answered.

�Che-Chemistry?� Kyle felt much relieved, hearing that those equations were not written by the Alchemist Workshop of the king�s city, but he was still shocked at the prince�s reply. He wondered who had written those books 400 years ago, as even the king�s city�s Alchemist Workshop only had a history of nearly 200 years. He also found it hard to believe that the alchemists now knew even less than their predecessors.

�Yes. The authors suggested a hypothesis in their books, dubbed mass conservation law. The substances forming the world never disappear or increase. Instead, they only transform from one type to another. Take this piece of cake as an example.� Roland pointed to the cake on the long table and continued, �When you eat it, part of it�ll be absorbed by your body and the rest of it will be excreted. The mass of what you absorb plus the mass of what you excrete equals the mass of the original cake.�

�Wait� Your Highness.� After a thought, Kyle continued, �If I burn a piece of wood into ashes, no matter how to weigh, the weight of the ashes will be lighter than that of the wood. If the substances never disappear, where�s the missing substances?�

�The books explained it, too. The missing weight is substances that become gas and vapor during the burning. The residue left behind is the ashes you can see,� Roland explained with a smile.

�Gas?� Kyle caught a sudden inspiration in his mind and asked, �does the air have weight?�

�Of course, each matter has a mass.� The prince nodded and continued to explain, �It�s easy to prove this point. You can put some sawdust in a bottle and cork up it. Weigh the bottle on a scale. After the scale balances, burn the sawdust inside. You�ll see the scale remain balancing finally, as the gas and vapor can�t escape from the bottle. All the mass is still inside of it.�

�That�s� also recorded in the ancient books? Could you please let me read those books?� Kyle anxiously asked.

�Yes, as long as you can promise me a few things,� Roland said while spreading his hands.

�Please, go ahead.�

�First, you have to work for me. You�ll be paid as much as you were in the Alchemic Workshop of Redwater City. Second, once you accept the job, you need to comply with my confidentiality regulations. That means that you can�t disclose any details of your work to the other alchemists. Third, if you agree to work for me, we�ll sign a five-year contract. Five years later, you can choose to stay or leave. Besides, you�re no longer subject to confidentiality clauses and are able to show your work results to the other alchemists and alchemists guilds. Accordingly, if you accept these three conditions, Border Town will provide you a house and a chemical laboratory, and I�ll lend you the book, �Elementary Chemistry�. If you find something in the book difficult to understand, you can come to ask me.�

Kyle thought, [Those conditions sound not harsh, except for some awkward terms like confidentiality regulations and chemical laboratories. But it isn�t hard to understand the general meaning. Five years isn�t too long. I thought the lord was going to ask me to stay in Border Town forever.]

In fact, Kyle was so determined and eager to read the book about the essence of alchemy that he was ready to accept any harsh terms.

Thinking of these, Kyle rose and slightly bent forward, saying, �Your Highness, I�m at your service.�

The prince did not seem to care much about etiquette, either and directly said, �Good, that�s it. Your workplace is by Redwater River. After we sign the contract, I�ll show you the laboratory and introduce the usage of the glassware and its operation regulations to you, and then you�ll know how to work in the lab.�

Hearing that, the chief alchemist could not help wondering why the prince sounded so skillful and confident while talking about alchemy after he was a common noble who just happened to read something in an ancient book. Knowing it was not yet the time to think about this, Kyle neglected his doubts and asked, �Your Highness, what you need me to make for you?�

�Yes, an acid solution with a high concentration. Produce as much as you can,� the Prince replied.

�Liar,� Nightingale said when she went back to the office with Roland after the meeting with the alchemist. �There aren�t any 450-year-old ancient books. Was it not you who wrote Elementary Chemistry and asked Scroll to memorize the textbook? Didn�t you intend that the book become part of teaching materials for subjects sooner or later?�

�It�s a white lie.� Before Roland continued to explain this to Nightingale, he picked up his cup to sip his tea. After the merchant from the king�s city, Margaret, had presented him with a packet of black tea, he had happily said goodbye to those days with only plain boiled water and ale to drink. �How else could I explain to him that a prince living in a palace knows that much about alchemy? If there were a prince like that, he would have learned everything from the alchemists of the king�s city. Giving him a book to study by himself is more fitting, compared to learning the knowledge directly from me. After all, like everyone else, he would trust himself the most.�

�Oh?� Nightingale suddenly leaned forward to get close to Roland. �Then who was your teacher, really?�

�Um�� The moment Roland opened his mouth, Nightingale pressed a finger against his lips and said, �If you don�t want to tell me, don�t say anything. I don�t want to hear you lie.�

Roland blinked his eyes as a promise, and Nightingale took back her hand.

�There�re only five days before the planned duel.� Roland took this opportunity to change a topic. �It�s time to let Carter get familiar with the new weapon.�

�But you said that there was an ammunition problem.�

�The guncotton problem will only cause inconvenience in battles. It�s just a match. He doesn�t need to think about ammunition transportation or reloading problems. He can shoot at least one round with each gun. 10 shots will be enough for us to test the new weapons,� Roland said. Actually, a lack of guncotton might also bring down the hit rate of the weapon, but Roland chose to leave that to luck and Carter.

*******************

Out of the town, a site to the west of the city wall was chosen for drills before the duel.

Carter arrived at the former explosive trial blasting site to accept the new task from Roland.

�Fight against a witch? Could I wear God�s Stone of Retaliation?� The chief knight asked, stunned after hearing the task.

�Of course, but you�re going to fight against a special witch. She won�t be affected by God�s Stone of Retaliation and she fights with a large sword, similar to a knight,� said Roland, smiling.

�You mean, she�s a witch who�s excellent at close combat skills?� Carter asked while glancing at Nightingale, who was standing beside Roland.

�Something likes that. Her ability is to strengthen herself, so she�s more powerful and faster than ordinary people. You have to be well prepared. Her physical strength is several times greater than that of the drugged death row convicts during the test on pills.� Roland said.

�Several times greater� Your Highness, do you know what that means?� Carter widened his eyes. �I may not be able to react, even if I do see her moves. If she�s really that powerful, I�m afraid that I can�t defeat her.�

�Theoretically speaking, you have no chance of winning the duel.� The prince gave Carter a strange-looking firearm and continued, �But this thing will greatly increase your winning probability.�

�Is this� a new type of flintlock?� Carter received the weapon with both hands and asked. The knight thought it must be something like a flintlock, as it had similar trigger and barrel. Smaller as it was, it weighed heavily on his hand and could have even been heavier than a flintlock. The most striking feature of this new weapon was that it was completely made of metal, except for the wooden handle. Carter found it hard to describe in words the aesthetic feeling aroused by the weapon�s smooth lines and corners and its offwhite metallic luster.

He loved this new weapon the moment he saw it.

�It�s called revolver.� Roland took out another similar weapon and flipped a honeycomb-like revolver out of the left side of the gun. �Now, I�ll teach you how to use it.�

Soon, Carter found out that it was actually easier to operate than a flintlock. As its bullets and gunpowder were fully connected to each other, he could directly embed them into its revolver to fire. As there were together five holes in the revolver, he could shoot five shots after each reloading. He thought this might be the reason for which the weapon was called revolver. On the other side of the revolver, there was a little hole opposite to the runner. Sparks could be seen flying out of this hole when he pulled the trigger, during which he could hear the sounds of friction. He guessed that it might have flint inside. What impressed him the most was the bullets. Their light golden, streamlined shells seemed to be made of a thin copper layer. He could not see any gap on the smooth surface. Each bullet was pointed on one end, with the opposite end thick as his index finger. They precisely fit into the hole in the revolver. Amazed by the design, he wondered how could such delicate things be manufactured.

�This one isn�t a finished product yet. You have to pay attention to the opened parts in the bottom of the bullets. Point slightly downward to prevent the gunpowder from leaking out, like I�m doing now. Remember to clean the cartridge in the runner after each round of shooting, just in case there�s some gunpowder left in the holes,� Roland said while performing the demo.

�It�s not a finished product?�

�That�s correct.� The prince shrugged. �We�re stilling working on a key technology. If everything goes smoothly, you may be able to use the finished product for the duel. When that happens, you won�t have to worry about the leaking problem anymore, as bullets will no longer have openings on the bottom. Now, let�s begin our target practice.�

[How will the gunpowder inside the bullet shell be ignited if there�s no opening in the bottom?] Carter felt confused, but he quickly decided to let it be. He knew that he would never think of the right answer to such a difficult question, as he was not a brilliant man of wide learning like His Highness.

[His Highness is really knowledgeable.] Carter now harbored immense respect for the versatile prince. Among all the court mentors, alchemy masters, and astrologers he knew, he was unable to find anyone so capable of inventing so many strange but highly practical things like His Highness. The steam engine he created had been put to use in the mines, transporting ores and drawing water. Even his flintlocks and cannons had defeated demonic beasts and Duke Ryan�s Coalition. By contrast, the other inventions, such as snow powder and the manned kites which had ended up being nobles� toys were so impractical. Carter firmly believed that Roland Wimbledon would eventually sit on the throne of the Kingdom of Graycastle.

The human body shaped target 15 meters away looked only as big as his palm. Following the prince�s instructions, Carter turned his upper body slightly to one side to precisely aim the revolver at the target and pulled the trigger.

Smoke and several sparks gushed out from both sides of the revolver and deafening sounds caused a pain in his ears. He felt as if he was being pushed firmly back by someone. His wrists were thrown up uncontrollably by the strong knock-back. However, after the smoke of gunpowder vanished, the target still remained intact.

�Go on,� Roland said.

Carter took a deep breath and then shot the remaining bullets, but none of the four shots hit the target.

�This is�� Carter looked at His Highness who did not seem to care very much about the results.

�A pistol can never compete with a rifle when it comes to shooting range and accuracy because of its short barrel. It�s not a very strange thing to miss the target when shooting a pistol. Its caliber is nearly 12mm, so its knock-back is much stronger than that of a flintlock.� Carter felt that Roland�s explanations were hard to follow. �To put it simply, just keep practicing following the steps I taught you until you can hit the target in all the five shots. This is the only way for you to win the duel. By the way� remember to collect all the shells. They can be refilled and reused many times.�

Ashes sat on top of the castle, waiting for the day of the duel.

These days she had no progress with her proposals. The witches of the Witch Cooperation were much more stubborn than expected. Whether it came to the aged Scroll or the underaged Lily, all of her invitations were refused. The only difference was the way that she was rejected.

Some witches stayed because of Roland, and some decided not to part with the sisters of the Witches Cooperation Association, resulting in a tight-knit group of 10 witches. She had even less will to try at Anna and Nana, the original witches from Border Town. Ashes felt that the magic power of these witches was different somehow, especially Anna�s. Standing in front of her, Ashes could feel that her magic power was hard as steel, smooth and dense, standing between them like an iron wall.

Among the many witches gathered by Tilly, there had been no other witch that made her feel this way. When she asked other witches here about it, they stated that Anna�s ability was to control flames, something rather typical. Why she felt that a real barrier existed in the magic power of those invisible flames, Ashes had not a clue.

The town was also different than the other towns and villages she had seen before. To say it simply, there was a greater vitality. People seemed to have endless activities each and every day.

From the top of the castle, she had a panoramic view of the entire town. The most crowded area in the center of the town was where new houses were being built. They had split the whole area into small districts, with the houses of each district looking mostly alike. Horse-led carriages were continuously transporting bricks from the north. Masons first dug a dozen or so similar looking pits and then began to build a brick foundation. This construction was surprisingly fast, and in about a day the foundation would be approximately half the height of a man.

And when Ashes looked to the northeast smoke billowed up into the sky, it was not a result of a forest fire, but because of the work at the brick kiln. There were also a number of sturdy brick towers that had been erected. At first glance, they seemed like piles of lumber from giant red trees.

On the side of the riverside pier, groups of sailing ships arrived at Border Town daily. From looking at the banners hanging on the masts a majority of the ships had come from Longsong Stronghold. The goods unloaded from the ship almost filled the yard, and around the area guards patrolled holding wooden spears. Unlike most cities� garrisons, they were not alternating between lazy walking and resting, nor were they simply looking for a place to hide and take a nap. Rather, they paced between the pier and the yard, keeping always in a straight line. Sometimes they would also stop to help unload goods from the ships, which was something that Ashes could not recall having ever seen the likes of before.

[Just what sort of magic power does Roland Wimbledon possess that he can create such enthusiasm in his subjects as they build up this desolate and barren town?] Ashes wondered.

At that moment, the coo of a bird was heard above Ashes� head. She raised her head and saw a fat pigeon fly down from the sky and land on her shoulder.

�I finally found you, coo.� The pigeon rubbed her cheek.

�Did Tilly send you?� Ashes took some wheat out of her pocket and tossed it onto the roof.

The pigeon fluttered past her when it seemed like it suddenly remembered something. �I�m not a bird, coo!�

�Then just change into a person and then talk to me.�

�Fine, coo.� The voice faded and then the pigeon�s feathers suddenly swelled out, a white light shining between the gaps in the feathers. After that, the swollen feathers quickly contracted, changing into long, white hair.

No matter how many times Ashes saw this, she was always amazed. Maggie could change into a variety of birds. Besides the fact that she was a big fat ball in her transformed state, Ashes thought that the ability was nonetheless wonderful. There were times when Ashes would envy Maggie�s ability and wished that she had it rather than being an extraordinary with the power of not fearing God�s Stone of Retaliation. She would rather be able to travel quickly between two places. That way, each time she wanted to see Tilly, she could just leave and do so.

�Even though you have the tracking sigil, you were not easy to find.� Maggie shook the sticky fluff off of her body. �You were so far away that my magic stone could not receive the sigil�s fluctuations. Fortunately, Shadow knew your approximate location, and as I passed over Fallen Dragon Ridge, I got a bit of a response from the stone.�

Other than Maggie�s iconic white hair, her most particular attribute was her height. Despite it being clear that she was an adult, she barely came up to Ashes� waist and had the appearance of a young girl. When her white hair flowed freely, it nearly covered her whole body.

�Has Tilly safely arrived at the Fjords?� Ashes sat down and patted the shingles beside her. Maggie scooted over in a manner similar to that of a bird.

�She had the safe travel on the Empress, but the second ship was hit by a strong north wind and crashed into the reef. Luckily, no witches were lost. The third and fourth ships are still at sea. I flew over them when I came looking for you.�

�Then that�s good.� Ashes was relieved. Even though the face of His Highness was abominable, what he said had not been wrong, and the passage from Kingdom of Graycastle to the Fjords was indeed dangerous. The climate of the sea was much swifter and more violent than that on land, and the good weather of a beautiful blue sky could turn into a storm in the blink of an eye. In those overwhelming waves, even her extraordinary magic power seemed insignificant.

Maggie stated, �Your rhetoric is all the same. Shadow said that you didn�t go back with her because you wanted to go to Border Town to win over more witches. Rather than questioning the situation, the first thing that Lady Tilly said was �That�s fine�.� She paused and looked around. �The companions, where are they?�

�They didn�t want to leave,� Ashes said, sighing. She proceeded to summarize what had happened. �They trusted their lord more than they did me. Furthermore, he�s Tilly�s older brother.�

�Lady Tilly is willing to accept us, so is her brother� Well, then it seems that there�s nothing wrong, coo. That�s why you should set out for the Fjord early. Without your help, Lady Tilly will have no way to enact the cleansing plan,� Maggie said.

Ashes shook her head. �I�ll leave only after the duel.�

�But you just said, even if you win, the lord won�t ask the witches to leave with you, right?� Maggie muttered, �Even with that you want to complete the duel?�

�If there�s even a chance, I�d like to try,� Ashes said, calmly. �It�s not a big deal to delay the cleansing plan for a few days, but if I can convince even one witch to come back with me, Tilly�s power will grow greatly.�

�Alright, then I�ll wait here to return together with you. However, there�s one more thing. When crossing Fallen Dragon Bridge, I saw a group of about 10 people carrying the church�s banner,� said Maggie.

�That�s not too many� with that flag, it�s probably a diplomatic envoy.� Ashes snorted coldly. �I don�t believe there�s any place around here that the church would send envoys to other than Border Town. Their nose is as sharp as a dog�s. But fine, wait until I beat the knight to the ground. After that, I�ll tell Roland Wimbledon the news about them. By then, he�ll know just how wrong he is.�

Kyle Sichi had few nights of sleep for several days. He discovered that coming to Border Town was the best choice he had made in his life.

He spent two days and one night reading through the book of Elementary Chemistry. He could be fully resurrected by only four or six hours of sleep. At the moment, he had gone back to the first page and started pouring over this ancient book.

The substance is composed of tiny particles. The change of substance is the process of decomposition and restructuring of the tiny particles. The total amount of the substance remains unchanged in the reaction process.

�Oh my god! What a great writer! One should describe the world that was invisible to the people so clearly.� He had suspected more than once that what the book recorded was total bullshit. However, the final result actually stood up to the alchemy test based on the recorded formula. Besides, some examples in daily life also proved that what the book said could still hold water.

An example would be the �oxygen� that was described in the first chapter.

It was the main component of the air. People breathed oxygen, not air. Combustion must be in need of oxygen, given that the essence of combustion was a kind of oxidation reaction. The more oxygen was taken in, the more vigorous it burned.

The wording reminded him of the glass kiln in Redwater City� the air blower that was continuously swung by two people could make the temperature in the furnace rise up to the melting point of gravel. As a kind of substance, the pure oxygen could be extracted through alchemy� no, by chemical reaction. �Could the air-blowing equipment be saved if the furnace got oxygen?�

And, what made him surprised was, according to the book, that the water should be composed of two hydrogen particles and one oxygen particle, which was also ascribed to why all creatures needed to drink water. However, the hydrogen seemed to be a kind of gas. He wondered how it was done by mixing up two sorts of gases into a kind of liquid.

Kyle found he had many questions to think over. But what he could make sure of was that he had surpassed all the alchemists, as they were still on the way to explore the formula. He, however, had set foot on an easy path.

He needed to get down to his business. Kyle closed his book reluctantly. It was time to work as the day broke.

He blew out the candle, walked into the bedroom to see his sleeping wife and daughter, and then left home without making noise.

The residence His Highness enfeoffed him was located in the west of the castle, which was far larger than his house in Redwater City, and had walls constructed of bricks. It was a lot more comfortable compared to the wooden-made houses that easily got mildew. Life facilities were all available in all varieties. He was very satisfied with such arrangements even though he did not speak about it. Apprentices lived in another community two streets away from his residence. Their houses were smaller than that of Kyle�s and they did not live by themselves, but four people shared one bedroom, seemingly like the layout of hotels.

Apprentices were busy with their work when he got to the chemical laboratory along the bank of Redwater River. They were carefully selected by Kyle and had almost learned to rinse materials in the alchemical workshop in their childhood. They were in between their 20s and 30s now. He satisfactorily nodded when he saw the clean laboratory and glittering glass containers.

�Good morning, Respected Chief Mentor.� When the apprentices saw Kyle enter, they immediately bowed.

�Let�s start,� he said, taking a pair of gloves to wear, which were light, thin, and elastic. It was likely that the gloves were sewed up with animal tharm. There were no such regulations in alchemical workshop long before, but His Highness Roland had repeatedly emphasized the danger of chemical experiments. He had stipulated that the experimenters had to wear gloves and open the window during experiments that touched upon corrosive material reaction.

Their work now was totally different from that in the alchemical workshop. All they were doing was to prepare acid fluid for His Highness. They had operated the acid preparation several times with two varieties of stones. Therefore, Kyle could just look around and give instruction to apprentices instead of doing experiments in person.

The details of sulfuric acid and nitric acid were recorded in the book Elementary Chemistry. Kyle was accustomed to naming the products by the raw material. For example, the former was called green alum while the latter was named saltpeter. The preparation methods of these two kinds of acids were the same, even though they were different in names. The acid vapor was obtained by destructive distillation of green alum and saltpeter, and then collected acid fluid by congealing the acid vapor. Green alum was usually associated with sulfur mines, while saltpeter was the common raw material which could be produced in the exclusive saltpeter preparation pool in the big city.

His Highness, however, stressed that the two varieties of acids must be of high concentration, and he had specially explained the method of purification.

For instance, after collecting the sulfuric acid, the moisture could be evaporated by heating, and 80% or 90% of concentrated sulfuric acid could be finally prepared. However, the preparation of nitric acid was much more troublesome. It was said by His Highness Roland that the sulfuric acid fluid itself was not stable, and easy to volatilize. It would even decompose if exposed to the light when it reached a certain concentration. Therefore, the diluted nitric acid from destructive distillation had to mix up with concentrated sulfuric acid to heat, which could absorb the moisture. The nitric acid that evaporated was stored in a brown glass bottle. A thermometer was intentionally prepared by His Highness for the preparation of nitric acid.

Kyle felt it was like a marvelous creation at first glance�mercury was loaded up within a hollow glass tube, and there was no need to worry about the leaking of mercury because both ends of the glass tube were sealed. Several rings of painting lines served as the scale, and where the mercury stopped to rise would represent the current temperature when the mercury was heated.

Currently, three bottles of concentrated sulfuric acid and one bottle of nitric acid had been prepared. He found that sulfuric acid was not prone to flowing like water under such a concentration. It was much more like viscous oil. Nitric acid was no longer colorless and transparent but changed into a faint yellow. As long as the bottle cap was opened, a burst of white smoke would emit.

�Respected Mentor, should we prepare these two varieties of acid fluid every day?� an apprentice named Amon asked.

�Until His Highness assigns a new task.� Kyle paused and asked, �So, are you worried that you have no time to explore the alchemy formula?�

Amon nodded.

�I forgot to tell you that the title of alchemist would not be in use later, so you don�t need to rely on exploring formula to become an alchemist,� Kyle smiled and said, with his hands touching his stubble.

�No� You mean, not in use?� Amon was shocked. Other apprentices also slowed down the pace of work and listened to what the mentor would say next.

�Yes, the alchemy formula no longer needs to be researched and explored, as you�ll rely on memorizing and deduction,� said Kyle, as he clapped his hands to gather the apprentices around him. �His Highness Roland gave me a book named Elementary Chemistry. This is also why I brought you here. Most of the alchemy formulas can be deduced from the content of that book if it�s studied thoroughly.�

�Be deduced?� said the shocked apprentices.

�Yes, it�s true. I�ll teach you after I learn it carefully and digest it. His Highness also mentioned about the evolution method. You can only be conferred with the title of chemist after passing the test he arranged personally. I believe this title of honor will outmatch that of the alchemist. Even in the Alchemist Workshop in the king�s city, it�s impossible for them to obtain more knowledge than you,� he said.

Lightning traveled back and forth between Border Town and the southern hills, holding a parchment in her hands that was slowly nearing completion.

This was her newly received task. Together with Soraya, she had to draw a map of the Western Region.

Flying together with Soraya, her altitude was significantly reduced, making it difficult to fly over the forest. So she would first paint a rough outline of the topography, and later Soraya would draw a more exact picture. By using her magic pen, the map looked like an aerial view, every detail seemed to come to life.

Lightning planned to go back to Border Town after the parchment was filled in. Several months of practicing had made her flying much faster. His Highness Roland calculated that Lightening could fly 120 kilometers per hour at full speed. At this speed, any incoming strong wind made it nearly impossible for her to open her eyes.

She had thought that it was all she could do. However, the day before yesterday, His Highness had given her a gift, a headband made of leather, with two copper rings in the middle and transparent glass embedded into the copper rings. As long as she wore the headband, she was immune to the incoming wind.

His Highness called it windproof glass, and it was made when firing some glassware. He had said she looked like a little Ezreal when she wore it. Lightning did not know who Ezreal was, but she understood that it took a lot of time to join the copper rings and glass lenses. The complete piece of leather had a double-layered structure so that it could wrap itself tightly around the inset copper rings. There was no need to worry about scratching her skin. The buckle was also designed to adjust the tightness. Anyhow, it was not something that had been just casually made.

She liked the gift instantly and wore it on her head. Even when she was sleeping she also wore it. She could fly as fast as she wanted now, regardless of the howling wind around her. As long as she wore the windproof glass.

Lightning reached the small town soon, and when she would fly back to the castle to give Soraya the map, a pale figure suddenly swept past the corner of her eye. She turned, only to find a pigeon flying toward Longsong Stronghold. Pigeons were not rare, but this one was quite different. It was too fat and just the wings alone would be enough to satisfy her stomach for an entire day.

Lightning swallowed. She thought back to a time when she had still lived on the island and caught some flying fish and birds by hand, later roasting them over the fire. Now, living under the roof of His Highness, although the food was substantial, having to eat bread with butter and mushroom soup for months on end, the food had started to become somewhat tasteless to her. If she could catch a pigeon to roast� She touched the pack with salt and pepper fastened to her waist and made her decision.

Lightning adjusted her direction and flew directly toward the pigeon. The pigeon quickly noticed Lightning. It immediately folded its wings, and dove sharply downwards, seemingly wanting to hide in the woods, to rid itself of this menacing hunter.

Seeing this, Lighting was shocked, for she would never have thought a pigeon could be this clever. A few seconds later, a broad grin spread across her face. With a sudden turn, she followed the pigeon as it dove downwards. Since the Months of Demons had ended, the little girl had become confident that nothing could escape her.

The pigeon would skim the treetops for a moment, and then fly extremely low for a while, close to the ground. However, the distance between the two got closer and closer. No matter how fast it beat its wings, it could not throw off Lightning�s pursuit.

The dense forest receded, and the sun shone occasionally through the branches, alternating patches of light and shade. Until finally they flew through an open area, with an expanse of brightness. Grabbing hold of this opportunity, Lightning brought her speed up to maximum, grabbing the pigeon from behind and tumbling to the ground.

No matter how hard she struggled, the pigeon could not escape. Lightning drew the knife from her waist and prepared to kill the prey. But at this moment, the pigeon said suddenly, �Stop� coo! Help� coo!�

The little girl�s shock was so heavy that she almost tossed her knife away. But she quickly understood and asked, �Are you a witch?�

The Pigeon nodded repeatedly as an answer.

�And here I thought I could finally have a change in flavor.� Lightning sighed in regret, putting her knife away. �I�m Lightning, what�s your name?�

The pigeon swelled and magically changed into human form. �Maggie. How dare you try to eat this bird!� She complained.

�I�ve actually eaten many before.� Lightning shrugged and reached out her hand to pull Maggie up. Suddenly, a bead rolled out from under her arm and bounced on the ground, finally falling into a pit. Lightning went to pick the bead up, wanting to return it to Maggie. She noticed that the red transparent bead was engraved with a string of strange runes and looked particularly familiar.

She frowned and thought for a moment, and then she grasped a string around her neck, and slowly pulled a dark red pendant from her chest. Placing them side by side, she discovered that the pattern on them was exactly the same.

�What?� Shocked, Maggie who was looking over her shoulder, asked, �You have a tracking sigil, too?�

�A tracking sigil? What�s that?�

�You don�t know what it is? It can respond to a magic stone, allowing the holder of the stone to locate your position,� she paused and said, �No! I shouldn�t have told you. Just now, you wanted to eat me!�

�Do you have such a magic stone?�

�Yes. No!� Maggie shook her head.

�So, you can track my position?� Lightning asked curiously.

�No, I can�t. The magic stone can only track the corresponding sigil,� she answered this time, �and only we witches can use it. If you don�t know this already, how did you even get it?�

�My father gave it to me.� Lightning returned the bead to Maggie and asked, �What about you?�

�It�s a secret.� Maggie made a face but then she stared curiously at the other girl. �You belong to the Witch Cooperation Association, don�t you? Ashes said that you don�t want to leave Border Town.�

�You�re on her side?� Lightning curled up her lips in disdain. �And here I thought you were a new witch, attracted by the rumor. We live a good life here. Why would we leave?�

��Because it�s dangerous. The church could come with their army at any time.�

�The explorer isn�t frightened by potential dangers.� She blushed when she mentioned this. The Stone Tower didn�t count. It was only a matter of time before she would visit the ruin again, and by then she would be able to enter the basement. �Furthermore, His Highness Roland Wimbledon has several incredible inventions. Once you�ve seen them, you�ll understand. One can turn a fist-sized ball into a weapon, and when someone is hit by it, they�re torn to pieces.�

�Really? Could you take me to see them?� Maggie exclaimed.

�No. You�re not allowed unless you join the Witches Union and become one of us.�

�But I have to go back with Ashes,� Maggie said with hesitation

�Then you can come back later,� Lightning continued her coaxing, �Here there�re many interesting things. We have machines which move on their own using heated water, and there are also weapons that can attack enemies a kilometer away. Uh, are you asking how far a kilometer is? It�s quite far, if you look at people from one kilometer away, and they�ll seem to be about the size of a tree branch.� She made many gestures with her hands and feet. �There�re even more interesting places and things to do in Misty Forest. Things like poking honeycombs, gathering so many mushrooms that you couldn�t even count them all, and hunting birds and wild boars which are even more interesting. They�re delicious if you peel off their fur and roast them over a bonfire with just a sprinkle of salt and pepper.�

�Really?� Maggie could not help licking her lips.

�Of course. Why should I lie to you?� Lightning hooked her arm around Maggie�s shoulder. �How about hunting a bird and roasting it, right now!�

On the promised fifth day, Roland finally finished preparing all the ingredients needed to produce guncotton.

He made a serious error during the electrolysis of the salt water. He used the copper strips Anna cut out as the electrodes, causing the electrodes to dissolve. He ended up wasting an entire pot of the salt water. Saturated brine was typically used to prevent the dissolution of chlorine in water during the electrolysis process, but salt in this era was not an inexpensive, everyday item. He felt like he was uselessly throwing away gold royals when discarding the contaminated salt water. He was finally able to solve the issue after using carbon rods as the electrodes.

He boiled the caustic soda with water to remove the grease. When he ended up with grease-free cotton gauzes, he brought the rest of the caustic soda to the chemistry lab.

The esterification of guncotton was the most important step of the process. Roland was not entirely sure of the theory, only that he needed to soak the gauze in acid and remove it after nitrification. He did not know anything about the acid ratio or reaction time. Roland told Kyle to form multiple teams to conduct the experiment. Hourglasses were used to control their timing. They repeatedly washed the gauze after soaking in acid, before soaking them again in sodium hydroxide solution. The wet gauzes were then taken to the castle for Wendy to dry.

They used concentrated nitric acid during the esterification, so most of the trial products were inflamed very quickly. Among them, the gauze soaked in the 1:2 ratio of nitric acid and sulfuric acid produced the best result. After obtaining a general prescription, the lab started the mass production of guncotton. After soaking and washing, the soldiers from the First Army took them away. Not even the chief alchemist knew the use of the guncotton they created.

The maids would cut the dried gauze into squares the size of a fingernail, where the gauzes were delivered to North Slope Mountain in boxes. They would end up in the backyard of the firing room. Without machines, these procedures had to be done by manpower. Seated scattered on the ground, the guards used wooden sticks to push the guncotton towards the bottom of the shell and seal the ignition hole. Black gunpowder was then poured into the shell with a funnel and compacted. They tried to make sure the amount of gunpowder in each shell was the same.

The last step was to force the bullets in. Anna�s bullets were well-fitted with the shell. They only needed to push the bullets in with their hands and use a hammer to tap it lightly.

Despite the somewhat inefficient procedures, they could still produce hundreds of bullets within a day. On the sixth day, Carter tried the new weapon. As a competent chief knight, Carter�s hit rate saw a dramatic improvement after a few days of continuous training. He performed much better than when he was undergoing Roland�s rifle practice for his military training.

After the creation of bullets, Carter no longer had to hold the flintlock in an unnatural position with his wrist crooked downwards. As long as the guncotton remained intact, the cartridge would remain clean. Carter was a hundred times more sensitive to sparks than the black gunpowder, allowing him to fire accurately.

On the last day, Roland took advantage of the remaining time they had and made Carter Lannis practice quick gun-drawing and double-gun shot. The 12mm caliber pistol had a considerable recoil even when using black gunpowder. When the pistol was used with one hand, it was difficult to maintain the accuracy of the second shot. However, in Roland�s plan, this was his last resort if Ashes attacked him in a close combat.

Carter would enter the battlefield with double pistols. In a long battle, 10 bullets would be enough to determine the outcome. If it became a close combat, he could use the other gun to fight back. Considering that the enemy was using defensive weapons, Roland chose rigid iron-made bullets to increase the penetrating power and lessen the cavity lethality at the same time. Due to the technology limitations of this era, it was likely that the giant sword Ashes owned was made out of cast iron. Its lavish appearance would not enhance its quality. The poor forgery of the huge iron weapon would instead cause imbalanced internal stress and would not make a good shield. In Roland�s opinion, the giant sword would turn out to be a useless weapon. If his luck was not particularly bad, the possibility of her winning was pretty low.

If Ashes wanted to defeat Carter, she had to get close to the knight. This was the disadvantage of cold weapons compared to hot weapons. If the ability of Ashes was not as insane as being able to visualize the ballistic trajectory and dodge the bullets, she would have no chance to defeat Carter.

*******************

It was close to the evening when Ashes finally saw Maggie fly back to their room.

�Why are you back so late these days?� she asked, closing the window.

�Lightning took me to catch the birds.� Maggie transformed back into her human shape and took out a roasted bird thigh. The room was full of the delicious smell. �I bought one for you too,� said Maggie.

�I�ve already eaten.� Ashes shook her head. �Is Lightning a witch of the Witch Cooperation Association?�

�Yes.� Maggie nodded enthusiastically. �She has the same flying ability, but she�s much more agile when using the ability.� After a short pause, she asked, �Sister Ashes, must you have to fight this battle? I think� they wouldn�t follow you. Their lives here are good.�

Ashes was stunned, but she did not answer.

�Even I want to stay here.� Maggie sat on the bed. �The bed is soft and the food is good. At lunch, I saw Prince Roland bringing his plate to the backyard and eating with the witches. Everyone seemed to have a good time. The prince would occasionally talk, too. He�s totally different from those detestable nobles. Lightning took me to play Gwent in the afternoon. It�s a game where two parties draw 10 cards each to compete. The one with the bigger number would win. It�s really fun. They gave me two sets of the cards. Sister Ashes, do you want to play? I can teach you.�

�No�� Ashes shook her head and took a deep breath. She noticed the change in Maggie. However, she did not realize she was mistaken until this moment.

Most witches lived their lives in fear and insecurity. A shelter for them to live in peace was all they coveted. Take Maggie for example. She had to hide in a cottage room in the slums of King�s City before Tilly accepted her. Like a real bird, she squeezed herself into the narrow beams of the roof to pass each night. Even when Tilly decided to cross the ocean to the east, Maggie ran around to inform the witches hidden in the cities. She did not rest for half a year. It was probably the very first time she lived such a peaceful life.

Was it not the same for her? It was only after meeting Tilly that she began to experience a life she had never once imagine in the past. Ashes was used to the peaceful life in the palace, but she neglected the meaning of the small town to the witches. The sense of belonging was the most priceless thing for them. They wanted to stay here and protect the land just like how Ashes wanted to protect Tilly.

If Roland Wimbledon could indeed withstand the fanatical God�s Punishment Army as he had said, then this place would be a better choice than the Fjord without question. It was tempting to establish the kingdom of witches in an unfamiliar place, but no one could predict how many more hardships would come.

But if he could not withstand the army, should the witches leave?

Her emotions suddenly calmed.

If she thought about it from another perspective, Ashes would still stand by Tilly and protect her even if Tilly could not keep a foothold in Fjords. Tilly was the person who granted a home to her. Ashes had no reason to leave her.

�This place is under the constant threat of the Church. If they could not withstand the God�s Punishment Army, Border Town would be destroyed sooner or later.�

There was no longer any need to insist on this battle anymore� But she still decided to do it anyway, whether for admonition or perhaps even proof.

�What if they could do it?� Maggie mumbled.

�I hope so. So I�ll help them prove this,� Ashes said in a low voice.

She closed her eyes and made the mental preparation to give it her all.

The battle took place at the foot of the city wall of the Western Region.

Besides Roland, those who watched the duel was Iron Axe, Tigui, Brian, and members of the Witch Cooperation Association.

And a pigeon perched on the lookout tower.

Everyone had to climb up the city wall to watch to avoid the stray bullets. The two participants, Chief Knight Carter Lannis and Extraordinary Ashes, will have a one-to-one duel in an area near the city wall.

Instead of his usual knight costume, Carter wore a lightweight close-fitting leather suit with a custom holster belt around his waist. He had two revolvers on both sides of his waist, and a short dagger behind him for emergency purposes. But Roland knew that if Carter had to resort a dagger in fight against an Extraordinary, he might as well surrender.

Ashes was in her usual outfit, a long dark robe covering her entire body. She combed her long black hair into a ponytail, unconcerned about the weakness she had created for herself. The only difference was the wrapped strips of cloth on her giant sword was uncovered. The dark brown body of the sword was dull and had little shine. As per Roland�s expectations, its surface was bumpy. It was not a well-made weapon. Due to the lack of maintenance, rust was beginning to form in the cracks on the sword.

The two of them walked into the duel field. Carter tried to adjust his position until he was 15 meters away from Ashes. He held a 80% chance to get an accurate shot from this distance. He took out two revolvers and checked the bullets and the muzzle.

Roland made Echo imitate and magnify his voice. �The rules are very simple. Don�t make critical kills and you�re allowed to surrender! As long as you don�t die, Nana can heal you immediately. Any problems?� When he did not hear any disagreements about the rules after a moment of silence, he said, �When the clock rings, begin!�

Ashes observed her opponent. As an Extraordinary, she fought by listening to her instincts. She had learned combat skills from the master of the swordsmanship in the palace after she came under Tilly�s care. She, however, felt those skills were superficial to her. Her opponent was Prince Roland�s chief knight, but he did not carry any swords or spears, or even wear an armor. The weapons in his hands looked bizarre, too. Based on their shape, they could not be close combat weapon such as a dagger. The only possibility was a long-range strike weapon, something like a hand crossbow.

Crossbow bolts would not threaten Extraordinaries. Ashes learned that through numerous combats. If it was a crossbow bolt, she could even catch the flying bolt in her hand. However, noticing the prince�s confidence, she believed that the weapon would not be as simple as a crossbow bolt.

Her instinct told her to approach the knight quickly, instead of waiting in the sidelines for the knight to strike. Before the duel started, Ashes sank the tip of her giant sword into the ground. Her posture seemed innocuous, but it was the best strategy to handle a crossbowman.

A string of clock chimes drifted from the city wall.

Ashes made her move at nearly the same time. She gripped the hilt of her sword with both hands and swung it fiercely at Carter. The soil, grass, and rocks were thrown at him, forming a smokescreen.

Chief Knight Carter reacted swiftly. A spark burst from his weapon and an astonishing roar followed. But Ashes saw nothing. Either Carter did not have any bolts or the bolts were so fast that she could not even see them. Compared to the stupid-sounding first speculation, she was inclined to believe the latter.

Under the protection of the smokescreen, Ashes struck from the side. Their distance was almost narrowed by half and the smokescreen had yet to fall. People would normally try to dodge the dirt. If she could interrupt Carter�s shooting, she would most likely win.

But Carter did not move nor did he care about the dust on his face. He squinted, aimed at the Extraordinary, and pulled the trigger. The spark flashed along with the roar. Ashes instinctively dodged, but still did not see any bolts. She did not see him pulling the string either.

This new weapon could shoot in succession. However, under the situation where Carter had already missed two shots, the outcome was clear.

The last 10 steps of distance passed in a blink of time. She raised her giant sword in front of her and kicked the ground hard, striking at the knight. Such collision would not cause instant death, but it would be enough to knock him unconscious. Even if the knight could still stand through his strong resilience, the broken bones in his chest would make him lose any ability to fight. In the last minute, Carter�s third strike exploded in front of Ashes. She felt her giant sword shake and make a crisp sound. The right side of her stomach felt a sudden numbness as if it was harshly scratched by something.

Almost at the same time, she smashed into Carter and knocked him into the air, where his body created an arc in the air before falling to the ground.

Only now did she have the time to check the wound on her waist. Just as she lowered her head, a strong sense of dizziness rushed to her head. Ashes stumbled and almost fell. The strength from her magic power left her like flowing water. Her limbs became unbelievably heavy.

Ashes used her sword to support her weight. The numbness on her wound became a burning sensation of pain. She felt like she lost a chunk of flesh on her waist. She could even see her bright red liver. She could only clench her teeth to not let herself collapse.

�

In Roland�s eyes, the whole duel ended in five seconds. He saw the Extraordinary swing dirt towards Carter and strike him from the side at the same time. She changed direction once and smashed into the knight. Carter then fired three bullets before he was knocked upwards. That was out of Roland�s expectations.

When facing an abnormally fast Ashes, it would be difficult for Roland to even trace her movements with his eyes. However, Carter was able to aim and shoot at her, proving that he deserved the title of Chief Knight. It was normal that he missed the first two shots. In fact, had Ashes kept switching directions at her speed, he could not have shot her at all. The key was the third shot. Ashes made a frontal strike with her sword blocking her chest in a short distance of six meters.

If it was a bolt, even a heavy one, it would at most hit the sword and not hurt the Extraordinary. However, the ammo with a 12mm diameter with an iron bullet head made an terrifying impact at such distance. At that time, Roland could only see black dust flying and the side of Ashes covered in blood. When she stood still, he noticed half of her waist was damaged, as if bitten by a demonic beast. Her intestines flew out and slid down her side. There was a bowl-sized hole in the sword. The bullet probably penetrated the sword, swirled into her stomach, and inflicted a huge wound.

Even heavily injured, Ashes did not faint and stood persistently. The physical fitness of an Extraordinary was astonishing. If they had used lead bullets or smaller bullets, Ashes would most likely survive them. Maggie ran toward Ashes and tried to hold her. However, she was so short she could only hold onto her leg, looking anxious.

Nana rushed to heal Carter, while Roland took quick steps toward Ashes.

This moment seemed to be what she was waiting for.

�I won�� Ashes collapsed into Roland as soon as she said these words, without giving him any chance to react.

�Go away! Filthy beggar!�

Someone pushed her forcibly, but she stood still. She watched as the other person staggered and backed up a bit.

The pompous expression on his face disappeared. He glared at her and left.

She continued moving through the crowd with indifference. The majority of people frowned and avoided her when they saw her ragged clothing.

There were swarms of people. Although the Inner City didn�t have a traditional city wall and gate, people had constructed a symbolic entryway composed of wood and wreaths. Armored guards stood on both sides of the door. Their exquisite armor reflected a glaring light under the sun. The vivid eagle adornments, the embossed irises on their chests and the handsome visage of the knights, made all the girls shriek in excitement.

Their red velvet cloaks dragged all the way to the ground, resembling a red wall from afar. The magnificently dressed nobles separated the crowd and made an empty space behind the entryway.

The flags on the sidewalks were flowing in the air. Long strings of golden flags hung from the top of the flagpole, creating a sense of grandeur. The embroidered flags had different motifs. The most common was the high tower long spear. She knew that this pattern represented the royalty of the Kingdom of Graycastle, the host of today�s ceremony.

Today was the coming-of-age ceremony for Princess Tilly Wimbledon.

A week prior, the advertisement for this ceremony had caused a joyous uproar. Everyone in the town knew about it. In addition to the local nobility of the Kingdom of Graycastle, there were a few ambassador groups from the other kingdoms. They all brought gifts and marriage proposals in the hope that they would gain the admiration of Princess Tilly and the Royal Family.

The church had sent a bishop to host the ceremony for Princess Tilly. The ceremony would be held in the Dawn Square in the center of the city. The royal family would distribute meat porridge and soup, this was the reason the ceremony had attracted such a large audience.

However, she had not come for food.

Her goal was the archbishop.

It would cast shame on the church if one of its archbishops was assassinated in front of everyone in the king�s city. The sweet joy of retaliation gave her a strong sense of exhilaration. She touched her chest; there was a short knife that she�d stolen. Although the knife was of an inferior quality, it was enough to kill a common person.

There was a round of loud applause in the crowd that interrupted her thoughts. She looked toward the Inner City. The knightage was marching in organized alignment. The knights in the very front of the group looked glamorous with their red cloaks flowing behind them like dancing flames.

The carriage was drawn by four horses behind the knights. The emblems of the royal family of the Kingdom of Graycastle were ingrained on the sides of the carriage. The wheels and frames were painted gold. Bright red pennants fluttered in the wind on top of the car, and golden silks were hanging on the four corners. At a glance, the whole troop looked like a moving golden ocean.

The crowd started to move to the Dawn Square with the carriages. She entered the border of the square with the crowd. The soldiers had separated the inner part of the square. Only the nobility could watch the ceremony up close. She estimated that it would only take few seconds for her to rush into the square. As long as the archbishop entered the square, he would not be able to avoid her.

The people from the royal family started to jump off the carriage. The five children of King Wimbledon III were slowly walking toward the center of the ceremonial stage.

Among them she saw the Princess, Tilly Wimbledon.

Undoubtedly, Princess Tilly was the heroine of the day. There was a light shining in her eyes, crystal clear like a gemstone. Her tidy long gray hair was in a simple hairstyle, without any decoration. Her appearance was the most exceptional of her siblings; the patterns on her cloth were simple, stylish, and well-suited for her aura. Most incredibly, Princess Tilly cast her eyes straight onto her in the crowd. Then, Princess Tilly nodded as if greeting her and smiled lightly.

This was not a delusion. She felt the same sensation at that moment, a sense of intimacy as if they had known each other for years. Sweet and warm. This intimacy was not of blood, identity, or social status. It was from the resonance of magic power.

She released the handle of the knife that she was squeezing tightly and started to watch the girl on the stage quietly.

At the end of the ceremony, two guards found her. They wanted to take her to the palace.

If she chose to refuse, the guards would not be able to block her. However, she did not ask anything and followed the two guards to the Inner City, entering the glamorous palace through a narrow street.

In a secret chamber in the palace, she stood in front of Princess Tilly.

�I see.�

�This is a truly unfortunate story. So, this is how you ended up here in the Kingdom of Graycastle.�

�Don�t worry. You don�t have to wander around anymore. You shall accompany me hereafter�

�I�ll do a proper makeover for you. I�ll make sure that no one can recognize you.�

�I investigated. The cloister was destroyed by a huge fire. All the children were missing. The entire building was left in ruins and ashes.�

�Do you have a name?�

�Then, I shall call you Ashes.�

�

Ashes opened her eyes. The first thing that came into view was Maggie�s face.

Maggie blinked then rushed to hug her. �You finally woke up!�

Ashes tried to move her finger. She did not feel the expected powerlessness or numbness. She did not feel pain in her waist either.

�How long was I in a coma?�

�A whole afternoon,� Maggie said, �Nana said I could wake you up as soon as she healed you, but that your body would be really tired. It was better to let you rest so that you would feel more energized when you woke up.�

Ashes patted Maggie�s head and slowly sat up on the bed. She lifted up her clothes and found that her waist was intact. The huge wound was like a nightmare that had disappeared upon waking.

�How did she heal me?�

�I don�t think you want to know.� Maggie pursed her lips. After she saw the insistence in Ashes� eyes, she explained, �They collected your scattered� umm, parts, and put the parts back into your stomach. Then Nana used magic power to restore the parts back to their original state. According to Lightning, the more parts that they collect, the faster she heals. If the limbs are all gone, Nana won�t be able to regenerate new parts.�

Ashes could feel the goosebumps breaking out over her skin. �Then the dirt and grass stains��

�The dirty stuff was expelled when your wound was healed. Nana�s power is able to differentiate between necessary parts and unnecessary parts.�

Ashes was relieved. She got off the bed and tried to feel the power in her body. Just like Nana had said, after her long rest, Ashes did not feel any emaciation. Instead, she felt her power was even stronger than before.

Ashes put on her black cloak, looked at the color of the sky through the window and walked toward the door.

�Where are you going?� Maggie asked.

�To see Prince Roland,� Ashes said without looking back.

In the office, Ashes met Roland Wimbledon again. He was buried in documents, writing. It seemed that he was handling some work. The sun was tilting to the west and the sky was painted with a touch of golden color. The sunlight came through the casement windows and lifted a long shadow before the table.

Ashes waited until the prince put down his quill before proclaiming, �I won.�

�Absolutely, you won.� Roland nodded without hesitation.

Such a straightforward attitude made Ashes feel a bit surprised. She�d thought that Roland was going to argue and had not expected that he would admit this result.

�However, I admit that you do have the power to fight against the God�s Punishment Army,� she said. �The God�s Punishment Army isn�t impervious to blades and spears. Their power and physical capabilities are similar to mine. However, they lack consciousness and also the ability to think. That�s why I can handle three at one time. According to the previous contest, if the knight�s opponent is God�s Punishment Army, I believe they would attack with a frontal assault on the knight. The God�s Punishment Army isn�t able to have a single dispatch as the Judgement Army does. If what I assume is correct, the church needs to appoint someone to lead them.�

�Thank you.� Roland smiled. �This information is substantial.�

�What was the new weapon in the knight�s hand?�

�A running fire flintlock,� he said, �From now on, all my soldiers will use this weapon. Even a farmer would be able to defeat a well-trained member of the Judgement Army using the flintlock.�

Ashes hesitated. �Could you give me a flintlock?�

�Not unless you join the Witch Union.� Roland shrugged. �This weapon is still fairly rare at this stage.�

Roland�s refusal was expected. Ashes breathed out and said, �I have to reunite with Tilly as soon as possible. Tomorrow at dawn, I�ll leave Border Town. If you can�t withstand anymore, you could move to the Fjords for sanctuary.�

He nodded. �You too, don�t forget to tell the news to my beloved sister that there�s a place for the witches in the Western Region of the Kingdom of Graycastle.�

Ashes was silent for a moment. �I�ll consider it.�

When Ashes was just about to leave the office, the prince called her to stop. �Wait, I have a gift for you. It�s right behind the door.�

A gift?

She was dazed for a moment. She turned around and saw a huge sword near the door. It was blocked by the door so she hadn�t noticed it when she walked into the office.

�Your original sword couldn�t be used anymore. I asked Anna to make a new one for you. This sword isn�t made out of inferior pig iron, it�s made of pure steel.�

The body of the huge sword was smooth and well-proportioned. It reflected an orangish glow under the light of sunset. She walked to it and gently touched the body of the sword. Its width was very well-balanced, and the side of the blade showed signs of the hardening process. Undoubtedly, this was a high-quality weapon. The only thing confusing Ashes was the style of the sword. Rather than having double blades, it was a single blade, and the other side was as wide as a little finger. The sword did not have a tip. Its top was in a trapezoid shape. The most bizarre part was the first section of the blade. A particular pattern was ingrained on the blade, and the unsharpened side had a round bump covered in gold. It would definitely catch everyone�s attention.

Even though she did not want to show her affection to the new sword, she could not help but lift it up in admiration.

�Why is its appearance� so weird?�

�Because this isn�t an ordinary weapon.� Roland smiled. �Its name is the Messenger of Ashes. Compared to the plain sword that you had before, this is a legendary item.�

Ashes decided not to inquire about the strange words that Roland was using. �Well then, I�ll accept this gift. In return, I�ll give you a gift too.�

�Umm? What is it?� Roland asked curiously.

She did not answer and simply left the room.

*******************

The next morning, Roland opened the door and saw Nightingale sitting in front of the desk with a piece of dried fish in her mouth.

�They left.�

�Both of them?�

�Yes,� she answered in a sluggish tone. �They departed at dawn. Wendy accompanied them part of the way.�

Roland was moved. Wendy was caring for every single sister, not to mention that this was the witch that at one time protected her from harm and indirectly helped her to leave the cloister. He�d thought that Wendy would have gone with Ashes. He had not expected that Wendy would refuse Ashes� invitation.

In the end, the Witch Union was still composed of 12 people. That truly motivated Roland.

�Do you believe that they�ll tell the witches across the ocean about Border Town?�

�Maybe. Maybe not.� He leaned against the chair and sighed. �However, if they meet insolvable hardships, they�ll think of the Border Town.�

Roland closed his eyes and started to search his mind for the memories that belonged to the prince.

He and Tilly were not close. Tilly had kept her distance from everyone, even King Wimbledon III. Aside from her exceptional appearance and intelligence, he did not have much information about Tilly in his mind.

Roland did not know when Princess Tilly had started to cover for witches or what she planned to develop in the Fjords. Nevertheless, since both of them planned to fight against the church at this stage, she would be a great alliance that he should strive for.

Sending Theo to spread the news was not a meaningless act. The awakening of a witch was totally random. Tilly would not be able to take away all the witches. Especially since the organization had retreated, the newly awakened witch would be in desperate need of finding sanctuary.

Since he�d gathered new information regarding the God�s Punishment Army, the next thing that he needed to do was to expand the manufacture of nitric acid and sulfuric acid.

More efficient gunpowder and bombs were inseparable from nitric acid and sulfuric acid. Once the First Army replaced its weapons to the revolving rifles, gun-barrels with rifling and fixed loading bullets would drastically increase the accuracy of shooting. Therefore, training would be even more important. In this era without gun control, the skillful soldier would be able to fight 10 newbies. The consumption of bullets would be astonishingly high.

The black gunpowder would remain in the gun-barrel and block the rifling, decreasing the age of the gun-barrel. This problem could be solved by using the smokeless powder. The smokeless powder in its preliminary form was nitrocellulose, in the later stage it would be the mixture of glycerol and nitrocellulose. Right now, even the nitric acid that was used to soak the guncotton was insufficient, not to mention replacing it all with guncotton.

The production in the lab was limited to a small-scale. He would need industrial manufacturing if he wanted enough equipment to supply an army. However, Roland was unfamiliar with the chemical industry. He could not think of any better ideas right now.

Besides that, he also could not neglect the education. Not only civil knowledge, but Roland also had to implement to transform the thinking of his citizens. The locals now had a better understanding toward the witches after the challenge of the Months of Demons and also the advertisement of the First Army. However, the outsiders were still confined to the propagated thinking of the church. The population of outsiders in Border Town had dramatically increased, especially the farmers. They were still living in the wooden sheds near the Redwater River. It could be considered the �suburb� of the town. However, as soon as they were promoted to freedmen, they would gradually move to the inner city. By then it would be too late to adjust their thinking.

He had to think of a transformation method that would not arouse too much attention and would be accepted by the public.

�

His thoughts were in a chaotic mess for a while. Roland opened his eyes and noticed that Nightingale was staring at him from aside. When their eyes met, she subconsciously turned away her head.

�Ahh� yes, I forgot to tell you something.� The witch stared through the window and pretended to be nonchalant. �Wendy asked me to tell you something.�

�What?� Roland asked.

�She said, thank you.�

The sun had gradually sunk into mountains, and night fell in the Western Region.

The emissary delegation decided to camp in an open field not far away from the main road.

Soon after they pitched their tents in a circle, they lit up a bonfire in the center. Warriors took off their armors and sat around it. They stretched to relax themselves and waited until the water boiled on the fire to cook porridge.

Alicia carried a basin of warm water into a tent and said, �My Priestess, please wash your face.�

�Thanks,� Mira nodded to her with a smile and then dipped her towel in the water. �We�ll arrive at Border Town tomorrow. Thank you for your hard work along the way.�

�It�s not a big deal, compared with fighting against demonic beasts. On this journey, you�re the one impressing me the most. You�re such a good rider. I used to think priests and priestesses weren�t good at long journeys,� Alicia said.

�Hah-hah, I�m not born a priestess. I frequently traveled on horseback when I was a merchant.� Mira wiped the dust and sweat on her face with the towel and then gave the basin to the female warrior. �Wash your face, please. How�s it? Do you feel any better now?�

�What?� Alicia winced.

�The thing about God�s Punishment Army.� The Priestess shook her head with a smile. �You�ve your heart on your sleeve. Is it because of what Abrams said?�

��� Alicia took the basin without saying anything.

�All of us will encounter difficulties and challenges. If we can�t overcome them, the whole world will suffer, let alone the church. In order to stop those dreadful enemies, we have to make sacrifices sometimes. This issue may put you in a dilemma, but don�t forget the church�s motto,� Mira said.

�Of two evils choose the lesser,� Alicia said in a low voice.

�Exactly, the purpose of the sacrifice determines whether it�s worth doing. Most importantly, participation in the incarnation ceremony of God�s Punishment Army is completely voluntary. When Abrams� brother made up his mind to become a God�s Punishment Warrior, he was ready to sacrifice himself to the church. It�s a lofty ideal, and his name will be engraved on the Monument of Glory and passed down through generations together with the glory of the church.�

�Thank you, My Priestess. I feel much better now,� Alicia said, with her right hand on her chest.

She stopped feeling gloomy hearing what the priestess said. She thought no matter what, as least, God�s Punishment Warriors adhered to their faith and sacrificed themselves for the glory of deities.

�My pleasure,� Mira said with a slight smile, �let�s get out having dinner. It must be ready now. No kidding, I can�t taste now after so many days of eating porridge.�

�Luckily, today is the last day,� Alicia smiled back and said, �tomorrow, we�ll meet the lord and enjoy a splendid banquet.�

The chief justice picked out tonight�s watchmen after the tasteless dinner. Judgement Warriors not assigned to any task went back into their tents to sleep. Alicia also returned with the priestess to the tent, put out their oil lamp and wrapped themselves in quilts.

Alicia was not sure how long she had slept when she heard a sudden thud in a daze. It sounded like something hitting the ground. Very soon, here came another heavy, dull noise.

And in that noise, she had heard a vague sound of an armor dropping onto the ground.

She opened her eyes at once.

She swiftly got out of her quilt to grab her two-handed sword aside and slowly moved to the door of the tent. When she was going to raise a corner of the tent to see what happened outside, she heard the chief justice angrily shouting, �Enemy attack! Warriors, get up to fight!� The roar broke the silence of the night and stirred up everyone in the battalion.

After that, Alicia heard a loud bang!

Meanwhile, the chief justice�s voice suddenly stopped.

She did not hesitate anymore and promptly rolled out of her tent. She saw the chief justice�s giant sword being cut in half, no� not only his sword, the chief justice himself was also split, his blood gushing into the sky. In the light of the bonfire, he knelt down feebly and his body broke into two pieces, falling down at a woman�s feet.

This woman with a giant sword in hand was the attacker. She wrapped herself in a black gown and covered her face with a hood. In the shadow of the hood, Alicia could clearly see two shinning golden pupils.

Another two Judgement Warriors lunged at the attacker together, but nobody could resist the dreadful giant sword in her hand. She killed each Judgement Warrior with only one strike, cutting both the warrior and his sword in half. First, their swords clashed, making loud bangs and sending sparks and iron filings flying to all directions. After that here came the friction sounds of flesh and bones being cut through by her giant sword. The horrifying sounds like a nightmare curdled Alicia�s blood.

�It�s a witch!� someone exclaimed.

[There�s only one attacker� and she dares initiate attack at Judgement Army on her own. She must the Fallen with demon power!]

When Alicia was absorbed in thoughts, a steady voice suddenly came into her ear. �Take the priestess away!�

She turned around and saw Abrams.

�Are you asking me to leave all my battle companions behind?� Alicia widened her eyes.

�Otherwise, you�ll die here for nothing. Don�t you understand!� He growled with his eyebrows knitted. �She�s not afraid of God�s Stone of Retaliation. She must be an Extraordinary. I�ll try my best to stop her. You take the priestess to Longsong Stronghold! Remember to take the main road all the time. If you run into any caravan along the road, ask them for help!� With these words, he dashed toward the attacker with his sword in hand.

Alicia gasped. [She�s an Extraordinary. It�s said that only God�s Punishment Warriors can rival Extraordinaries. Meeting them, I should immediately ask the local church for help. Abrams is right. If I stay here, it�ll only waste their sacrifices.]

Seeing five Judgement Warriors killed, the remaining warriors changed their tactics. They took advantage of the tents and the terrain to fight a running battle against the witch as a ploy to gain time. However, Alicia knew it clearly that sooner or later, the warriors would die in the hand of the Extraordinary who was way more stronger and faster than them.

She grated and rushed back into the tent. The priestess had already put on her shoes, waiting for information. Alicia jerked Mira up, leading her to the place where the delegation had tied their horses.

�What happened?� the priestess asked in a deep voice.

�An Extraordinary witch attacked the battalion! Please leave with me now!� Alicia mounted her horse and urged. �Be quick!�

Finding out that she could hardly see the road at night, Alicia was afraid that the horses might be tripped if they galloped on the main road. Slowing down the speed to ensure safety was not a good choice, either. The witch could easily catch up with them as they could not run very far.

In the end, Alicia decided to send the horses run along the main road while she and the priestess were burrowing into the forest on the wayside. In this way, it was hard to find them without firelight.

She took Mira�s hand, walking away from the main road. Gradually, she could hardly hear the clashes of swords. In the dim moonlight, she stayed alert and aware of the surroundings. Deep in the forest, they might meet beasts or vipers, but at least it was better than encountering an Extraordinary.

Alicia finally heaved out a sigh of relief when they fumbled their way through the dark and got near to the Impassable Mountain Range. It seemed that they were not followed by the witch. Quietness prevailed now except for the tweeting birds over their heads.

�What�re we going to do next?� Mira asked.

The priestess did not seem to panic at such a crisis, which impressed Alicia a lot. �My Priestess, we�d better find a place beyond the wind�s reach to spend the night. When the dawn reaches tomorrow, we�ll go to Longsong Stronghold to ask for help.�

�Don�t we go to Border Town? It needs at least a day and a night to return to the stronghold.�

�No.� Alicia shook her head and continued to explain, �It wasn�t just a coincidence that we were attacked by an Extraordinary. The lord probably has already been in collusion with witches. If that�s true, it�s too dangerous for us to go there.�

�I see your point�� Mira�s mouth was suddenly agape. She seemed to stare at something behind the female warrior.

Alicia�s heart skipped a beat. She turned around and saw the woman in the black gown steadily stepping out of the forest�s shadow. Her eye shone like stars. An owl swirled down and landed on her shoulder.

�Devil!� Alicia took out her two-handed sword and stood in front of Mira.

�� devil?� The witch sounded cold, showing no emotion. �What about you church people? You send orphaned and abandoned children to cloisters and pick witches out of them? What should I call you?�

�Nonsense!� The woman warrior retorted. �The church accepts and raises the kids out of kindness of deities. If it�s not for cloisters, how many of them will be able to reach an adult age? Ubiquitous demons corrupt the weak-minded ones and lead a small number of them astray now and then, but the church will solve all the problems at once when finding a devil witch among them. You�re distorting reality.�

Hearing the word �solve�, the witch�s golden pupils suddenly dimmed. She raised her giant sword in just one hand and said, �I�m not very interested in arguing with a dead woman, so that�s it.�

Before her voice died away, the owl on her shoulder had flown up, and she had already come up to Alicia, evoking her unforgettable memory of her battle companions being cut in half together with their swords. Instead of moving back, Alicia lunged forward at the witch, aiming at the part under her right arm. Alicia had repeatedly heard during her sword training courses that this part was the weakest point if the opponent chose right hand as a sword hand. If she attacked this point, the righthanded opponent would need several seconds to turn the blade.

Alicia bounded on the witch like a leopard, evading the strike. When she brushed past the Extraordinary, she held her two-handed sword horizontal, trying to hit the weakest point on the right side of her body, but the witch reacted at a stunning speed. By just a skip, she easily escaped Alicia� attack and swiftly turned around, lifting up her giant sword.

Alicia, however, had not landed by now.

It all happened in a split second. Alicia saw half of her calf flying up into the air with blood. A tearing pain down there almost made her faint away. She instinctively clenched her teeth to stop herself from crying out at the scene.

The gap between her and the Extraordinary was just too wide.

She finally saw what an excellent fighter Abrams was, who had exchanged a dozen of blows with the Extraordinary, striving for more time for her to escape.

Alicia struggled to turn around and saw Mira took a hand crossbow out of their backpack, aiming at the Extraordinary when the witch was concentrating on herself.

This was their last chance. Alicia thought that she must manage to make the witch focus on herself.

When she was going to say something, the giant sword swept. She suddenly felt a tight throat and then saw the world upside down� No, she thought that she must be flying, as she could see her body feebly kneel down on the ground and the owl dart toward Mira. The owl transformed into a girl in the air and knocked down the priestess� Soon she was bleary-eyed and then all she could see was endless darkness, when her head finally fell on the ground.

�

�Damn this stupid rock! Coo.� Maggie touched a swollen part on her head, complaining. �You�re so careless. If it wasn�t for me, you would have been shot by the bolt!�

�Relax, I saw it. I just wanted to end this as fast as I could,� Ashes said. She dug two shallow pits in the ground, dragged the two bodies into the pits and buried them, after she had pocketed all their God�s Stones of Retaliation and gold royals. By doing so, she earned her travel expenses on her way to Port of Clearwater. In addition, she found a letter from the priestess. She skimmed through its content. It said that if the priestess found Roland Wimbledon, Lord of the Western Region, was not in collusion with witches, she should request to buy female infants and orphans from him at market price. All the females under age could be traded for golden royals or pills, like what they had done with Duke Ryan before.

After reading the letter, Ashes sneered and burnt it with a torch fire.

�Let�s go. We have lots of bodies to bury.�

�Coo.� Maggie transformed into an owl and led Ashes back to the emissary delegation�s camping site.

As she would get dizzy seeing broken body parts or smelling blood, she alighted on a bough and watched Ashes digging pits, dragging and burying bodies all by herself.

�Why did you do this? It�ll be awful if the church finds out what you�ve done.�

�Only several months later, the church people will confirm that the emissary delegation is missing. They usually expect an emissary delegation sent out to investigate a lord to return in about two to three months, if the lord is happy to cooperate with the investigation,� Ashes said while digging.

�But His Highness won�t be happy to do so! Coo!�

�Please talk to me in your human form.� Ashes sighed and continued to explain, �Once this emissary delegation is allowed to enter the town, witches of the Witch Cooperation Association will be exposed. They even don�t need to ask the prince. All they need to do is to interrogate some subjects there. At that time, Roland will have only two choices. First one is lying. He�ll contend that he�s nothing to do with the matter. Second is to cooperate with the church and arrest all the witches. For a well-prepared emissary delegation like this one, if one of them had escaped from me, Hermes would have soon received the news. They brought carrier pigeons with them all the way. You�ve seen them, right?�

�I�ve already got them all. They can�t see their way at night.� Maggie patted her bulging pocket. �Let�s toast them tomorrow. One for you, and one for me.�

Ashes had never seen Maggie eat birds before. She sighed secretly, thinking how come the little girl became so keenly interested in toasted bird meat after having stayed in Border Town for merely a few days. �If the church received the delegation�s report about what happened in the town and decided to send its troops there at once, the prince would have only one month to prepare. But now, he has at least three more months before the church reacts, with any luck� This is the gift I give him and also my revenge on the church.�

�I see. Ashes, you�re such a considerate person.� Maggie praised.

In fact, Ashes had another reason for doing this, which she did not tell Maggie. By killing the whole emissary delegation, she had also pushed Roland Wimbledon to the point of no return. When the church failed to contact the emissary delegation, it would impute blame to Roland Wimbledon. At that time, he would not have any chance to betray the witches even if he wanted to.

It was almost dawn when Ashes finished.

�That�s it. Now, time to say goodbye to each other,� Ashes said to Maggie.

��� Maggie was surprised. �What?�

Ashes gently touched her little head and squatted down to talk to her. �Don�t you really like Border Town? You�ll have a good time there with Lightning and Wendy.�

�But�� Maggie lowered her head and hesitated. �I like you and Lady Tilly, too.�

�I�m not telling you to stay in the town forever.� Ashes smiled. �Roland Wimbledon isn�t like Tilly. He�s an ordinary nobleman after all. We can�t be sure that he�ll remain on our side all the time. Given that, I assign you a task now. You have to fly back to Sleeping Island every month to tell us the recent situation of the town and then bring our information to the witches of Witch Cooperation Association there. In this way, we�ll stay in touch with the Witch Cooperation Association and you�ll be able to guide them to the Fjords when the town and Kingdom of Graycastle are no longer a safe place for them.�

�Is it true?� Maggie blinked her eyes.

�Yes, remember to complete your task. I trust you,� Ashes nodded and said.

After the talk, Maggie transformed into a pigeon and gradually disappeared in the morning sky. Ashes mounted a horse, heading for Port of Clearwater.

�That�s all for today. Class is over.�

�Goodbye teacher,� the little girls said simultaneously.

Irene closed her textbook and watched the kids walking out of the classroom. This school was rebuilt from a former residence belonged to a noble, which had been expropriated by the lord after this year�s Months of Demons. Partition walls which had separated the house into small rooms had been torn down. New walls had been built to create several big rooms on each floor. Four to six batches of students could take classes here at the same time. According to the textbook, such batch should be called a �class�. She could see most students of the daytime classes were kids, and at night classes, she would usually meet adult students.

She had thought her application for a teaching job would have taken a long time to reach the City Hall, when Ferlin had submitted her application. Surprisingly, she had received permission on the very next day. After that, she had gone to the City Hall to register and fetch her teaching materials and a school timetable.

Most of her students were children of the locals in Border Town. She had done lots of work to make these naughty kids attend classes well. There was one interesting chapter in her textbook guiding her to maintain classroom discipline. This chapter which was a real eye-opener suggested that the teacher should help students to develop self-discipline by dividing a class into groups and appointing group leaders and class leader. Besides the traditional methods of vocal critics and cane punishment, it also encouraged teachers to motivate students through encouragement and praises.

Irene believed this thoughtful author of the teacher�s textbook must be a senior who had been a teacher for many years.

As soon as she walked out of the school, she saw her knight, Ferlin Eltek, waiting for her at the gate.

Standing tall and straight, he still looked handsome in a simple leather coat. Without his shining armors, shield and sword which were bearing his family�s lion emblems, he was still her Morning Light.

After they hugged, Irene noticed that there was something wrong about Ferlin.

�What�s the matter?� she asked.

��� he hesitated and said, �His Highness invites us to enjoy refreshments in the palace in the afternoon.�

�We?� Irene remained speechless for a while, as she had realized what was bothering Ferlin. She patted his back and shook her head, saying, �The prince has never met me. It�s impossible that he�ll act like the duke� and you�ll go to the palace with me, right?�

�Yes, I�ll protect you this time,� Ferlin nodded and said.

In the afternoon, Irene dressed up a little and went to the lord�s castle wearing an appropriate dress.

Not long after they were ushered into the reception hall, a gray-haired young man came to the gate. He was Lord of the Western Region, His Highness Roland Wimbledon. A lady above 30, seemed steady and capable, accompanied him. They could tell from her still attractive face that she must have been an extraordinary beauty when she had been young. They quickly rose and bowed to the prince.

�Welcome, Mr. and Mrs. Eltek.� Roland sat in the seat of the host. �Help yourself to these dishes prepared by the kitchen of the palace.�

�Thank you very much for inviting us. It�s such a great honor for me,� Ferlin replied with noble manners.

�This lady is Scroll, the one in charge of Ministry of Education of City Hall. I believe you�ve already met each other.�

�Yes.� Ferlin nodded to Scroll to greet. �I�ve not yet expressed my gratitude to you. Without your help, Irene could not become a teacher that fast.�

Finally meeting the one who had helped her in the job application, Irene smiled to Scroll with gratitude.

After chatting together for some time, Ferlin finally asked, �May I ask, Your Highness, what�s the reason for this afternoon tea?�

�Education.� Roland paused and looked at Irene. �I heard you�ve worked in a theater in the stronghold. Are you an actress?�

�Uhm�� Irene was surprised hearing the prince asking about this. �I did only one drama.�

�Well here�s the thing. I plan to present a play every weekend in the square of the town. I�ve got scripts, writers and directors. What I need now are actors and actresses. As you don�t have many classes now and have a relative work experience, I want you to star in this drama. I�ll pay you extra salaries. Do you agree?� the prince said explicitly.

��� Irene looked at the prince in disbelief. After she made sure that he was not kidding, she nodded excitedly, saying, �Your Highness, I�d like to!�

Standing on the stage to play had been her aspiration all the time. Since she had left the Longsong Theatre, she had been thinking that she might never get the chance to play a drama again. Therefore, she had buried this wish in her heart and never shown any regret in front of Ferlin. She was so excited now to know that she would be able to return to the stage.

�These plays are for the masses. It�s not very demanding. It�ll do as long as you can play the story clearly on the stage. Do you have friends in Longsong Stronghold who have a certain understanding of drama and hope to play on the stage but can�t find any opportunity? If you do, you can write to them, telling them they can play in Border Town every weekend and get paid as they�re in the theater of the stronghold.�

�They even can join this play? I know lots of people like that! I�ll write to them as soon as I get home. They�ll be happy to come to the town if they get the chance to play,� Irene was overjoyed and said.

�Good.� Roland gave her three books. �Here are the stories you�re going to play. They�re numbered. You�ll start with the first one. All of them are written by Scroll, stories close to the common people�s lives. You can take them home to read. If there�s anything you can�t understand, you can ask Scroll.�

�Yes, Your Highness! Thank you!� Irene bowed and said.

�

�Is it good to lie to her like that? You�re the author of those stories,� Scroll said.

�It�s alright. They won�t believe such vulgar stories are written by a prince.� Roland stretched himself. �And without your polishing and editing, I couldn�t finish them in such a short time.�

�They�re not vulgar at all.� Scroll shook her head. �They�re moving and inspiring. I don�t know why you know so much about the common people�s daily life, but I can promise the play will be generally welcomed.�

[Of course, it�s going to be a hit.] Roland was confident, too, as the first two scripts were actually revised from two popular stories, �Cinderella� and �The Crowing Cock in Midnight�. The first one was a moving love story between a prince and a civilian girl. The latter depicted the struggle of people at the bottom and their fighting against their mean, shameless landlord. He had localized both stories by changing the fairy who helped Cinderella into a witch and the landlord in �The Crowing Cock in Midnight� into a merciless lesser noble. After these two plays attracted lots of attention, Roland was going to put the third story called �The Witch Diaries� on stage, which was the part and parcel of his whole drama plan.

It was an original piece about three girls who became witches but had very different lives. He had not directly mentioned the church in his script, but only focused on the characters. One witch girl was abandoned by her parents, another one was used by others and the last one, very lucky, was deeply loved by her father and mother who remained the same to her even when they found that she was a witch and who even sacrificed their own lives to protect her. Fate and chance finally brought these three girls together. In the end, they defeated their enemy who wanted to kill them and then lived a good life like ordinary people.

Roland intended to make �The Witch Diaries� a series to infuse the people with a new idea, telling them through the moving drama that witches were not devil and even some of their own female relatives might become witches.

When they were back in their apartment, Ferlin shook his head with profound resignation. �Why don�t you think about it for a few days before you promise His Highness?�

He had seen his wife skip happily all the way back home. In his memory, he had only seen her being that happy in their wedding.

�No.� Irene stuck out her tongue at him. �One day�s delay will make me sleepless.�

[Yes, she loves drama so much. Back in the Longsong Theater, she used to practice all alone until midnight and frequently run over her lines with me. If it had not been for the duke, she would have moved from Flower of the Theater up to Star of the Theater.] At this thought, he hugged his wife from the back and said, �I�m sorry.�

��� Irene patted his head. �It�s not your fault. You were transferred to another city and couldn�t stop him at that time,� she said with a slight smile, �if you want to apologize, go to cook. I want to read the scripts first.�

�Well, well, well, I�ll cook.� Ferlin kissed her earlobe. �Meat porridge and fried eggs. Let�s add toasted sausage to our dinner tonight to celebrate.�

This residence in the town was different from all the houses which he had lived in before. Took this cooking range for example. Unlike the open hearth in every household in Longsong Stronghold, which was generally located in the center of a living room, the kitchen stove here was set in a separate room. The back of the stove was connected to a flue, and the other sides surrounding the stove were covered. A movable baffle was arranged on the fume exit. When they were not using the stove, they could push it to block the exit in case that cooking fume from downstairs came out of it.

Ferlin could easily think of the advantage of this design. Once the kitchen door was closed, the cooking fume and smell would not come into the living room and in summer, the temperature in the house would not be influenced by the heat out of the kitchen.

He put some firewood and sawdust into the hearth and then lit the fire to cook for dinner.

After dinner, Irene engrossed in the scripts again. When she finally put down the third book and heaved a long sigh, the candle was almost burnt out.

�How�s it?� Ferlin was bursting with curiosity, seeing her read the scripts for such a long time. He remembered she had been able to read 10 books like that in half a day back in the theater.

�It�s� hard to describe. Every story is different from the usual ones. I�ve never read anything like this! In �Cinderella�, the prince fell in love with a beautiful civilian girl instead of a princess� which isn�t a rare thing, but he even insisted on marrying her. I�m wondering why His Highness didn�t feel unhappy reading such an absurd story. Despite that, it�s really a heart-thrilling story. I can�t help but applause for the prince and Cinderella when I read the part where he found her again and put the crystal shoe on her feet,� Irene exclaimed.

�Another story �The Crowing Cock in Midnight� has simpler plot compared with �Cinderella�, but it�s very interesting, too. I think two to three scenes will be enough to tell the story clearly on stage. The part describing the serfs finally plucking up their courage to fight against the nobleman is well-written. The serfs were resigned to everything in the beginning and then they were driven beyond endurance. By creating a long foreshadowing, the author added dramatic tension to the ending and fully expressed their emotions. I felt really great reading it when the serfs decided to fight back!�

�Serfs fight against a nobleman?� Ferlin knitted his eyebrow. [Nobles will never tolerate such a thing. If the serfs in the Eltek�s manor dare to fight against their lord with hoes and shovels, my father will cut their heads and put them at the manor gate the very next day.] �Is His Highness really going to let you play such a story on stage?�

�You haven�t read them yet.� Irene rolled her eyes at him. �You�ll feel the same thing as I do after reading them. The serfs had to fight. The lesser nobleman had gone too far. They were so cruelly oppressed by him, but all they did in the end was wrapping him in a bag and beating him up. I think they were very restrained. After that, the nobleman wanted to put all the serfs to death, but a witch happened to pass by and stopped the noble by transforming herself into a well-known great noble in that place. Later, she even went to the Lord�s castle to humble herself for the sake of the serfs. After a thorough discussion, the lord made a wise and merciful decision. He bought all the serfs and made them free civilians! I bet the audience will hail seeing this.�

[But nobles will definitely protest and press the theater. In the end, this troupe will be dismissed,] Ferlin thought with disapproval but another idea suddenly stuck him. [Wait, there�s no other noble besides His Highness and Viscount Tigui in Border Town and the prince is the one who builds this theatre. Does it mean that he really just intends to play the stories for the common people? How much will he earn by doing this? If he really pays the troupe as Stronghold Theater did, he�ll inevitably lose money on this investment. Does he just do this to amuse himself?]

Irene, however, did not notice the look on his face at all and continued to say, �But my dear, wonderful as the two stories are, they can�t compete with the third one, �The Witch Diaries�. I wager that theaters in big cities like Redwater City or even the king�s city will set up a troupe to rehearse and put up ads to ballyhoo the play once they read the script! I have to say, Scroll was a genius playwright. �The Witch�s Dairy� is way better than any play nowadays in terms of the story and narration skill.�

�Are you sure?� Ferlin found it quite funny when Irene talked about those scripts so seriously and asked, �Do you think it�s even better than Mr. Kajen Fels� widely recognized works, �For Rose� and �A Prince Searching for Love�? They don�t only hit in the king�s city, but also attract troupes from the other kingdoms to watch and learn. I could hear Mr. Griffith�s name all the time even in the stronghold.�

�Yes, trust me, dear,� Irene told him the plots of the three stories roughly. �Despite the content, the narration style alone is creative enough. Plays before are written from a third-person view but this one is from the perspectives of the three witches. What they did affected each other�s lives, but they didn�t know it at all. In the middle part of the story, details that seemed irrelevant in the previous plots turned out to be coherent, and the witches became close friends. I must say this method of using multiple story lines to motivate the development of the plot will definitely make a stir, but not in Border Town. I doubt that the audience here will be able to see this point.� In great excitement, she got paper and quill, ready to write letters. �I have to invite all my friends in the theater over as soon as possible. I can�t wait to see the surprised look on their faces!�

�Wait, Irene, don�t you think� these stories are too irrational?� Ferlin came up to hold her hand.

Hearing what his wife had said, he also found the stories very interesting and all characters, good or evil, well-written, but he just did not feel right hearing the parts about the witches. They were completely contrary to what the church preached and in the meantime, amazingly detailed. The third witch in the story, who was lucky to be brought up in a loving family and to release her power at her will, found out in the end that Demonic Torture was nothing but a lie and that witches were not different from the common people except for their ability to use magic power. In the story, the witches had feelings and would also be overcome with sadness when their loved ones died. Ferlin believed that once the church got this news and came to the town, His Highness Roland would be in real trouble. [Is His Highness really not afraid of the church?]

�Irrational! No� Ferlin, before they became witches, they were ordinary girls, too.�

�Yes, that�s true.�

�What about me? If I turn out to be a witch, will you think that I�m evil?� Irene stared at him and asked.

�No, of course not. You�re always the kindhearted girl I know,� Ferlin said hurriedly.

�So what if we have a daughter who turns out to be a witch?�

�That�s impossible�� He suddenly closed his mouth and got what Irene meant. Judging a witch who he had never met was very different from judging his own relatives whom he got along with morning and night. How could he easily call them evil?

�Yes, if we really have a witch daughter�� Irene nodded with satisfaction.

�I�ll love her and protect her like the father of the third witch in the story.� The knight got down on one knee, acting as if he was taking an oath of allegiance.

�That�s the answer I want.� Irene put down her quill and smiled slightly. �I think� we can try it now.�

�Yes, my dear,� Ferlin whispered in her ear and then scooped her up, walking to the bedroom.

After Ashes left two days later, Maggie unexpectedly returned to Border Town and appeared again in front of everyone.

After she had been asked about the reasons for coming back, they welcomed her warmly and there was a new member in the Witch Union.

What made her feel greatly moved was the welcome banquet, which was held in the backyard garden of the castle. In this banquet, there was a long, iron shelf, covered with all kinds of meats that could be casually taken to barbecue. Spices were also very abundant; there were salt, oil, pepper, chili, and barbecue sauce which was made by Roland�boiled forest-produced mushrooms and chicken together with the soup, then salt, sugar, and wheat flour were added, which could be used instead of MSG. Maggie did not stop until her stomach was full.

In the afternoon, Roland tested her ability.

According to Nightingale�s judgement, her total amount of magic power was at a moderate level among the witches. Her ability could be shown as she could change into a variety of birds�on the condition that she had seen that kind of bird before. The consumption of magic power was quite large when she was changing. She could continue to change 4-5 times in one day, and when she maintained the deformation, the consumption of magic power was very little. So, her ability belonged to the summoning type�it could be influenced by the God�s Stone of Retaliation. Her favorite birds were pigeons, but Roland noticed that no matter what kind of birds she changed into, the shape of her deformation was too large. For example, when she changed into a sparrow, in his view, the shape was as large as an ordinary pigeon, and if she transformed into a real pigeon, the shape would be as large as a sea eagle.

Maggie could not change into a Flying Beast like those in his fantasy�a Phoenix, a Griffin, or a Kunpeng, such as what Roland painted�which made him feel sorry.

In addition, Ashes� plan was still worthy of his concern, that was, for the witches who were called up by Tilly, what kind of ability did they have? He would not mind using technology to exchange the assistant witches if they could dramatically improve farming efficiency.

For these reasons, Roland decided to write a long letter to Tilly. First, he showed the natural relationship of allies on both sides, and then warned her that the church�s intention was to unify the mainland, and finally handed out an olive branch to show the will of mutual cooperation and common progress. Next month, when Maggie went to the Fjords, he would ask her to take this letter incidentally.

The next day, the prince got another piece of good news.

The plant used to produce the steam engine was finally built. The plant was located on the other side of Redwater River, leaning to the west, and it was next to the Leaf experimental field. The whole site had been surrounded by a wooden fence, and they also paved a simple road leading to the pontoon. In Roland�s plan, this place would be the industrial park in the town afterward.

In order to expand the building space as much as possible, the plant was built of light wood, and covered an area of about 1,000 square meters. The machine tools, which were manufactured by Anna, had been transported in. They were two steam boring machines, two manual milling machines, a manual grinding machine, and a manual lathe. Although these machine tools were simple in principle, their workmanship was first class�except for the base or pedals that were made from wood, the other parts were cut from the wrought iron or rolled steel. It was true that under the existing level of materials, the products were of the highest quality.

At present, there were just about 10 workers in the factory, and they were originally blacksmiths and apprentices in the town. They were now recruited by Roland�s 50 silver royals to learn how to operate high-end machine tools. And their blacksmith tools and shop were also moved to a brick house outside of the plant. Except for creating some unimportant parts, the production of the steam engine would be completely finished.

Roland held a ribbon-cutting ceremony at the door of the factory. In order to strengthen the momentum, he called up the officials of the City Hall, and they delivered brief speeches. In the Echo�s simulative of the gun salute, the Kingdom of Graycastle Industrial Company officially announced its establishment.

Over the next few days when he was free, Roland, as the head of the company, would go to the plant to demonstrate the operation of the machines as well as the manufacturing process of the steam engine. The best method he could think of to make the illiterate blacksmith grasp how to process and assemble a steam engine was to make a map. In this map, he showed the process by pictures, similar to the instructions for the assembly of models. It showed the names of parts, numbers, and their size one by one before illustrating the order in which they were installed and the methods of connection with pictures. Soraya helped him a lot in this matter.

As he had expected, in the initial days of production, almost no parts met the requirements, let alone a completely assembled steam engine. However, Roland did not care about the rate of rejections. In Anna�s hands, these defective products could be recast into a new plate in the blink of an eye. He believed that after repeated practice, these blacksmiths would master the production methods of the modern era sooner or later.

Apart from the industrial plant, Prince Roland transformed the North Slope Mine area and the backyard into an army factory, mainly for the production of revolving rifles and bullets. After �Furnace Expert� Lesya arrived at Border Town, who Karl had recommended, the temperature of the airbag had been greatly improved. They could fire cement flour independently, and the firing room had no need for existence.

But limited by the technology, the production of revolving firearms and bullets was still completed by Anna. Roland was designing a steam punch for punching bullets, although the efficiency was less than Anna�s cutting molding, at least it could reduce her burden.

In order to thank Anna for the nearly half a month of busy work, he decided to present her a gift.

*******************

�A gift?� Anna asked, and then put down the cutting parts in her hand, stroked her hair and slid it to her forehead, showing a bright smile. �That�s good.�

�Don�t you ask what kind of gift?� Roland teased her.

�Well�� She thought for a moment and replied, �I�ll like whatever you give me.�

After half a year of recuperating, Anna was not the girl that he first met in the dungeon. That thin and weak girl now became a slim beauty. Her blue eyes full of expression, she looked neat and pretty in a plain dress, and her whole body was filled with the vitality of youth.

This was how an 18-year-old girl should look.

Roland was pleased when he saw her smiling face.

The �gift� was placed in the courtyard of the castle, and in order to give Anna a surprise, it was also covered by a layer of linen�when he was making Envoy Ashes, he had this idea in his mind. Since he was the prince, the gift must be special, for something like jewelry was not sincere. He thought for a long time to come up with this idea.

Roland opened the linen, and a rattan basket appeared in front of them. The top of the basket was connected to a lot of hemp rope, and at the other end of the hemp rope was a huge canvas.

�What, what�s this?� as Anna came forward and walked around it, she asked curiously.

�A hot air balloon,� he replied with a smile, �It can take you up to the sky, like a bird overlooking the earth.�

�Flying in the sky?� She turned around, her eyes sparkling with excitement. �Really?�

Soaring in the sky was the dream of mankind since ancient times. From gliding wings to hot air balloons, from airships to airplanes, people had made huge sacrifices in the exploration and challenge of flying in the sky, but people had never given up this kind of pursuit. There were witches in this world, but flying was still the right of few people. To see the scenery through the high-altitude perspective would certainly leave a deep impression on her.

�Of course, just fully fill the airbag with hot air.�

Roland let Nightingale ask Lightning and Maggie to be first-aiders. If there was an accident, Lightning and Maggie, who could change into a large sea eagle, would protect them to land safely. As for the other witches, he decided to not tell them, especially Wendy and Scroll, as they would certainly oppose any of his adventures�they would not allow anything dangerous happen to him.

The manufacturing principle of hot air balloon was simple. There were only obstacles they needed to overcome: the combustion equipment and airbag.

The first difficulty was the hot air balloon must depend on firewood or charcoal to heat the air without the pressure vessel providing the gas. Never mind the low efficiency, the balloon would not be able to fly long distances. That was also why people still choose to use hydrogen balloons in actual combat when they had already discovered the manufacturing principle of hot air balloon. Roland gave up on producing the combustion equipment and relied on Anna to do the heating work.

The second difficulty was the airtightness of the airbag. But this was easy to solve for Roland who had learned from the predecessors� experience. He used three layers of cloth to make the airbag, with a durable canvas as the outermost layer, bovine skin as the middle layer, and thin gauze as the inner layer. When the layers were stitched together, they not only sealed the air in, but acted as defense against birds� pecking.

Roland stretched the bottom of the airbag so Anna could spew out Blackfire towards the inside. Blackfire�s temperature was almost like the common fire, making the airbag expand, which looked like white gourds with wrinkled skin. Considering the hot air balloon needed to carry him and Anna, so the widest diameter was five meters. It took almost one week to stitch 12 bovine skins up. Roland could not afford such a big toy if he were not the lord of this town.

�So does the hot air balloon use the lift from the buoyancy of the hot air?� Anna asked. �I remember the book once mentioned that hot air is always rising.�

�Yes, it�s a common natural phenomenon that hot air rises and cooler air falls. To explain it from the perspective of the particle theory, the hot air particles move faster and strengthens the diffusion process. The air volume becomes larger and the density lower. The air becomes lighter compared to the air nearby and rises.�

After his explanation, the other three looked very confused, except Anna. He could not help lamenting how important talent was.

When the airbag was bulging and rising, the drag rope was gradually pulled straight. Roland was the first to jump into the basket. He then helped Anna who was climbing in.

�I�m still a little worried,� Nightingale said anxiously, �Why don�t you let me try first?�

�Trust me. It�ll be fine.� Roland laughed. �Besides, Lightning�s here if anything happens.�

�I�ll take care of them. Don�t worry,� said Lightning, patting her chest.

�And me too, coo!� Taking her cue from Lightning, Maggie also patted her chest.

The hot air balloon held the basket and slowly lifted off the ground with a shake. They soon flew over the top of the castle, the full view of the town spreading ahead of them.

For Roland who had seen highrise buildings, the scenery was not particularly extraordinary to him. But it was a totally new experience for Anna. She leaned over the basket, with one hand around Roland�s arm, and stuck her head out. She looked around, a little breathless and excited.

Roland first saw Anna like this. It was natural to have slight acrophobia for someone who had never flown in the sky.

The drag rope beneath the basket was soon stretched tight, stopping the rise of the balloon. The rope was 50 meters long, about 15 or 16 story-high from where Roland came from. He told Anna to slow down so the hot air balloon finally became still in the air.

After seeing the nacelle finally stop rising, Lightning was relieved and started playing the tag game with Maggie around the hot air balloon.

From above, they could see clearly everything below, from the roof of the castle, to the town under construction, to Redwater River flowing from the west to the east, and to the picturesque farmlands by the river.

�How do you feel?�

Roland raised the question with a smile after he waited for Anna to withdraw her head from outside the basket.

Anna was very excited. �Thank you for your gift. So I can also fly this high.�

�You can fly even higher.� Roland sat next to the wall of the basket. �If the rope is long enough, it�s no problem to go 10 times higher. But the air flow gets more complicated the higher we go and we can�t ensure our safety. Besides, this balloon is just a prototype. When we make the piston engine later, even commoners can fly higher and faster than the birds. In the future�� He turned towards to the blue sky and continued, �� People can even fly to the infinite outer space.�

��� Anna held her breath. There was a glow and an exaltation in her eyes.

Roland was amused by this. �I can�t promise that we can fly to the outer space, but when we make the piston engine, I think I can promise that commoners can fly like birds in my time.� With Anna�s help, the process capability was not a problem to him. What he needed to focus on was the materials. He could use poor quality pig iron for the steam engine and wrought iron for the cannon. It was not a big deal to use Blackfire make steel revolving firearm. But he might need high quality cast iron, steel, and aluminum to make the internal combustion engine. �It�s all because of you that Border Town can be so prosperous today, Miss Anna.�

Anna was stunned to hear his words. After a while, she leaned closer to him and whispered, �My mother died in a fire, but I became a witch instead of burning to death. For a long time, I thought it was my awakening that caused the fire and I hated myself for being a witch. When I was in prison, I thought I could get a closure if I die, but you saved me and taught me how to use my power� I�ve never thought that my fire can be so helpful apart from burning things and causing misery.� After a pause, Anna continued, �I should be very grateful to meet you, but I realized my mind has changed. Sometimes I even feel depressed about it. I want more.�

She leaned on Roland�s shoulder. �Even if I�m that way, will you still use me?�

Her blue eyes were shining and her breath on Roland�s face itched. He could feel the softness of her body and her rapid heartbeat through her thin clothes. Even so, Anna did not avoid his gaze. She was passionate and forward whenever Nightingale was not around.

�Lighting and Maggie are��

Before Roland could finish, Anna kissed him, preventing him from talking anything.

Roland gasped lightly for air after their lips parted. �Miss Anna, I want to use you. Always.�

�Hmm.�

This time, it was Roland who took the initiative to kiss her, holding her.

�

�Eh? Hang on.� Maggie stopped mid-air after playing with Lightning for a while, staring at the empty basket. �They�re gone, coo!�

�Ah?� Lightning tilted her head and took a look. �Don�t worry, they�re just sitting down. That�s why you can�t see them.�

�But don�t they want to see the scenery outside?�

�They can see the scenery any time, but opportunities like this are rare.�

�Opportunity?� Maggie quivered her wings and perched on Lightning�s shoulder. �I don�t really understand. Should we go check on them, coo?�

�No.� Lightning held Maggie in her arms. �This is a holy ceremony that can�t be interrupted.�

�Coo?�

�You�ll understand in the future. Times like these, you just have to pretend you didn�t see anything. That�s what the greatest explorer in the world, my dear father, told me.� Lightning threw Maggie out and held her waist with one hand. �Now run. It�s my turn to chase after you.�

After suspending in the air for an hour, the hot air balloon landed in the courtyard of the castle slowly.

The hot air balloon drew all the witches� attention after landing. At first Nightingale was the only one to stand there and wait for them, now almost all Witch Union�s members stayed here. Even Scroll who worked at the City Hall came to see what happened. She looked at the sky with worries after knowing the truth, fearing that the big hot air balloon would fall from the sky,

Scroll and Wendy approached Roland as soon as he climbed out of the basket, warning him not to risk his life. After placating them for a bit, the prince wisely changed the subject to the hot air balloon. This amused Nightingale and she was about to step forward to greet him when she suddenly froze, rooted to the spot.

She saw Roland carrying Anna out of the basket. Her blue eyes were smiling and there was a faint blush on her cheeks. A little shining hairpin was in her hair, neatly pinning her fringe to the side.

Nightingale remembered that it was the silver ingot Roland had grounded several days ago when he was instructing the blacksmiths to operate those big machines.

So, the hairpin was made by Roland himself?

The other witches were clamoring to take a ride on the hot air balloon. Very soon, the airbag expanded again. The passengers were Anna and Nana this time.

Nightingale stood away from the crowd, watching the hot air balloon became smaller and smaller in shock.

Her entire mind was filled with Anna�s sweet smile.

Anna was usually calm and indifferent. This kind of expression was rarely seen on her face. Nightingale was very familiar with the expression when she was traveling with the Witch Cooperation Association. She knew what it meant. Roland was obviously not just enjoying the beautiful scenery with Anna in the hot air balloon. With Lighting and Maggie around, they would not go that far, but it was hard to suppress the idea once it occurred to her. She felt like there was a hole inside her heart.

Although she had made up her mind to be okay with that, still Nightingale found it was easier said than done.

Seeing everyone was so happy and the place was so rowdy, her mind went totally blank. She just found a corner and sat against the wall.

The hot air balloon descended again. It was Leaf who seized the chance and got in the basket when Nana left.

Roland had already gone when Nightingale came to herself. �He must�ve gone back to his work after he finished listening Scroll�s remonstrance,� Nightingale thought. She was supposed to follow him just like she always did. But when she stood up, she felt it was hard for her to step forward. For she really did not know how to face Roland now, even though he could not see her after her entering the Mist. But Nightingale knew clearly that she would feel worse seeing how happy he was.

The hot air balloon ascended and descended many times. After everyone got tired of it, Wendy went to Nightingale. �Why are you staying here? Don�t you want to ride the balloon? It�s amazing to fly in the sky and look at the town.�

If there was anyone harder for her to face than Roland, it was Anna. Nightingale hastily stood up. �No, I can�t. I need to return to the office now,� she said, walked into the Mist. Before she could walk longer, she thought it was strange for her to use her ability in the courtyard. When she turned around, she saw Wendy in her original spot, looking confused. Nightingale gritted her teeth and quickly walked away.

�

Nightingale went back to her bedroom after dinner, sprawling on the bed.

She did not show herself in the office the whole day. When Roland tentatively called her name, she just patted him on his back to indicate her presence. She did not show herself even when Roland took out her favorite salted dried fish from his mahogany desk.

�What�s wrong? Are you all right? I saw you sit alone when all of us are so excited about taking the hot air balloon.� Wendy walked into the bedroom, closing the door.

�Nothing.� Nightingale turned over.

�I don�t believe you. There must be something on your mind.� Wendy sat by her bed and pulled her up, staring at her for a while. �I thought you�re willing to share all your burdens with me.�

Closing her eyes, Nightingale was silent for a long time. �It�s Anna.�

�Anna?�

Nightingale did not want to talk about these things because it made her feel like a narrow-minded person. Anna was, after all, the first witch Roland met, not her. But if she did not say anything, she felt like a rock was weighing on her. What was worse, Wendy had helped her a lot when they were in the Witch Cooperation Association. Whenever Nightingale was confused, the first person she thought of was always Wendy and she had never failed her. Considering this, Nightingale held Wendy�s hands and told her everything.

Wendy sighed after hearing her explanation. �Anna doesn�t understand the severity of the situation, but why don�t you? I�ve once warned you that Roland Wimbledon can�t be with a witch. He�ll be a king and needs heirs to inherit his kingdom. From this perspective alone, he won�t choose to marry a witch.�

�He will.�

�What?� Wendy was shocked.

�His Highness Roland will marry a witch.� Nightingale opened her eyes, every word spoken slowly. �He said so himself.�

In the first place, Nightingale wanted to keep this in her heart, but she could no longer stand the feeling of not being understood.

Wendy seemed frightened by what she heard. After a long silence, she asked with a scowl, �Are you sure?�

�It�s true.� Nightingale repeated what Scroll asked that night. �When Scroll asked if he would marry a witch, he answered yes, why not. You know my ability that I can tell if a person�s lying. I know he meant what he said.�

Wendy grabbed Nightingale by the arms. �Remember, you mustn�t tell anyone about this, not even the sisters of Witch Cooperation Association.�

�Wh-why?�

�Roland is destined to become the King of the Kingdom of Graycastle. What would it mean if he can�t have heirs? Even without the church�s opposition, the local nobles wouldn�t support such a king. You must keep this a secret and never, ever tell anyone about it! The only thing you need to do is keep him safe. Don�t forget the fates of all our sisters go hand in hand with whether Roland can be king.�

Nightingale nodded.

After pondering for a moment, Wendy said, �As for the thing that troubles you, do you want to be his queen, or just stay with His Highness all the way?�

�Of course I want to stay by his side,� Nightingale replied without hesitation.

�Aren�t you already by his side now?� Wendy chuckled. �There can only be one queen, but when he ascends the throne, he�ll still need your protection. Do you know what I mean?�

Nightingale blinked. She did not reply.

�So it�s not hard to be together, but it�s hard to accept your own choice.� Wendy opened her hand, saying. �If you can�t accept that, you must step back or step further, to be his queen or� As for this question, only you know the answer.�

�

The next morning, Roland walked into the office, yawning. When he opened his drawer, the salted dried fish was gone.

The secret chamber of the Hermes Cathedral.

The pope�s chair was still empty.

Three archbishops sat in a line. As usual, Mayne started the conversation. �I�ve heard that some conflicts are bursting out in the Kingdom of Everwinter.�

�The Judgement Army garrisoned there is dealing with it. Coburn, the High Priest is the commander,� Tayfun answered.

�What exactly is happening?�

�It�s all because of the dregs that were introduced into the church.� Heather whistled. �After the queen was beheaded, the nobles joined the church in swarms and took high occupations in church. It was all caused by your plan to compromise, Lord Mayne. The city guards turned a blind eye when the nobles sacked the city in the name of arresting the witches, resulting in provoking the people to rebel.�

�It wasn�t my plan, Lord Heather,� he said unhappily, �It was the will of the Supreme Pontiff. This way, we�ll be able to take over the entire kingdom in the shortest possible time, rather than waste time contesting with the nobles. Which, I must say, have generated a number of capable people who can offer us great help. As for the borers who have no right to succeed, the lineage will be sifted out in one generation.�

�Well, since you bring up the name of the Supreme Pontiff, I�ll argue no more.� Heather shrugged. �But please let me deal with those defaulters who have discredited our reputation.�

Mayne turned to look at Archbishop Tayfun who pondered and said, �I suggest that instead of punishing them now, it�s better to detain the defaulters after we quell the unrest. The nobles have just joined the church. If we punish them now, it�ll create panic among the nobles.�

�No!� Heather shouted, banging her fist on the table, �The rule is the rule, and it can�t be violated. Any plunder that was acted on in the name of the church will never be spared. I�m the one in charge of law and arbitration!�

�We should be greater than ourselves at this time�� Tayfun said.

�That�s what I mean.� Heather interrupted. �Don�t forget how we built up the reputation of justice in the Kingdom of Everwinter. If we don�t punish those scum severely now, we�ll lose the people of Everwinter. The foundation of the church is the people, not the nobles. If you disagree with me, I�ll ask for instruction from the Supreme Pontiff!�

The Pope did not have time for this kind of affair. They were not built on the support of people, but on how great the power they had. Mayne sighed, reaching out his hand to signal Tayfun to calm down. �How about letting High Priest Coburn take them back to the new Holy City for trial?�

�No need for that. I�ll take care of it myself,� Heather said, �I�ve finished my work here already, and I�ll be back in two or three months. As for the location of the trial, of course, the more attendees the better. I think the ice and snow stage of the king�s city in the Kingdom of Everwinter would be a good place.�

�You sure?� Mayne frowned. �Now that we have no extra commander to escort you, it would be perilous if you were to run into an Extraordinary on the road.�

�We could meet an Extraordinary anywhere,� Heather said disapprovingly, �A team of Judgement Army soldiers will be enough for me.�

�If you insist.� Mayne wanted to drop the topic. �I�ve got bad news. Something unexpected happened in the battle to attack Broken Tooth Castle in the Kingdom of Wolfheart. We lost more than 20 men from God�s Punishment Army and over 100 members of the Judgement Army. What�s worse, we haven�t taken the castle yet.�

�More than 20 men of God�s Punishment Army?� Tayfun said, staring at Mayne, �Who was the conductor?�

�It was Bell, and she�s dead.�

�The conductor is dead? It looks like they�ve met something quite strong,� Heather said with interest, �Lord O�Brian should be very annoyed at losing so many men in one single battle.�

�We can�t blame him. Broken Tooth Castle has taken advantage of its unique topography. They built the gate between the hills with a height of around 10 meters. They destroyed the wooden bridge in front of the gate in advance and had the aid of an alchemist who invented some unique things for them,� Mayne explained, �It�s reported that as soon as the army climbed up the ladder placed against the outer wall, they were stricken by weird flames. White solids were shooting out from pipes in the gate before they smoked and caught fire. The flame was able to adhere to the human body. The unquenchable flame would keep burning until the carriers turned into ash. Currently, they�re connecting the believers in the city to see if they could work in collusion.�

�I�m sure that the believers in the city must have been slaughtered.� Heather curled his lip. �We should send more men to consume the fire if we want to breach the wall. That�s the right thing to do. I never knew that an alchemist could prepare their items on a large scale. The more men we send to consume the fire the less stock they�ll have.�

�Those men you said are the God�s Punishment Army!� Tayfun shouted angrily, his beard jerking, �Do you have any idea about how difficult it�s to incarnate a member of God�s Punishment Army? And by now the number of them hasn�t reached 1,000 yet. What do we have to resist Months of Demons if we lose over half of the army in unifying the continent.� �Not to mention the demons following after that.�

�Stop fighting,� Mayne said, �I didn�t mean to tell you the news so that you could argue the means of attack. We have to admit that the church demands more God�s Punishment Army soldiers at present. Since the church has taken the Kingdom of Everwinter, something that used to be carried out in the dark can now be performed in the right and proper way. There used to be two deliveries of �seeds� every year. Now I�m requesting for one more delivery. As the duration of spring becomes irregular because of the Months of Demons, the delivery of �seeds� to Holy City has to start in summer. We must secure the delivery every season. Accordingly, the incarnation ceremonies will increase to three times a year. Lord Tayfun, you�ll be responsible for this.�

�But there aren�t that many orphans and babies,� the elder archbishop said, touching his beard, �Not all people will abandon their children to the church.�

�You have to figure out a way to gain more children. The church has had its roots in the Kingdom of Everwinter for the longest time and has developed the largest number of believers. If we can�t even get enough manpower in this land, what better situation do we expect in the other three kingdoms? Never forget, the Judgement Army and God�s Punishment Army are the only things we have to quell the resistance while we�re on the way to unifying the continent.�

�I think we have the people we want.� Heather raised her lips. �There�re as many children who wander on the street as there�re wild cats and dogs. Moreover, I heard that there�re Black Street Rats who recruit the children and train them as pickpockets, smugglers, or scapegoats. The nobles may offer the Rats shelter before they�re erased. Thanks to Lord Mayne who has brought the nobles into the church, no one will shelter these Rats now. If we send the Judgement Army out to crush the underground gangs once and for all, I�m sure that you�ll get a lot of children. Meanwhile, eliminating the dregs will build up a good impression in people�s mind as well as intimidate the nobles. It�s a good move that�ll kill three birds with one stone, don�t you think so?�

Mayne thought it was a good idea as well. No matter how extreme Heather could be, she was always the first one to come up with solutions to problems, except for some words that needed to be ignored deliberately. �Do as Lord Heather suggests. In any case, we must take the whole Kingdom of Wolfheart before autumn. After that, apart from the garrisoned Judgement Army that�s necessary to preserve order in the kingdom, the army must be recalled to Hermes in order to defend during the Months of Demons. The enemy will be stronger next time.�

Tayfun looked unwilling yet nodded at last. �Just don�t blame me when the nobles whose interests have been harmed start to protest against us. Also, since the Kingdom of Dawn has noticed what happened in the neighboring country, the churches in many cities have been targeted. The churches in some areas have even been robbed and burned. I suggest organizing the believers to evacuate so that they don�t waste their lives in these conflicts.�

�No, they have to protest to the end.� Mayne denied. �The more believers are sacrificed, the more justification we�ll have to retaliate later. This isn�t a waste, but a spark of fire. If we retreat our people from the kingdoms where we don�t have many believers and our root isn�t deep enough, the church there will become weaker.�

�All right, I�m just pointing it out.� Tayfun shrugged. �The last one is the Kingdom of Graycastle. Hmm, read it yourselves.� He pulled out a scroll and tossed it to Mayne.

Mayne opened and scanned the scroll. It was actually a letter from Garcia Wimbledon, Queen of Clearwater. He frowned.

�She hung Priest Decca?�

�And fed the believers to the fishes,� Tayfun added, �The church has been torn down to the ground as well. I suppose she found out the side effect of the pills.�

Heather smacked her hand. �How long have I said that even if someone kept replenishing the pills, the pesticide effect would decline until the takers became feeble and died. It seems a good weapon to destroy the enemy, but as soon as the effect emerges, the enemy will understand what the church is planning. What�s worse is that I�ve heard from previous reports that her own men didn�t take too many pills. On the contrary, most pills were fed to barbarians in the Southern Territory.�

�Less than 1,000 of her men have taken the pills. She blames us for her loss.� Mayne put down the letter. �How ridiculous! How could she become the Queen of Port of Clearwater without the support of the church? Where�s Timothy Wimbledon? Why didn�t he march on the Southern Territory when he received our pills?�

�Currently, he�s engaged in plundering the Northern Region. The reason he gave us was that he has to stop the rebellion in the Northern Region in case his defense become unstable. I suppose he means to take the lands of the dukes in the north before coming to the final battle with Garcia,� Tayfun answered, �I�m not sure if the new king will march directly to the Western Region when he takes the Northern Region.�

�Ha ha ha� � Heather said, laughing, �It�s unlikely for a pawn to do as exactly as he was commanded. Provided that he keeps the final purpose the same with ours, we just let him act in his own way, which means as long as they keep losing men in war, we don�t care wherever his army marches to. Anyway, since Graycastle is the last kingdom to attack in our plan, there�s time for them to fight each other. Didn�t Roland Wimbledon refuse our pills last time? This time we could let Timothy put more pressure on the Western Region and then maybe he�ll accept our pills.�

Still, Mayne was displeased that the Queen of Clearwater had turned against him openly. After all, he personally selected this pawn. If Timothy chose to station his troops and stand facing Garcia instead of marching on her after he took Graycastle, the Royal Decree on the Selection of the Crown Prince wouldn�t have its intended effect. It seemed that he needed to take other actions.

�We won�t hastily make a decision about the affairs of the Western Region until we received words from our messengers,� Mayne said, �That�ll do for today. Please make sure everything goes as planned. I have other business in Hermes� underground castle.�

�Oh, yes,� Heather said, as if something suddenly occurred to her, �Is today the day of the incarnation? How many people have applied to participate in the incarnation ceremony?�

�It�s confidential.� Mayne stood up and headed out of the secret chamber without looking back.

�

After walking on a long, hanging stairway down to the bottom of the cave, Archbishop Mayne, crossed the white stones, which were as sleek as mirrors, heading to the depths of the underground castle.

Unlike its usual tranquility, the office seemed quite busy today. A group of men of the Judgement Army who had passed the examination were waiting outside the office. Since most of them were here for the first time, they all looked around curiously. As soon as they saw Mayne, everyone thrust out their chests and gave the clenched-fist salute. �Lord Archbishop!�

He smiled and nodded back. The Judgement Army was made of the elite warriors of the church, who were very loyal to God and were willing to sacrifice. Despite the fact that the incarnation of God�s Punishment Army did not always succeed was known by them before they submitted their applications, they were still willing to devote their lives to this great honor.

As the warriors watched him reverently, he passed the third hurdle and arrived at the Pivotal Secret Area, where the pope�s guards were waiting. They bowed to him before pushing open the big metal door behind them.

Mayne followed the guards into the chamber. From here, the heart of Hermes� underground castle started, and every research and discovery of the church was carried out here.

With no torch lit in the Pivotal Secret Area, suddenly he could not see anything but the darkness. After slightly adapting to it, he noticed a narrow corridor before him. The wall and roof of the corridor were forged with iron, and both sides of the wall were adorned with fluorescent stones�this unique stone belonged to the family of God�s Stone of Retaliation and could fluoresce green after it was stained with the blood of demonic beasts.

A cage was laid at the end of the corridor. As they entered the cage, the guards pulled down the gear. The chain above them let out a crunching noise, which sounded particularly harsh in the quiet corridor. Accompanied by the sound, the cage descended slowly into a hole in the ground. Suddenly, Mayne saw the light.

An underground space that was exceedingly spacious came into his sight.

No matter how many times he had seen this startling scene, he always felt a sense of smallness.

Logically, a cave buried deep in the underground should be pitch black. But that was not the case here, for the whole cave was lit by the gleam of God�s Stone of Retaliation. The huge God�s Stone of Retaliation looked like numerous prisms that rose from the ground, forming clusters of crystal flowers. Even the smallest prism was as thick as a human trunk, and the large one was so thick that it needed more than 10 people to get their arms around it. The heights of those prisms were uneven. The highest one could touch the roof and be even higher than the tower of heaven in the Hermes Cathedral.

The colors of stones were various. The densest cluster of God�s Stone of Retaliation revealed a color of lavender. Other clusters near it had their colors varied from dark blue to light green. The smaller ones were white, and the young prisms that just cropped up from the ground were almost transparent. The purple God�s Stone of Retaliation shone most conspicuously, especially the one higher than the tower of heaven. With a brightness close to that of the full moon, this unique stone contributed most of the light, so that even without the torch in the cave, people could faintly see the ground.

Being affected by the God�s Stone of Retaliation of such density, the magic power was unable to work in the inner region of the hillside. And the stones that the church sold were also mined from here.

The space of the cave was large enough to accommodate five or six Hermes Cathedrals, and they had indeed built a structure that was exactly the same as the Cathedral, which was named the Pivotal Secret Temple. Yet it looked much older than the church that stood on the top of the hill. Mayne, who was now in the cage that was in the air descending, could see the black, iron gate on the wall of the cave behind the temple, which led to the foot of Mount Hermes, connecting with the old Holy City. In a sense, the old building was the true body of the Hermes� underground castle, and long before the establishment of the new Holy City, it had put down roots here.

It took almost eight minutes for the cage to land. Mayne stepped out and groomed himself before following the messengers to the temple.

The incarnation ceremony would be held in the hall on the first floor.

After entering the hall, the archbishop felt the light had returned to the world around him�it was no longer blue-purple, but orange, shining from thousands of candles. The light above them was from the three-layer, tower-type candle chandelier. Meanwhile, there were many candlesticks placed around the hall, casting an image of countless stars that were swaying. Thanks to the fire, the chill within the cave had now been driven away considerably.

The man that stood between the two incarnation altars was the Supreme Leader of the church, Pope O�Brien, who was wearing a striking red robe trimmed with gold, and a golden gem crown on his head. At that time, he was concentrating on checking the apparatuses of the incarnation to make the final preparation for the ceremony.

�Supreme Pontiff.� Mayne walked over and kneeled before O�Brien, kissing his hand.

�Rise, boy.� The pope�s voice was hoarse and slow. �There�s no one other than the guards here. No need to pay attention to the cumbersome etiquette.�

�As you wish.� Mayne stood up, and when he looked at His Holiness, he was shocked by his look. He looked much older than the last time they had met. His face was full of deep lines, and his skin looked an unhealthy white, saggy and dull. The thickly dotted speckles were particularly eye-catching. As the archbishop saw this, his eyes went wet. �You�ve� worked too hard.�

�Time has left its marks on me,� O�Brien said calmly, �and no one can resist the passage of time. There isn�t much time left for me now. I�m afraid I can�t see the day when men defeat demons, nor do I have to bear the unknown pain. But you have to keep fighting until the day you eventually defeat the enemy or the other way around. And one more defeat will crush us once for all.�

Mayne nodded and said, �I�ll fight to the last moment.�

�Very good.� The old man smiled. �You�ve done very well recently. You�ve added more than 1,000 men to the Judgement Army for the church, and there�re 62 applicants who�ll participate in the incarnation ceremony this time. The number of the Judgement Army has reached the highest in its history.�

�Your Holiness, could you tell me how many men of the God�s Punishment Army do we need to defeat the demons?� Mayne hesitated for a moment before he asked. �All we know about the demons are from the Holy Book, and yet the record is fragmentary. It has left out the knowledge about where they came from, their number, and how they fought. I understand that I won�t learn these secrets until I become the pope, but��

O�Brien reached out his hand to stop him going on. �You�re being impatient, boy. Be patient. It won�t be long before you take over the crown and become the next pope. By then, all of your questions can be solved by the files stored on the top of the Pivotal Secret Temple. The only answer I can give you now is the more men, the better,� He gasped for air and said, �Moreover, although you aren�t summoned here for the incarnation ceremony, since you�re here, I hope you�ll try to host the incarnation and take it as an� ahem� experience for the future. I�ll stand by.�

Mayne patted the pope�s back to ease his cough. After the pope began to breathe more easily, he lowered his head and said, �Yes, Your Holiness.�

To master how to host an incarnation ceremony of God�s Punishment Army was essential to the pope. When Mayne had taken over the ancient book of God�s Punishment from His Holiness O�Brien, it meant that he had been qualified to be the next pope.

Mayne had learned all that was written in the book thoroughly. He knew that to create a man of God�s Punishment Army they needed to sacrifice a witch, whose blood would be blended with a God�s Stone of Retaliation before being injected into the man of the Judgement Army. Despite that the process had been improved several times over centuries, the essence had not changed�the number of witches limited the total number of the men of God�s Punishment Army, and the will of the Judgement Army significantly determined the success of the incarnation.

After reading the book, he realized the reason for the church taking in so many underage girls. Before their magic powers were gathered, they looked just the same as common people. So there was no obvious sign of potential witches that could be spotted. Yet, once their magic powers began to converge, their bodies, organs, and blood would be shaped. Therefore, there was no other way to obtain more witches except by expanding the scale of breeding underage girls.

That was why he agreed with Heather�everything they had done was extremely evil, and all seniors had their hands soaked with blood because they had slaughtered more witches than any executioners. However, in order to defeat the demons and save mankind from doom, they must continue on.

Only the winner would be eligible for God�s favor.

�

Two men of the Judgment Army were lying on the incarnation altar. They were Dylan of the advance battalion and Tucker Thor of the guards of Holy City. Mayne was acquainted with them, especially the latter one, who was a chief justice.

Although they wore smiles on their faces, the archbishop could tell from the tensed muscles and the clenched fists that they were very nervous. He patted their shoulders and encouraged them. �Take it easy. I believe you can make it.�

�My lord, when the time comes, all I have to do is to endure the pain?� Dylan could not help asking.

�Yes, just get over it,� Mayne said while smiling, �Your name is Dylan, isn�t it?�

�You actually remember my name,� he said excitedly.

�Of course. You belong to the advance battalion and participated in the defense of Hermes last year. Your captain is� Alicia, if I�m not wrong?�

�Right, right,� said Dylan, nodding, �At that time, our team lost many men in a battle, and demonic hybrid beasts killed most of our brothers. I thought of how good it would be if only I had the ability to kill the deformed hybrids. That�s why, my lord, I want to be one of God�s Punishment Army.�

�It�s very nice to have the faith of being stronger for the sake of your brothers.� Mayne encouraged him before turning to the chief justice. �What about you? Tucker Thor, what has made you come to the decision to become a member of God�s Punishment Army?�

�To defend the new Holy City, my lord,� he said with determination, �Priests have said that the demonic beasts will grow stronger in the coming years. Last time, they reached the wall of Holy City, and the cathedral would have been destroyed without the help of God�s Punishment Army. I wish to be the shield against the demonic beasts and the spear to pierce enemies.�

�Very good. Both of you are the pride of the church.� In accordance with the steps told in the book, he eased their tension and fear with the conversation. When he saw their emotion soaring high, he waved his hand and motioned to continue the ceremony.

A guard went forward to blindfold their eyes and fixed their limbs firmly on the incarnation altar with bracelets. After that, a witch was carried in and laid between them.

As a witch who was raised by the church, she spent most of her life in the cloister in old Holy City. After the awakening, she would be sent to the Pivotal Secret Area where she would wait for the incarnation. A day before the sacrifice, she would be forced to drink in much Dreamland Water�a medicine made of the sleeping fern and coltsfoot to make sure that she would not be roused by any sounds during the ceremony.

�The code and the age?�

�Number one, 18,� the guard answered.

This was a routine inquiry, for only the blood of a grown witch was enough to incarnate two men at the same time. After Mayne rechecked the witch list to reach a final confirmation, he announced that the ceremony had begun.

As an exquisite silver needle was inserted into the witch�s arm, her russet blood flowed along the needle to a leather hose that was connected to the needle and to the crystal basin under her. The bottom of the basin was paved with light-blue God�s Stones of Retaliation. Over time, the blood gradually immersed the stones. Finally, it filled the basin.

Soon, the God�s Stones of Retaliation changed. Through the transparent crystal side of the basin, one could clearly saw that the blue stones were absorbing the blood. After eight minutes, the stones melted away and the turbid blood became clear. Meanwhile, the color of the liquid turned from russet to sky blue.

The seemingly simple operation had taken them tens of thousands of tests to conclude a complete and reliable procedure. It included the details such as the different ages of witches, how to estimate the blood volume of different figures, how to make the silver needle and leather hose, which part of the body was appropriate to insert to get the blood or inject the blood, how to choose the quality and quantity of the God�s Stones of Retaliation and so on� The ancient book had recorded every test failure and the improvement, as well as the general principle of incarnation.

After a witch�s body was changed by the magic power, her blood could strengthen the organs and tendons. The recipient would be killed immediately by direct injection of the blood. They had to immerse the God�s Stones of Retaliation in the blood to dissolve the �unknown power� before injecting them into the recipients. Even so, the blood was able to damage their mind so that recipient would gradually lose his feeling and intelligence until he was left with nothing but instinct and some strong will. The ones who survived the incarnation would become as strong as the Extraordinary. Moreover, they would keep the ability to tolerate the magic power even without wearing a God�s Stone of Retaliation.

Mayne had to say that it was a wonderful combination. The blood of the witch could kill people, and swallowing the God�s Stone of Retaliation would also put people to death, while combining these two things would minimize the undesirable effects.

As the blue liquid flowed through the hose slowly into the two recipients, the veins in their arms and necks protruded, and their faces became ferocious, like enduring a great pain. Dylan cried out first, struggling on the altar. His fingers were clenching and unclenching, and yet his hands and feet were fixed and unable to move, so that after a while, his body was covered by a thin sweat.

Tucker was not much better. He growled constantly, his lip stained with bloody foam, and his whole body was twitching.

As the liquid level lowered to the bottom of the basin, Dylan�s voice sounded like crying. He shouted out meaningless words randomly, his skin was dissolving, and his body was covered with white smoke. According to the description in the ancient book, his incarnation was levering on the verge of failure. When Mayne was hesitating to see whether he needed to wait a little longer to recheck, the pope held his shoulder from behind and said, �Enough, free him from the pain.�

A guard walked over and unsheathed a dagger. He neatly pierced it into Dylan�s throat while turning the hilt to end his pain.

After a tough wait, Tucker Thor�s twitching eased, his breathing smoothed out with his skin turning from red to light blue. Mayne knew that he had survived the incarnation ceremony.

One succeeded while the other failed. He sighed about the result. In no more than 30 minutes, the church had lost one loyal man of the Judgement Army as well as wasted half of the witch�s blood.

Yet, since there were 60 men waiting in line, he had to continue the ceremony.

�

When the whole ceremony was finished, Mayne barely could remain on his feet. He staggered down the stage and sat against the wall, regardless of manners.

The pope walked slowly towards him and stood before him. �To tell the truth, your performance had surprised me, my boy. The first time I hosted the ceremony, I did much worse than you. I was 45-years-old that year, and the strong smell of blood made me throw up directly on the stage, almost resulted in ruining a basin of blood. The mistake even got me whipped hard by the previous pope. After the punishment, he ordered me to get back to the stage and continue the ceremony.

� Mayne opened his mouth but did not know what to say.

�So, clear your mind and take a good day off.�

�Yes, Your Holiness.� The archbishop took a deep breath and kneeled to give a salute. When he was about to leave, he suddenly remembered the purpose of this visit. �Oh, yes, you�ve summoned me to the Pivotal Secret Area for� �

�Oh, such a poor memory of mine.� O�Brien shook his head in self-deprecation. �I intend to give you a new poison developed by the office.�

�A poison?� Mayne asked in disbelief. The Pivotal Secret Area had a department that specialized in the research of the God�s Stone of Retaliation, such as Cold Expelling Pill, Fluorescent Stone, Madding Drugs, etc. As soon as they developed new products, they would distribute them to the bishop. However, he never heard that they also worked on poisons, which were something that, according to what Mayne had known, the alchemists should excel at.

�They told me that they got it by accident,� the pope said slowly, �You only need to sprinkle it on rotten corpses to make it work, and it has a long-term effect on the people around the corpses. The poison saves us the trouble from ordinary poisons, which were needed to be taken in to make them work. The one who�s poisoned will barely be cured without the special antidote. Ask Master Crow�s Eye if you want to learn more. I believe that it may have some use in the war of the four kingdoms.�

As Mayne heard these words, Broken Tooth Castle, which had taken them so much time to besiege, immediately emerged in his mind, as well as Graycastle, where the war situation was at an unsatisfying stalemate. He restrained his joy and saluted again before saying. �If the poison is really as effective as what Master Crow�s Eye said, it indeed will help me a lot.�

Recently, Roland had been immersed in a pleasant mood.

Even while sitting alone in his office, he would occasionally hum a bit and recall his happy time in the basket of the hot air balloon.

Anna was so lovely when she closed her eyes while waiting for a kiss. He could not help raising his lips in a soft smile while thinking about it. Moreover, the most important part was the meaning of her words, which had revealed her passionate feelings for him thoroughly.

At that time, all Roland could do was to kiss her back with even more passion so much so that when they were landing,

He even felt a faint pain on his lips.

Maybe the kiss had lasted too long and unable to catch her breath she bit him in a panic.

Regardless, this was a feeling that he had not experienced in a long time.

Since his age was maturing all of the romantic skills he had learned from T.V., movies, novels, and comics came into use. And, his partner was the strikingly beautiful Anna. Roland believed that he was finally taking his first steps as a winner.

Taking a deep breath of satisfaction, he reached into his drawer for some snacks to accompany the joy but found nothing. There had been fresh jerky placed in the drawer just yesterday.

Roland glanced back at Nightingale who was lying prone on the windowsill. She whistled and pretended to look out the window. He had deliberately changed his snacks from dried fish to jerky to prevent Nightingale from stealing it. Perhaps jerky was also to her liking.

That�s when he heard footsteps outside the door.

�Your Highness, Sir Barov asks to see you.�

�Let him in.�

Nightingale did not hide away as usual. Instead, she pulled down her hood and returned to the chaise longue near the wall.

Assistant Minister Barov pushed open the door and entered. When he saw there was someone else in the office, he was momentarily stunned, but quickly recovered.

�Your Highness, the results from the census taken this month has been released.� He handed over a roll of parchment.

�Already?�

�With help from the registration of subjects, it�s much easier to take a census now.� The assistant minister laughed. �You made a very wise decision.�

[Ha, now he tries to flatter me�] Roland spread out the scroll that briefly categorized the people in Border Town according to their jobs. This made it easy and clear to read. [Compared to his poor report that I couldn�t even distinguish a single paragraph of when I first came here, Barov�s ability has improved significantly.]

The first row represented the largest group of people, the serfs, with a current total of 3,628 people (including family members). On the next line, there was a note that said the number of serfs who were farmers was 1,500.

�Your Highness, do you think the number of farmers is too low?� Barov said while pointing at the first row, �According to what Sirius from the Ministry of Agriculture has estimated, if we want to cut the imported grains to zero, we might need to double the farmland and the labor in order to meet the need for grain in Border Town.�

Roland remembered the name, Sirius, who should be the knight of the Wolf Family. The 1,500 people who were currently farming were just the first batch of serfs sent here. The subsequent batches were deployed by Roland to the mines or to Karl�s construction team. All of them had received the same guarantee that as long as they worked for a specific amount of, they would become free people.

�I don�t intend to support the grains this year since there�s a lot of wheat stored in the castle warehouse, which is enough to support everyone for two or three months. Meanwhile, this new species of wheat is quite different.�

�Quite different?� Barov asked surprised.

�Well, you�ll understand soon enough.� Roland smiled. [The new species of wheat, the Golden Ones, were enhanced by Leaf�s magic. Each plant now tripled its production over ordinary wheat. This harvest will definitely surprise everyone. That�s why I don�t need to put too many men on the task of farming. With the help of Leaf�s special magic, just a small number of farmers are going to be enough to feed my subjects. This way I can save my precious human resources for the industrial development and urban construction.]

He continued to look down at the scroll.

The second-row contained the details about architects followed by a complicated note including the masons, tilers, bricklayers, carpenters, handymen, etc. The total number reached more than 1,100, and most of the people were serfs who worked as handymen. The reason why the houses and factories in Border Town were erected in only a short period of time was due to the involvement from the builders of �the labor army�. The way he accelerated construction was by careful planning. Using templates, batching tasks, and specific programming facilitated the speedy process. The construction speed still had not met Roland�s standards, however, most people found the construction time to be shocking.

The third row discussed the mining industry and the workers.

Just like what happened in the case of architects, the number of local residents from Border Town had dropped to only 25. Most of their jobs were running the steam engine and managing the mine. The remaining 1,600 people were outlanders, including the captured mercenaries from the war of Longsong Stronghold, and the serfs who were sent here consistently after the war.

�There have been some fights taking place in the mines,� Barov said, �mostly because of the conflict between the mercenaries and the serfs. Your Highness, this could be a potential problem. There are too many of them, and if a fight burst out, the 25 managers won�t be able to control it. I suggest letting the First Army assist and guard.�

�Well�� Rolland thought for a moment. �So be it. Now I�m short on hands to build the police force. I�ll have a word with Iron Axe. A Flintlock Squad of 50 men should be enough.�

�What�s� police?�

�You can view them like a patrol except that they have duties within more aspects. They�ll almost take full charge of the town�s security,� Roland said. [Since there�s no division between the internal violence and external violence in this era, letting the army control security isn�t part of their own black history. Before I defeat the church I won�t waste the manpower on forming a second violent machine.]

The fourth row was about the First Army of Border Town.

After the war for the Stronghold, the First Army�s name became renowned all over the Western Region, who had defeated the Coalition of Duke Ryan, at the low cost removing the noble�s courage to resist. He then rewarded the First Army according to the size of their contributions. That�s when Roland decided to increase the army�s size to 600 men. As soon as recruitment was announced, the square became packed with applicants. From them, Roland selected 300 residents who were in a good health and had no criminal record to join the First Army. This was in accordance with his concept that the army for the people should be made up of the people.

The rest covered the topic of technicians.

For example, the workers who conducted refining and burning had increased substantially in recent months, going from no more than 20 men to 400 men. Thanks to �Expert of the Kiln� Lesya, North Slope Mine Kiln was able to not only produce red bricks but also burn cement and glass. Meanwhile, there were three shaft furnaces under construction. It would not be long before the minerals, stacked in the stockyard, would be refined for the first time in a shaft furnace. After forming the ingots, they would be transported to where ever they were needed.

As for the people who worked in education, chemistry, industry, and animal husbandry, the total came to less than 50. In other words, from the point of view of the census, Border Town still had a long way to go. However, for a little town, the change in the population composition, which went from mainly hunters and miners to how it was now, only took 6 months and that was considered great.

Nowadays, there were few people who made a living by hunting, and hunting had become mostly a hobby. Besides the people who had joined the First Army or took on refining, there were still about 1,000 unemployed. As soon as they finished the literacy classes established by the universal education, Roland would begin the industrial development by employing them all in factories.

After Barov took his leave, Roland put the chart of census into the drawer. He turned to look at Nightingale and wanted to ask what had happened to her, yet after hesitating for a moment, he did not say anything.

He might know the answer, and yet he dared not to say out because of the embarrassment as well as the possibility of guessing wrong. Instead, he said, �Next is to visit the North Slope Mine.�

�Want to see the changes of Soraya�s new ability?� Though Nightingale was acting a little strange now, her manner looked just as usual. She took off the hood and laughed. �Let�s go.�

[Perhaps I�m thinking too much,] Roland thought while watching the witch walk towards him.

The sky journey of the hot air balloon that day had affected more than one person.

Roland had not expected that Soraya had become the second witch whose power had changed qualitatively.

In fact, even Soraya herself did not expect the change.

Roland found out about it by accident yesterday.

Since the hot air balloon was given to Anna as a gift, it was laid in the courtyard. Someone who wanted to fly and enjoy the view would just call for Anna and Lightning. Until the day before yesterday when it rained, Roland remembered that cane-weaved gondola would be softened and peeled if it was soaked by water, moreover, it would lose part of ductility even after being dried. Hence, he was about to take it back into the castle.

He was meant to order the aiders to do it, but when he reconsidered it that the hot air balloon was a gift for Anna, and the components like the cord and the gasbag were fragile, he decided to take it in by himself. When he met with Hummingbird in the courtyard and was about to work on it, what he saw in the gondola surprised him.

The inner wall of the gondola was covered with drawings. They were of an aerial view of Border Town. Unlike the two-dimensional picture she had painted before, it seemed the paintings had a stereoscopic sensation. Regardless of the falling raindrops, Roland moved closer to have a clear look before discovering that for the first time, her painting had �thickness�.

It was not surprising for a painting to have a thickness, and theoretically, any real paintings should have thickness because the pigments themselves had thickness. In oil painting, painters would even use the thickness of the pigments. With pens, brushes, or scrapers, they could create uneven texture, and through varied color layers, they could strengthen the texture as well as improve the presentation of the picture.

But Soraya was different, for her drawings were not created with pens and pigments but the magic power.

That was why the thickness created by the magic power was particularly strange.

He remembered that when he touched the raised trees gently with bare hands, it was like scratching the branches and leaves which were not hard solid but slightly softer jelly. And when he touched the ground, it felt more solid as if he was touching a stone.

It was incredible.

Moreover, as the raindrops ran down along the painting, they were kept away from the canes.

As soon as he got back to the castle, he called for Soraya. At the same time, Nightingale also confirmed the speculation. When she observed Soraya in the Mist, the magic power in her body had changed from the initial state of the golden gas swirl to the new state of a condensed and constantly rotating ribbon.

�

When they stepped into the compound of the military factory, Anna was smiling and greeted them by giving Roland a big hug.

Since they had opened their relationship, she behaved much more intimately when staying with Roland. Roland rubbed her head pleasantly and the silver hair clip on her hair was glittering in the sun.

Yet, he caught a glimpse of Soraya who was meant to walk over to greet him but held back bewilderingly. In the end, she looked away, her face blushed, pretending that she did not see anything.

�Ahem,� Nightingale pulled Soraya back to the table and asked loudly on purpose, �You�ve painted all of these?�

Roland shook his head while laughing, and he let go of Anna and walked towards the table along with her.

The table was covered with Soraya�s paintings, and they were the views of what could be seen in the compound. The only difference among these paintings was the thickness. Some paintings extended just one millimeter high above the paper, while others extended near three centimeters high. This was the training that Roland had made her practice in the morning in order to test how thick the �pigments� created by magic power could be.

�This is the thickest one?� Roland reached his fingers to touch the painting that extended three centimeters high above the paper. It seemed that the pigments of the enchanting blue sky were too soft so that he could not sense any texture, however, when he moved his fingers to the wall of the compound, he felt the gravel-like friction at once.

It seemed that as he had guessed, a picture painted with the Magic Pen not only had the same shape and color the real objects but also the feel.

�It could be thicker, but it consumes much more power when it goes beyond this thickness.� Soraya pointed to a brown protrusion on the table. �I meant to draw a tree on the wall, yet when I just finished the trunk, it had cost me half of my magic power.�

�You�ve painted this thing?� Roland reached his hand to measure its extended height above the paper. To his surprise, the thickness was up to 10 centimeters. �I thought it was a real bark standing here.�

Though as Roland had said, it looked like a bark, but its bonding with the surface of the table was exceedingly strong. He picked the bark up, which did not separate from the table, even when the legs of the table were above the ground.

Nightingale unsheathed the dagger to cut it. It took her a long time to cut a small hole at the bottom of the bark. �As if it was embedded in the table.�

In the end, it was Anna who cut the bark off. As the thread formed by Blackfire swept over the table, the pigments emitted a white smoke before the bark fell down. The cut was neat but not smooth and had black scorched marks. When Roland picked up the fallen pigments and held it in his hand, it felt much lighter than he had expected.

�Why did you suddenly think of changing your painting style?� No, I mean, how did you decide to fill the painting with thickness?� he asked.

�I think probably because it was the first time I saw such a landscape,� said Soraya, recalling. �When I was overlooking the earth, I felt that the paintings I made before�the �photo works� that, like you had said, were almost able to rival the real scenery were not truly real. Especially when I painted the scenery in the gondola, this feeling grew stronger.� she paused and slowed down, �The top of the tree is peaky and waves with the wind. The height of hills varies, some high, some low, like the undulating chest. The river is embedded in the earth, and there are vessels traveling over it. This is the scenery I�ve seen, not a thin plane of things. So I want to make the picture more real that it could stand up like the magnificent scenery. But I failed several times� When in slight frustration, I suddenly remembered the small ball you had said.�

�The small ball?� Roland said, raising his eyebrow.

�Well.� she nodded with some sort of embarrassment. �It�s the knowledge that you�ve taught us, and I thought since everything was made of small balls, shouldn�t the painting be the same? I tried more times, imagining that the painting made by Magic Pen was colorful balls, which were overlapping each other until they formed pieces of colors. And then� the picture suddenly squirmed. The green forest uplifted, and the dark green river sank down. The whole painting became what you�ve seen now. The change had startled me and Anna a lot, and I wouldn�t view it as an evolution of my ability unless you mentioned it to me.�

�I see.�

�But compared to Anna�s Blackfire, my new ability seems useless except for making the paintings more vivid.� Soraya stuck her tongue out.

�No� How could it be?� Roland shook his head. �In my eyes, it�s not just a simple painting.�

It would be completely wasteful if she only used the ability to paint. He remembered the scene that the raindrops ran down along the surface of the gondola and was kept away from the cane. Rather than treating it as pigments, he would view it as a �coating� that was made of the magic power.

As long as anything could cover the surface of the object, forming a solid continuous membrane, it could be called a coating. Coatings could come in the phase of gas, liquid, or solid, and had different usages, ranging from the primary decoration to the modern durable protection.

Roland performed a series of tests after this discovery.

The test results had highly pleased him. Perhaps she had been influenced by the concept that the longer a painting could be preserved, the better it would be, and therefore, the photo-like painting she had drawn before had the advantage that the painting could hardly be erased unless its carrier was destroyed. Unexpectedly, the evolved ability shaped the advantage to a new level.

First of all, the special �pigments�, which were highly adhesive and light performed two distinct features in physical properties. When they were working on a painting, they could change their flexibility according to different objects. For example, when painting the sky or the clouds, it would soften like the cotton candy and had a very high resistance to extension and cutting. When painting something like iron ingots or glass, it turned hard, brittle and could easily be broken by hammers. In other words, due to its special quality, it performed better in flexibility than rigidity, matching Soraya�s understanding of the pigments.

Second, no matter which features it performed, its chemical properties were very stable. It not only was unable to react with the diluted sulfuric acid or diluted nitric acid but also repelled the water and oil. When he filled a painted box with water, the thin bottom of the box did not leak. After pouring off the water, he could see the clear droplets rolling within the box, like dews on a lotus leaf. The bottom of the box was dry when he touched it.

As Anna dropped the molten iron into the painted box in the high-temperature resistant test, the paper, which was the carrier, suddenly caught on fire, but yet the coating did not change much except being slightly swelled by the molten iron. When Anna�s Blackfire continued heating up the coating, it began to melt and deform while emitting white smoke, and finally turned into a mass of black jelly.

What had excited Roland most was that the coating was also insoluble. The copper wire covered by the coating looked just like enameled wire in the modern world. He had proved this point with the simply equipped DC generator in the compound.

At this point, Roland could comprehensively understand Soraya�s new ability.

Unlike Anna whose evolved Blackfire had completely surpassed the initial green flames, it seemed that Soraya had extended her ability of painting after evolving. Now she could draw virtual �oil paintings� as well as thin �photo-paintings�, which depended solely on the idea in her mind. Most of all, both abilities could be used at the same time.

In addition, when creating virtual paintings with the thickness thinner than one centimeter, Soraya could keep painting for hours without any rest. Yet, when the thickness was thicker than three centimeters, the painting would consume magic power much more quickly. As long as the thickness reached 10 centimeters, which was a threshold, she would run out of all of her power in one or two strokes. Of course, to think it in another way, it could be view as the most effective way to drain her power when the bite of magic power came.

The ability was still a summoning type of skill. As soon as the magic pen entered the effective range of a God�s Stone of Retaliation, it would disappear abruptly. Meanwhile, Soraya would not be able to continue the painting. But the God�s Stone of Retaliation could not affect the finished coating. According to what Nightingale had observed when she was in the Mist, there was no trace of magic retained on the coating�in other words, the materials created by the magic pen were real.

As for the application of the coating� It was too much. Soraya would never expect what enormous change her new ability was going to bring to the town. It meant that Roland would soon get a number of water pipes with rust preventive coating and a large bundle of enameled wires, or even heat-resistant fireproofing tiles. Three supplies projects (water, electricity, and access) which had seemed out of reach before, had become accessible.

At the same time, it warned him that any knowledge learned from personal experience was more profound than that from books.

If he could let the witches see the microworld more intuitively, would it accelerate their acceptance of particle theory and lead to a new round of evolution? Such as� a microscope that could be used to observe cell structures and microbes.

Roland felt it was necessary to try something.

*******************

The North Slope Mine Kiln.

�Pump! Make the fire burn brighter!� Lesya shouted.

Although he could not see anything inside the shaft furnace, the stones should have been burned red as three carts of charcoal were added in.

When Lesya had come to Border Town called by a letter from Karl Van Bate, he had thought it was a desolate barren land. He would never go to the border of the kingdom to pick up his former career if it was not written that Mason Guild would be reborn at Border Town.

After packing up his things and saying goodbye to the family, he had prepared for the worst like drinking gruel and living in tents. He would be willing to accept a situation that was lacking in men and funding as those problems were common in construction.

Lesya hadn�t intended to stay in Border Town for long, and a chance to see his very old friend Karl and other colleagues who had been exiled or lived in seclusion would be enough to make him content.

But the fact was that it was a fantasy.

After Lesya arrived the dock of the town by boat, he saw Karl Van Bate, an excellent mason of Graycastle as well as a strong contender for the next leader of the Mason Guild. Compared to how he looked in Lesya�s memory, Karl looked stronger rather than thinner, and his face looked glossy, despite the fact that his sideburns had gone gray and he had more wrinkles.

After the greeting, instead of taking him to the tumultuous construction site, Karl led him to a clearly new-built residential building and handed over a key, saying, �This is your house now. Put down the luggage before we go to the tavern and grab a good drink.�

� After that, Lesya heard a series of incredible stories from Karl.

The lord had recruited Karl, a civilian, into the City Hall and appointed him as the supervisor of the construction department as an official with a regular monthly salary!

If I stay, I can work at the City Hall like him!

And free housing!

After working for 10 years, I can get a retirement allowance! What�s a retirement allowance? Something that means I don�t have to work to get the money!

Lesya had thought Karl was drunk, but it turned out� what he had said was true.

�My lord, the ores are melting. I can see the iron liquid flow!� the worker on the top of the furnace shouted.

�Open the slag outlet to deslag!�

After he started the work, the troubles that Lesya had expected did not appear at all. Whatever he demanded, the money or the men, the superior fulfilled his demands very soon. They often gave the answer the day after he submitted the application. Furthermore, the town produced an alchemical material called cement that could adhere bricks quickly which significantly fueled the construction speed. Unexpectedly, he felt so carefree here�a feeling that he had never experienced before.

In no more than a month, Lesya had built up five furnaces with bellows, and three shaft furnaces for ironmaking.

Now in front of him stood a shaft furnace which was a design he had worked for many years after he left Mason Guild. The work was built on years of experience. Before the construction of the designed shaft furnace really began, he had always expected that the design would have been handed down on paper.

This improved shaft furnace was two meters tall with the inner diameter 75 centimeters long. There were a number of inlets in the lower part of the furnace for pumping air or drawing in air. A slag outlet and iron liquid outlet was set at the bottom. A sand slope was built up beside the shaft furnace for the workers to feed in materials and observe the burning situation.

Today the first shaft furnace would be formally put to use, and before the start, they had to do the regular examination of the smelting.

After they intermittently opened the slag outlet more than ten times and fed in two carts of charcoal, the examination was passed. There was iron liquid covering the bottom of the furnace now and the slag outlet was unhindered. Meanwhile, since the temperature was high enough to melt the iron, there was no need to waste any more charcoal to keep the fire going. In order to cut the cost, they used the waste ores stacked in the corner of the stockyard to do the tested melting every time the furnaces started.

They opened the outlet to discharge the melted iron liquid, and Lesya announced to shut down the furnace.

�

Two days later, the townspeople found some dark black stones when they were cleaning the furnace. All of the waste ores melted and shrunk greatly in high-temperature except those black ores which not only were unchanged but also had a sleeker surface and had become as dark as ink after going in.

Even Lesya could not tell what kind of ore they were. From their shapes and looks, they did not look like useless waste ores, but yet supposing that they were useful, how could he made them into products if they could not be melted. After thinking for a while, he picked up the squarest one and wrapped it up before ordering his men to send it to Roland Wimbledon, the Lord of Border Town, in the castle.

Perhaps his well-informed lord knew the answer.

Looking at the shiny black stone on the desk, Nightingale asked, �What�s this?�

�Obsidian.� Roland even did not raise his head, busy with painting his blueprint.

�Ob� What?�

�No, I was talking nonsense.� He sighed. Just by looking at its shape and color, how could he know what it was? After all, he was not a geologic expert, and could not guarantee to distinguish even a pure metal, to say nothing of ores. The knowledge he had in his head only told him most ores were compounds with complicated compositions and their color varied with different impurities. For example, iron ores could be divided into hematite, pyrite, and siderite, which looked totally different from each other. Especially the pyrite, which would sometimes show a light yellow metallic sheen, was often wrongly identified as gold, giving it a nickname �Fool�s gold�.

As for their thermostability, a compound did not have a fixed melting point, as it was related to the impurities and its composition, so it still was impossible to distinguish between all the different varieties by using different temperatures. In addition, metallic elements would exist in ion state, so melting the metal would be useless, as long as he did not know how to purify it.

�So there are also things you don�t know about?� Nightingale asked with surprises.

�There are plenty.� Roland put down his quill and poured himself a cup of black tea. �Would you like some?�

�No.� She waved her hand. �By the way, beef jerky isn�t as delicious as dried fish. You�d better put some dried fish in your drawers in the future.�

Roland was silent for a while, pretending that he did not hear her. He decided to give the ore to Kyle Sichi, the Chief Alchemist. After all, minerals were more or less radioactive, so putting them in his office as decoration would not be a good choice.

Since Soraya�s ability evolved recently, he found that there were suddenly a lot of things he could create now.

First of all would be a tap water system, which would greatly enhance the living level of the residents. Thinking of that, after a busy day, the residents came back home in a sweat and could not wait to have a shower, only to find the water tanks were empty and they had to walk to a well nearby to fetch some water. That feeling would be awful. What was more, Roland hated to use water from the tank to wash face or hands. He always felt there were parasites growing in the water after it had been stored in the tank for several days. To make things worse, tanks were rarely cleaned, not even once a month. When he took a closer look, he could see strips of sediments flowing at the bottom of the tank.

If they used water tower for water supply, there were not many technical difficulties. They could pump water from Redwater River into a water tower by using a steam engine, and then the siphon principle would cause water to flow along pipelines into every house in the town. With this, they would have formed an automatic water supply system. The reason why Roland had not put it into practice so far was� the insufficient material.

They had to use pipes made of iron or copper. The iron pipes without anti-rust treatment would be seriously damaged within several years. Copper pipes would be perfect, as they were non-corrosive, the inside walls would not scale, and they were non-toxic, and even the copper ion could kill bacteria in the water. But how could he use the raw material of coins to make pipes? The output of North Slope Mine was far from sufficient to afford such luxurious product. Even in modern time, copper pipelines were only affordable in high-grade mansions.

Up to now, Border Town was not able to export ores; instead, it had to import metal ingot. Therefore, no matter iron or copper pipes, Roland was reluctant to use them just to create a water supply which was purely for his enjoyments rather than making any profit.

But now it was different. With Soraya�s Coating magic, he could make pipelines without metal. For example, he could take an iron pipe as a mold, wrapping it in paper and then covering it with Soraya�s coating. Then he only had to take out the mold and got the pipe he needed. Even though these kinds of pipes were not pressure-resistant, they would be qualified as long as they were placed in covered ditches.

The second thing he wanted to create would be a power supply system. He was afraid that it was impossible to spread it over the whole town within a short time. But Roland had dreamed for a long time to make the castle full of light. After all, reading in dim candlelight was too painful, and would do great harm to the eyes. Furthermore, summer was coming soon, so the evenings would be sweltering enough. If he had to stay in a room with burning torches and candles, how terrible it would be!

Now he had got generators and electric wires, it was not an impossible dream for the castle to enter the electrical age ahead of its time. As for the filament of bulbs� he vaguely remembered that carbonized-bamboo filaments were commonly used for the incandescent lamps before the invention of tungsten filaments. Bamboos were not rare, as there were a lot to be found in the forest south of Redwater River.

However, what Border Town needed most so far were smelting facilities. Their iron output was directly related to the scale of their mechanical production and weapons manufacturing, which was essential for the survival of the town.

�You are drawing� a tower?� Nightingale sat at the desk and asked curiously.

�Similar to it.� Roland nodded. �But it�s empty inside, so it can be filled with fuel and ores. It has similar functions as shaft furnaces and can be used to smelt iron ore into pig iron.�

This was a blast furnace, an updated version of the ancient shaft furnace.

He had visited the construction site and had taken a look at the shaft furnace designed by Lesya. To be honest, its structure was very close to that of a blast furnace, except its capacity was smaller and the temperature it could achieve was lower. If Soraya�s ability had not been evolved, giving the town the possibility to produce refractory bricks, he had originally intended to build a dozen of such shaft furnaces.

But now with refractory bricks, he could consider building a blast furnace which could achieve a higher temperature and have a higher output.

The height of the newly designed blast furnace was almost eight meters, about four times of that of the shaft furnace. The furnace was tower shaped, and its largest part was three meters wide. In order to prevent it from collapsing, carriages were installed at the bottom. The furnace wall was thinner at the top part and thicker at the bottom. The furnace bosh was up to half a meter thick, and its innermost layer was made out of refractory bricks with Soraya�s coating. At the same time, it also had an air inlet hole through which a steam engine was able to continually send fresh air into the furnace bosh.

In order to make full use of the power of the steam engine, Roland had also designed a set of automatic feeding equipment for the blast furnace, which included a climbing rail and a special loading cart with a movable door at its bottom. Driven by the steam engine, the cart would climb to the top of the furnace. Then the buckles at its bottom would be inserted by a hook, pulling open the loading door to pour fuel or ores into the furnace. This system could be regarded as the top technique in this era.

Different from the shaft furnaces with wide openings and low furnace temperature, his new blast furnace would not stop working for a long time once it started. As long as fuel and ores were constantly delivered into it, it would have a much higher output than the shaft furnace. If five or six blast furnaces were built in the town, the output of pig iron would be multiplied.

�

After finishing all his drawing, Roland rubbed his sore wrists and then took out a box from a drawer of the desk and pushed it in front of Nightingale.

Nightingale was surprised. �This is��

�Well, I had intended to give it to you earlier, but it cost me some time to engrave decorative patterns on it. After all, I�m not very familiar with the machines in the factory,� Roland smiled and said, �Open it and take a look.�

She opened the box and could not help but give a cry of excitement.

Inside the box were two revolvers. Different from the prototype used by her when she competed with Carter, the revolvers were made of shining silver and were so polished that she could even see her own reflection on it. Exquisite decorative patterns were engraved on its grip and body. On the barrel, he had engraved Nightingale�s name �To Veronica�.

Roland had planned this for a long time. Compared with the flintlocks which were inconvenient to carry and load, the newly invented revolvers had been greatly improved. It had a high level of safety and firing rate. What power this powerful weapon would create in the hands of such an agile witch like Nightingale, he was looking forward to.

�Thank you.� She smiled to pick up the two revolvers, jumped off the desk, and struck a shooting pose. �Will you teach me how to use them?�

�Of course.� Roland nodded. Her white assassin outfit and sunny and dazzling smile made him immediately understand what was drop-dead gorgeous. �It�s not difficult. You only need to sneak up on your target, pull the trigger, and shout �It�s time to die��.

Scroll hesitated for a while at the door of the bedroom before pushing the door to enter.

Inside, Wendy sat at the desk, holding a book with a miserable look on her face. It was certainly Natural Science Theoretical Foundation, even if Scroll just had a quick glance.

She could not help smiling, as it was rare to see such miserable look on Wendy�s face. Even when Witch Cooperation Association was trapped in the Impassable Mountain Range and the food supply ran out, Wendy still smiled, trying to cheer up every sister. It seemed that she had never worried about the difficulties and hardships.

She had never expected that a book would trouble her so much.

�Totally beyond understanding, right?� Scroll said, �when I first read it, I feel the same way.�

�I thought it was Nightingale.� Wendy turned back when she heard her voice. �� So what about now?�

�I still can�t understand it.�

�Fortunately, you�re the same with me.� Wendy sighed. �Besides Anna, now Soraya also developed her new ability. If I don�t try harder, I�ll soon be excelled by the younger generation. I wonder how His Highness knows so many things. How�s he able to describe the invisible world as if he had seen it?�

�Actually, he isn�t aware of many things, �Scroll shrugged her shoulders, and said, �I mean in certain aspects.�

�What do you mean?�

�I�m talking about Nightingale,� Scroll said, and she drew a stool and sat beside Wendy. �Have you noticed that her current behavior is totally different from how she acted in the past? When she�s protecting His Highness, she rarely becomes invisible now. Even when she�s out of the castle, she�ll only wear a hood to cover her face. And what�s more� she�s earnestly listening to the evening classes. You share a bedroom with her, so you should be even more aware of this. Can you tell me what happened to her?�

�Well, it was nothing.� Wendy shook her head. �She just made her own choice.�

Her response surprised Scroll a little. �Choice?�

�Well, just as you�ve guessed,� Wendy closed her book and bluntly said,� she has a crush on His Highness, Roland Wimbledon. Of course, this is so obvious that you don�t have to guess. It isn�t new that some witch falls in love with the man who offers her shelter. We�ve heard lots of such stories when we were in the Witch Cooperation Association.�

�Those are just stories made up by others. Most sisters didn�t have a happy ending.�

�His Highness was different from people in the stories.�

Scroll was stunned for a while. She never expected that Wendy, who held the same view with her not long before, would say things like that. She said, �You know, witches aren�t able to have children. It�s impossible for His Highness��

�His Highness will marry a witch,� Wendy shrugged and said, �He told you personally.�

[How did she know about it? Was Nightingale there at that moment?] Scroll thought. Then she suddenly realized something and asked, �Are you blaming me for not telling you?No, Wendy, I just don�t want this to get out. It will cause bad influences on His Highness�s road to the throne.�

Wendy remained silent for a while before she said, �I know. I�m not blaming you. I said the same thing to Nightingale before. Before I knew His Highness� answer, I thought nothing would happen to the sisters. But if His Highness doesn�t mind it, why would we force them to change their mind? Previously Nightingale tried to hide her feelings, but she was so depressed. I prefer how she looks now. No matter what�ll happen in the future, at least she follows the feelings of her heart.�

So that was the reason, Scroll thought. Although she agreed that His Highness�s answer should not get out, she would not interfere with the sisters� feelings, and would not make choices for them. Different from Cara, Wendy always considered the feelings of the sisters and cheered them up when they had little courage to face with difficulty.

�But, did His Highness know it?� Scroll suddenly thought of a serious problem. �What if he didn�t know that witches are unable to have children?�

�Well�� Wendy also lowered her voice. �How about, you go to ask him?�

*******************

Outside the city wall of the Western Region.

The grassland was bathed in late spring sunshine. Far away herds of cattle and sheep were leisurely eating grass. It was difficult to imagine that just three months ago, the whole grassland was covered in snow and ice, and there was nothing outside but terrible and cruel demonic beasts.

Nightingale had been practicing shooting for most of the afternoon. She mastered the skills of shooting much faster than Roland had expected. [Maybe everyone was endowed with different talent,] he thought, [some people were born to fight. With her standard positions of reloading, aiming and shooting, she had completely behaved unlike a beginner so far.]

�If she were born in a knight�s family, she must be the most excellent and renowned knight in Graycastle.� Carter could not help praising her. �Just like me.�

�Luckily she wasn�t. I don�t want her arms to be as thick as yours.� Roland cast a glance at him and asked, �How do you feel drawing a tie with an Extraordinary?�

�The moment when I was hit, I felt as if I was hit by a battering ram and my chest was smashed into pieces.� Carter admitted honestly, �To tell the truth, awful.�

�There should be no next time.� Roland laughed.

When Nightingale finished another round of shooting with standing position, Roland applauded. �Your performance is excellent so far. Let�s do a simulation now.�

After putting the pistol back into a holster on her belt, Nightingale walked towards Roland. In the bright sunshine, sweat droplets sparkled on her nose.

�Do you see those targets?� Roland pointed to the five bust targets not far away. �They�re all hung with God�s Stone of Retaliation. You should be able to see them clearly in the Mist. Here�s what you�re going to do next. Combine your ability with shooting skills, and defeat these enemies in shortest time once you expose yourself from the Mist.�

In the Mist, objects and space were constantly changing, making difficult to guarantee that the bullets would fly toward the objects. Previously Nightingale had tried to directly shoot from inside the Mist; however, nine out of ten bullets changed their trajectory when they left the Mist, and the last bullet nearly hit Roland, who was standing behind her.

Therefore, Nightingale had to walk out of the Mist to shoot; and the shorter amount of time she exposed herself, the less possible she would be counterattacked by an enemy.

�Got it.� She smiled, raised her cloak with one hand, and disappeared instantly before them.

When the first shot rang out, Roland could barely see a white figure quietly emerge and then with flame and smoke spurting out, the target got hit and broke apart. Even before spattering wood chips completely landed, she had already arrived at the back of the second target and pulled the trigger from a distance of three or four meters.

Then the third, the fourth target� Every time when she shot, she had not completely stepped out of the Mist. Except the silver pistol and sudden flame, Roland could not catch more details. It was difficult for him to capture her position with his eyes. Under cover of her Mist, she seemed to appear and disappear in an instant�a scene which could only be seen in movies. Within the blink of an eye, the five targets all broke into pieces; and after another blink, Nightingale was standing beside him again.

�How was it?� She laughed.

�Well�� Roland cast a quick glance at the stunned Carter and asked him, �what do you think?�

�I�m afraid no one can catch Miss Nightingale now.� The chief knight took a deep breath. �Even Ashes can�t, even if she wears God�s Stone of Retaliation.�

�So, have I graduated?� She wiped the sweat from her nose and rubbed it on Roland�s cloak.

�Of� course.�

The Swan on Redwater River towards the west. May was standing on its bow, looking straight ahead. It was not to enjoy the scenery, and she just wanted to see Border Town�s pier sooner.

�How much longer until we reach our destination?� she asked impatiently.

�Soon, Miss May. The sun is too hot, you should return to the cabin to rest,� said Gait, who was standing behind her. She did not even have to look to know that he was fawning over her smilingly.

As she turned around, she saw that she was right. �You told me this before, and now you are telling me the same thing? Have you actually been to Border Town before?�

�Uh�� embarrassed, he scratched his head and said, �it has been 10 years since I came here last time.�

�One year is enough for Longsong Stronghold to change a lord, can you imagine about 10 years then?� May said angrily, �but there are always exceptions. Look at you, in 10 years, you never once performed on stage.�

Seeing his awkward smile as he retreated, her mood finally got better. If it had not been for Irene�s message, she would have never gone with this group of lowly performers to Border Town.

As the star actress of the theater in Longsong Stronghold, she had quite a reputation in the Western Region. This time she had received an invitation from the Tower Theater to go to the king�s city and perform the play �Prince Seeking for Love�. The show had been a great success, and even the drama master, Mister Kajen Fels, praised her performance in the role of the princess who died for love. Although she did not play the main heroine, she still left a deep impression that was not any less.

But when she excitedly returned to Longsong Stronghold, she had discovered that the stronghold had undergone great changes. Duke Ryan had been defeated and died, and Longsong Stronghold had fallen into the hands of Prince Roland Wimbledon, who had temporarily appointed Petrov Hull of the Honeysuckle Family to run the stronghold� She had been away for less than a year, but the Western Region had become totally unfamiliar to her.

Fortunately, the political turmoil in the upper ranks had no effect on the theater. This would have been something May and her sisters talked about after dinner, if only her heart had not beaten violently at the news that Morning Light, the First Knight of the Western Region, had been captured.

May had rushed to the theater, looking for Irene to ask for more details, only to discover that she had also followed him to Border Town around half a month ago, probably to reunite with her husband. This news disappointed May a little, and also made her a bit envious.

They both worked in the same theater where she was the deserved leading figure, while Irene was just a new face on the stage. The title, the Flower of Tomorrow, was given to Irene by those inferior actors who were flattering each other all the time. In regards to appearance, May would definitely not lose; and in regards to family background, although she was a common civilian, Irene was just an orphan adopted by the theater. So no matter what, she was definitely better than Irene.

But what was hard for May to understand was that Ferlin Eltek, the Morning Light, fell in love with that naive looking Irene, even giving up his family inheritance in order to marry her later.

�Look, farmlands,� someone shouted, �Border Town shouldn�t be much further.�

May looked at her left side, only to see rows of high wheat swaying in the wind. Farmers wearing straw hats were busying themselves in the fields as if they were standing in a green sea. The wheat fields extended westwards along with the river reflecting the sunlight, with no end in sight.

�Such a beautiful scenery, Miss May,� Rosia walked over and nodded. �I never expected that a remote place like this would have such a vast farmland, it can be even compared with Longsong Stronghold.�

�This is nothing compared with the farmland around the king�s city,� May argued. �There, the wheat fields are so vast they can connect two cities. You can see wheat everywhere, and then you�ll become sick of it.�

�Is that so?� She smiled awkwardly. �I�ve never been that far.�

[Well, this is a normal reaction,] May thought, but if it was Irene, she would have shown an expression of envy and would have asked her to describe more. �Rest assured, you�ll have the chance one day.�

�I hope so.� Rosia patted her chest. �Thank you for the encouragement.�

[I meant that with only a few silver royals, you could find a caravan to take you to the king�s city, not that you would ever have the chance to go to the king�s city to perform.] May rolled her eyes silently. But the other was a good friend of Irene, and May did not want to bother saying this aloud.

Rosia had joined the theater before her, they had almost the same age, but because of her simple appearance and poor memory, she never had the opportunity to officially perform on stage. Except for Irene, not many in the theater were willing to talk to her.

�Does Irene know that we�re arriving today?� May asked.

�I�ve informed her of the date in my reply, she should be waiting for us at the docks.�

�Good.� She nodded. �I don�t want to search for an inn alone in an unknown town.�

�May I ask you something, Miss May?� Rosia asked hesitantly, �why did you come with us to the small town? Moreover, why did you try to conceal this from the theater? Irene wrote in her letter that there may be an opportunity to perform here, but you�re not someone who needs such opportunities.�

�If I told them the truth, do you think the theater would ever let me come to this place?� May curled her lips. �As for the reason� I merely want to see if my theater comrade is having a good life.�

In fact, she also did not know why she made this impulsive decision. The Longsong Theater would have important plays during the next two days and with her gone, the owner would have a big problem. Although there were a few backup actresses, without her, there was a chance that the nobles would not accept their performance and they might even seriously protest about it.

To be honest, May knew that this was not a wise choice. No matter how big her reputation was, she still had to rely on the Longsong Theater. If she made the owner angry, she would be unable to stop him from freezing her career and promoting a new actress. Other than apologizing, the only choice left for her would be to leave and compete with the stars of other theaters.

�Or� I could take the next ship back to the stronghold, the moment I meet Ferlin, right?� May thought.

�I see.� Rosia nodded. �Irene will certainly be very surprised to see you.�

The scenery along the river bank gradually became richer. A lot of tents and wooden houses were seen near the Impassable Mountain Range. As it was near noon and the peasant women were all busy cooking porridge and soups, they saw wisps of smoke rose continuously from the village chimneys, and May even occasionally smelled the aromatic fragrance of wheat. Many children gathered to play by the river, and those who were good at swimming would completely take off their clothes and jump into the river with the cheers of their peers, and then proudly climbed back ashore.

In the end, May finally saw the dock.

After The Swan had docked, Gait and Sam volunteered to handle all of the ladies� baggage. Just as they walked down the trestle, Rosia excitedly shouted, �Irene!�

Looking at the direction she shouted at, she saw a woman wearing a white dress standing on the dock, waving at them. Beside her, stood a tall man. Even from such a big distance, it could be seen from his broad shoulders and chest that he was extremely extraordinary.

The Morning Light, Ferlin Eltek.

His figure in May�s memory became clear once more.

The moment she saw him, May immediately forgot that she should return at once.

�My God, M-May!� As they approached, Irene exclaimed in disbelief. She then took her hands and pulled her towards the knight. �Darling, do you know who she is? She�s the most famous actress of the Longsong Theater, Miss May! Whenever she performs, the people are lining up from the theater lobby to the streets!�

May�s heart jumped when she heard the phrase darling, but thanks to her years of experience in acting she was able to smile and give a little nod. �Hello.�

�Of course I know her. You said it yourself she�s the most famous actress, all the noble of the Western Region is familiar with her name.� He sighed and then apologized to May. �My wife showed a lack of manners. I�m Ferlin, welcome.�

He didn�t announce his title, his position, or his family name. May�s heart was filled with sadness, but on the surface, she maintained her utmost elegant expression. �I�m aware of you. You are known by everyone as the First Knight of the Western Region, �Morning Light�, Sir Ferlin Eltek. I must apologize, because of my busy theater work, I was unable to attend your and Irene�s wedding.

�That belongs to the past now.� The knight smiled as he shook his head. �Nowadays, I�m just a teacher, not a member of the Eltek family, so you don�t need to be so polite.� Then, he waved towards the others and said. �Let�s go back first. We�ve already applied for your temporary residence.�

[A teacher?] May was startled. [Did he mean a court mentor? Even though this town�s lord is a prince, but even a castaway prince would not hire a knight for that kind of position. And what�s that about applying for a temporary residence? Shouldn�t Irene take us to a reliable local inn?]

Before she could think more about it, Irene approached her. �God, I really did not expect you to come here. If you were to play Cinderella, it would certainly cause an outbreak!�

�Is that so?� May said with a doubt. She had never heard of such a play, which meant that it was probably written by some new playwright. Furthermore, she did not have time to rehearse for a play, she had only come here� because she wanted to see how Morning Light was, and if there was any way she could help him.

As they entered the town, May realized that something was amiss with this place. The town was located on the border of the kingdom and it was supposed to serve as an outpost for Longsong Stronghold, but yet it looked like a newly constructed city? The roads were covered with dark gray gravel, with no sign of mud, not to mention the width of the roads, they could practically fit two carriages side by side.

�What kind of road is this?� Sam asked the question in her mind. �It feels so flat.�

�Aha.� Irene proudly smiled. �When I first arrived here, it was still made of mud, but now it�s like this. In fact, the road isn�t finished yet. I heard from the masons that this was only the foundation for the road.�

�They�ve fooled you.� Rosia argued. �Only houses need foundation. Things already lying on the ground won�t collapse, so why should they need one?�

�Really, they used a mix of gray powder and stones and then spread it out. Afterwards, they sprinkled water on it and compressed it with a rolling stone until it became flat. In the beginning, I also thought this was a new type of road, but the masons said that this was a practice developed by His Highness, something called� water whatever layer. In short, this is still only the foundation!� Irene turned around and continued leading the way, with her long braids swinging with each step. �In the future when people and carriages increase, it�ll be paved with slate. Only then it�ll be truly finished.�

Paved roads? May sneered into her heart. Other than the inner city of the king�s city, which city could afford to cover its roads with slates? A broad and flat road like this was already good enough, even in Longsong Stronghold, there were still many mud roads.

As they were going further into the town, she saw many houses on both sides of the road were being demolished, regardless of whether they were wooden or clayed houses. Although they were clearly not new houses, they still could not be considered uninhabitable. �Did the lord drive them away because they were blocking the road?�

�No, they�ve all moved to another district.�

�District?� May asked, �What�s that?�

�It�s the new residential area, which contains identical brick houses,� Irene explained. �They�ll be allocated to all the original residents, and soon there�ll be no old houses in town.�

Brick houses allocated to everyone? May could not believe her ears. This was even more exaggerated than the slates streets. Did she have any idea about the cost of such a project? But being in front of Ferlin, May could only swallow her words.

There were many pedestrians in the street, and occasionally they would stop and greet Irene or Ferlin. So, May found out that Irene was also one of those so-called teachers.

�Aren�t you performing here?� she asked, �Why do all the townspeople call you a teacher Irene?�

�That�s my job. I only perform part-time. After all, the town doesn�t have a theater.� Afterwards, Irene told the story of how she had been summoned by His Highness. �Although it�ll be an open-air performance and the audience will only consist of civilians, the pay will be still calculated according to the standard of the Stronghold. I think this is a good chance. At least, I can have some practice.�

�You�re right. As long as I can go on stage I would be satisfied.� Gait and Sam nodded repeatedly.

An open-air performance for civilians! May did not even have the strength to say a word. Compared with Irene, what was harder for her to understand was the reason behind the prince�s idea. How could those people whose only purpose was to survive each day really comprehend the romance and the plot twist of a drama?

Gradually, they finally arrived in front of a two-story building.

�This is the teachers� building, but since there are only nine teachers in Border Town at the moment, there are still plenty vacant rooms left. Ferlin applied for you to stay temporarily in two rooms here. During the show, you can stay here.� Irene handed out two keys. �Gait, Sam, this one is for you. Rosia and Tina will get the other one, eh, as for Miss May��

�I�ll stay with you,� May said.

�But��

�I came here to see how my theater comrade is living,� she said with a smile, �after all, we�ve been through so much together in the theater, and you probably won�t return to the stronghold again, so I�d like to chat with you more. Are you going to reject me?�

�Of course not!� Irene happily reached out to hold her hands. �I�m just worried that the room is too small for you to live comfortably. There are also a lot of things about acting that I want to ask you!� She turned around to the other four. �Let�s first put away your luggage, then you can come over to my place and we can discuss the script together.�

May climbed up to the second floor and followed Irene and Ferlin into their new home.

But her last hope was shattered.

She did not want to admit it but this small room gave off a comfortable and clean feeling. The red and white cotton tablecloths and curtains were clearly newly purchased. The floor was clean and there was linen carpet placed in the living room. Her attention was quickly drawn to some strange cups on a low table. Stepping closer, she picked them up to take a closer look, but she was unable to identify its material�it was light, like wood, but the surface was smooth and the color was vibrant. It was nothing like the usual cheap goods owned by civilians. Depicted on top of the cup was an image of two people holding each other affectionately.

�Beautiful cup, right?� Irene, said as she came over, �but it was too expensive. It was sold for five silver royals at the convenience market, four cups consisting a set, depicting a different kind of pictures. To celebrate our payday, Ferlin insisted on buying them for me which resulted in us spending our whole salary. That fool.�

�Convenience Market?� May deliberately ignored the last part of the sentence.

�Yes!� Irene nodded. �The Lord has opened a market at the town�s square, where they�re selling some very fine daily necessities, but they�re not cheap. If you want, I can take you there tomorrow to have a look.�

May had mixed feelings in her heart. Everything was different from what she had expected. She thought that, as a war captive, and a knight for whom no one had offered a ransom, even if the lord had released him, his life would still have been very hard. And since Irene never had any savings, the only thing she could do to help him would be to accompany him throughout this hardship.

If it was like that, any assistance she could have provided him would be greatly appreciated by Ferlin Eltek. She could have even taken it further, and with her own influence, she could try to persuade the local lord to allow to her redeem the First Knight. That way, she might have been able to completely reverse the knight�s heart.

However� all of her plans had been for nothing. He was having a good life in Border Town, even without her help.

Should she go back? By choosing to leave, she would forget everything about Ferlin and Border Town.

May fell into a state of confusion.

By summer, Margaret�s inland ship team would arrive at Border Town.

Roland deliberately went to the docks to meet the business woman and inspected the cargo she had delivered.

The most important things were the three ships of saltpeter. Border Town�s gunpowder had basically run out causing the shooting practice of the First Army to be stopped. Though revolving rifles had been distributed on a small scale, they were merely put through their paces in order to maintain the guns by reloading and cleaning them. With the saltpeter they could begin shooting practice once more.

Apart from the saltpeter, she had also brought two ships of mine ingots that included iron and copper, as well as part of green alum mine. It would take almost two or three days to unload that.

Roland put two steam engines in an obvious place and dropped a red cloth on one as was customary. He then tied the cloth into a big red flower and waited for Margaret to accept it. Actually, the Western Region Industry Company had spent almost one month and a lot of power to make just a single steam engine based on hundreds of scrapped parts. So, Roland had Anna reprocess some part that had a smaller deviation, which made it possible for the second steam engine to catch up on the scheduled delivery time.

To Roland�s surprise, Margaret did not come alone this time, she had brought the merchants group of the king�s city.

After the delivery was completed, Margaret and her crew followed Roland back to his castle for lunch.

�Your Highness, this is Hogg, my old friend. He�s also one of the top businessmen engaged in mining in the king�s city.� Margaret introduced them one by one. �This is Gammon, like Marleen, he belongs to Crescent-Moon-Bay Caravan as well. He mainly mainly deals in the sea trade between the Kingdom of Graycastle and the Fjords. They all are very interested in the steam engine. Due to having known them for years, I�m embarrassed to increase the selling price to profit off of them. Therefore, I come here with them to make the necessary introductions.�

�I pay my respects to you, Your Royal Highness,� Hogg who had a paunch and a shining face with fat said, �I heard Margaret say that this kind of machine not only replaces manpower to draw water from mines and transport ores quickly but also is capable of creating an endless supply of power. Does it need a rest? Could I see it with my own eyes?�

�Of course.� Roland took a sip of wine. In the beginning, he could not get used to its acerbic taste from the start, but now he had gradually become accustomed to it. �However, if you want it to deliver ores, we�ll need to equip it with the orbit system. I�ll take you to North Slope Mine and you can see the system.�

�Your Highness, I�m very interested in the uses of the steam engine you described. Could it be installed on sailing ships instead of sails to drive ships?� Marleen asked, �If it were used on a three or four mast seagoing vessel, its power wouldn�t be enough, right?�

�The steam engine is just like horses, some of which have great strength while some of which have a poor strength. It depends on their model number when they�re produced. Of course, the engine that has a greater power is more expensive. What�s more, you can decide the model number that you�ll buy as per your needs,� Roland answered with a smile.

Even though it was the most basic of paddle steamers, it involved complex power, transmission and control systems. Besides Border Town, there was no place owning the technology in Kingdom of Graycastle. And transferring that kind of ship cost much more than a steam engine.

�If that�s the case, Crescent-Moon-Bay Caravan also want to order this kind of machine.� Gammon narrowed his eyes after forking a bun just out of the steamer into his mouth.

Sure enough, birds of a feather, flocked together. Entrepreneurs were drawn to other entrepreneurs. They had not even looked and had already placed an order as if they did not care about the thousands of gold royals that they would fork out.

Roland shook his head. �We�re incapable of producing extra machines before finishing Margaret�s order because Border Town�s manpower is shorthanded and making a machine is very complex.�

�I can provide sufficient manpower, Your Highness.� Gammon clapped to applaud a breast. �Either carpenters or blacksmiths, even shipwrights, there�s enough in my port. Besides, you wouldn�t need to worry about paying them.�

�After that, let them learn the means of making the machines and work for you.� Hogg interrupted.

�No, of course not!� his eyes rounded and he said, �how would I play these tricks on His Highness. 10 years, Your Highness.� He opened his two palms. �I�m willing to let them work for you for 10 years, and I shall pay them. But I only have one requirement that steam engines made by them will be sold to Crescent-Moon-Bay Caravan preferentially.�

[This is an interesting suggestion,] Roland thought, [just like technical partners in the modern society. I only provide technology and gain the large part of its earnings. Of course, they can get the steam engine as soon as possible and own a group of technical personnel in 10 years. His investment might be equivalent the cost of buying the technology.]

�Don�t worry about deciding on that now. We can talk about these details after seeing the object.� Roland relieved the pressure by changing the subject. �The steam engine isn�t the only thing worth buying, you�re presumably interested in something else as well, such as this�� He snapped his fingers and the guards move a lot of things out of the box by his feet and placed them on the table one by one.

�These�re the new goods in Border Town, both high quality and available for a fair price. Let me present the simple mug,� Roland said, pointing at those colorful mugs. �Light, beautiful and not fragile like crystal cups. The patterns on it can be customized and what�s more, it sheds water so it�s easy to clean.�

�Sheds water?� Margaret picked up a cup and looked at it carefully.

�You can have a try with the wine.� Prince Roland joked. �You can pretend to be a drunken man, throwing it to the ground. If it breaks, I�ll undertake the cost.�

�The craftsmanship� it� is rather exquisite� But I�m afraid that not all of the cups will have this kind of quality.� Abdominous Hogg had filled his glass and swilled it all. �Eh, inside of it should be dry.�

It certainly was dry. The nature of it was an ordinary wooden cup covered by a layer of Soraya�s painting. �It doesn�t conflict with crystal cups. Compared with a royal banquet, it�s more fit for noble lady�s boudoir,� Roland said, �as far as I know, they tend to like colorful and beautiful things.�

�I think so too.� Margaret nodded with interest. �You look really experienced.�

�Ahem.� The prince coughed twice. �Look at this, a whole cuirass that has a uniform thickness. It has two parts, the forward and back, both of which are made of wrought iron. Besides it�s more portable than knights� plate armor and anyone can wear it. It�s fit for guards following caravans too because there�s no gap after closing it. The most important thing though, is that it�s cheaper than plate armor.�

�

After having introduced all goods, the merchants could not help getting together and whispering. Roland left the hall to give them some free discussion time and went for a walk heading down the long corridor towards the garden.

�Your Highness, we left one month ago. But now you�ve made a lot of novel things,� Margaret said as she walked out behind him.

�Do you exchange your ideas with them?�

�No, the things I like can�t be changed by the thoughts of others, which include both goods and people.� She shook her head with a smile. �The caravan may stay here for three or four days. So could you allow me to meet Lightning again?�

�She didn�t recognize you, but she didn�t express her dislike of you at least. So, I think it�s okay.�

�Thank you!� Margaret said thankfully.

�No problem.� Roland smiled. �You know, now that you stay here for such a long time, what about watching a drama? The first show will be held in three days in Border Town.�

�It only took one month to finish building a theater?� she said with a great astonishment.

�Of course not, this is just an open-air performance. It�s located in the central plaza of the town. I think it might be different from the rest.�

�And so your wish shall be my command, Your Highness,� Margaret bowed and said with her hands on her chest.

After the field trip to North Slope Mine and two consecutive days of negotiation, Roland established a new trade agreement with Hogg and Crescent-Moon-Bay Caravan.

When Hogg saw the rapidly operating mine transportation system, his eyeballs almost fell out. He even put forward an application to invest and build a factory in Border Town that would specialize in the construction of mine orbits and ancillary equipment. They would both earn half of the profits. However, Roland refused his application. If Roland had lots of people, he would consider the invitation of investment. But currently, the town was short of people, not money.

Hogg, after all, was a mining businessman. Although he owned several mines and managed an open-air silver mine for the Earl of Cambara in Silver City, he only had the miners and was much weaker compared to Crescent-Moon-Bay Caravan which owned an island. Eventually, Hogg signed a contract to order 10 steam engines and a complete mine transportation system (including orbits and harvesters). The first half should be delivered before the Months of Demons, and the rest next year.

The Crescent-Moon-Bay Caravan was so much stronger that Gammon directly signed a 10-year contract. When the caravan came next time, he would bring a team of 300 people, mainly composed of blacksmiths and carpenters. The Crescent-Moon-Bay Caravan would pay for them while Roland only needed to provide accommodation and food. The steam engines they produced over the following 10 years would preferably be sold to the Crescent-Moon-Bay Caravan. A decade later, these people would decide voluntarily whether to go or stay. This point was finally agreed after Roland�s repeated negotiations.

There was no doubt that there would be henchmen of the caravan in this team. Especially with the last item, the caravan would try their best to choose the people who were loyal to the Crescent Moon Bay, and it would be hard to know whether half of the people would decide to stay or go. But for Roland, skilled workers were never enough. Even if only 10% of the people stayed, it meant that he earned. He was never worried about technological advantage but worried that no one would transfer the technology to an actual product.

In addition to the steam engine, the second biggest order was for ship transformation.

They would bring two inland sailing ships together with the 300 craftsmen. The Crescent-Moon-Bay Caravan hoped that Border Town would transform both sailing ships into steam-powered paddle steamers. The reconstruction expense for a single ship was up to 1,800 gold royals, and the expanse for two ships directly exceeded Margaret�s order for the steam engines. In contrast, though he received three orders for mugs, the total amount was less than 300 gold royals. The amount would be even less if Roland had not increased the price of the mug by 10 times more than that in the convenience store. This made him deeply feel the profit gap between industrial and civilian goods. If the civilian goods could not be produced in large quantities, then it was better to simply meet the needs of the local residents.

To the prince�s surprise, iron cuirasses and implements were snubbed. Margaret later answered his doubts at dinner. �Although your cuirass is really cheap, the production is too small. For resale, excluding the cost of transportation and tax, the profit may be only five or six gold royals. Besides, your armor is forged by a hydraulic hammer, right? Or with the steam engine? In any case, the price of this armor is fixed. It�s expensive for the quality of the iron, but not for the manual work.� She paused. �It�s even more unnecessary to buy them for our own use. For sea merchants, both bodyguards and sailors rarely wear heavy armor. For the heavy armors will allow them to sink quickly when falling into the water. Most of the time, the armor is a kind of shackle for them and not protection.�

�The same is true for farm implements. If you can�t get lots of cheap iron, the price of the farm implement will be cheaper but not cheap enough. It�ll be hard to form an advantage compared with the local equivalents. Conversely, the prices of those colorful cups aren�t fixed. If a noble liked it, he would pay several times the price for it.�

�I see.� Roland thought for a moment and found that was true� For commodities like armors and farm implements with stable prices, the material costs accounted for the majority, so it was hard to cut the price too much. His armor and farm implements were cheaper because of the higher efficiency in forging with a steam engine than with a hydraulic hammer. Unfortunately, this difference was not big enough to attract the interest of big businessmen.

And these whiteboard armors with Soraya�s stab-resistant coating on them were also a part of the First Army�s armament upgrade. If the iron production did not increase, it would be impossible to sell them in large numbers.

�

The anticipated premiere of the play was coming soon.

In the afternoon, the center square was so crowded with people that even a drop of water could not leak out. Even though Roland had demolished the surrounding buildings and doubled the size of the former center square.

To publicize the play, Roland released an announcement a week ahead of time. Besides, he specifically ordered the Ministry of Agriculture to send people to the town�s surrounding areas and mobilize the serfs to come and watch the play.

Roland, as the lord, obviously had the best viewing position. In the direction of the performance stage, Karl set up a temporary wooden stage with three rows, which could hold about one hundred people. Roland sat in the middle of the third row. On his one side sat the Witch Union, and Anna sat next to him. The other side sat the merchant group, with Margaret sitting close to him.

The first and second rows were mostly for the City Hall officials and apprentices.

For safety�s sake, the people around the wooden stage were soldiers from the First Army. They would separate the prince from the civilians while watching the play.

At this moment it was about four o�clock in the afternoon. The sun was not that hot, together with the occasional cool breeze from Wendy, everyone on the stage enjoyed a VIP-like treatment.

Amidst the applause of the crowd, the actors went to the stage one by one.

To tell the truth, Roland was completely unsure what effect the premiere would achieve in the end. After giving the script to Irene, he never cared about it again. The recruiting and rehearsal were both under the charge of Irene and Ferlin. In retrospect, Irene was a theater newcomer and only performed on the stage once. How much experience would she have? Her friends might be the walk-ons who had no opportunities to perform in the theater in the stronghold and had to perform in the town.

In other words, this was a new play totally directed, arranged and implemented by a new team.

However, Roland did not mind failure. The play was neither for the ticket revenue, nor to promote how good the script was. It was an enlightenment of ideological remolding, and it would show more than once. If they did not perform well this time, then they would make improvements next time.

�I know why you�re so confident in this show.� Margaret suddenly exclaimed. �You invited Miss May!�

Roland was surprised. �Who?�

�May! Don�t tell me you don�t know. Oh, my God, before I came here, I had seen her show in the king�s city.� Margaret smacked her lips. �She�s the top actress in both grasping the roles and creating feelings. Her performance in �The Prince�s Searching for Love� moved many people to tears, even Kajen Fels was full of praise for her!�

[Who�s Kajen Fels?] Roland checked his memory and found that he had no recollection of the name.

�� Your Highness, are you really from king�s city?� Margaret blinked and asked, �Forgive me for asking, except people in the court, who�s the person you�re most familiar with in king�s city?�

��Magic Hand� Yorko.� Roland blurted out but immediately realized that he gave the wrong answer.

�Oh.� The lady merchants looked at him meaningfully. �The most famous casanova, I heard that he could make a woman never forget him with only one hand� I know.�

�Only with one hand?� Anna turned her head and asked, �why?�

�No� Nothing�� Roland said with his hand on his forehead, �we�d better watch the play earnestly.�

Without a curtain or introduction but only a piece of wooden board separating the stage and the preparation room, the group of people had their debut on this simple theater. It was also the first formal presentation of their lives.

�This story happened in the king�s city of a kingdom. In the outer city, there was a beautiful and kindhearted girl��

At this narration, Irene slowly walked to the center of the stage. She was wearing a dirty gray robe, her hair was coiled on her head, and her face was patted with black ash.

She carefully swept the ground with a broom, bending over from time to time to erase the dirt with the corner of her robe.

After a few days of rehearsal, Irene had remembered the whole process by heart. It was a simple story: a common girl who had lost her mother was bullied at home. Out of kindness, she accidentally saved a witch�s life, and the witch used magic power to send this girl to a ball held by the prince. Then, the girl fell in love with the prince at first sight. The magic power had a time limit so the girl had to hurriedly leave the ball but left one of her crystal shoes in panic. After that, the prince searched the whole city for this pretty girl and finally found her in the outer city, and then the two of them lived together happily ever after.

The story was simple and easy to understand. Its plot was not a love story between a prince and princess as it commonly was at that time. Instead, it was about a common girl, who due to her kind nature, gained help from a witch and won a prince�s affection. The transformation of Cinderella, the leading character of this play, from tolerating the suppression of her stepsisters to bravely resisting it, was the main part the actress needed to perform on.

Yet to Irene�s surprise, May handed over the leading character for her to act.

Irene was extremely joyous merely by performing on the same stage with the Star of the Western Region. As the pillar actress of the stronghold Theater, May had enough pride and confidence to play the leading role in any play. But in the show Cinderella, she requested to play Cinderella�s half-sister.

At first, Irene had problems believing it. But after May repeatedly emphasizing that it was a show to train new performers, Irene unwillingly took the leading role.

In the following rehearsal, Irene exerted all her effort: she not only practiced every scene over and over again but also kind of forced May, who was sleeping in the same room with her, to teach her acting skills after the candle was put out before sleep. She simply did not want to disappoint May for giving her this opportunity.

Luckily, Irene was not inexperienced. Looking at the numerous eyes staring at her off the stage, she relaxed her body and reacted the way she had practiced countless times during the rehearsal. Up until then, she felt everything was fine and she did not make any mistakes. When Rosia, who was acting as the witch, forgot her lines, Irene even encouraged her with eye contact.

�You can have half of my oatmeal. Don�t eat too fast. It�s still hot.�

�Thanks, you kind girl. I�ll pay you back.�

When Rosia walked to the backstage with a stoop, the applaud came from the audience. Irene was relieved. If it had happened in the Stronghold Theater during the official performance, it would definitely be intolerable. The nobles would have booed the actress, rather than applaud with benevolence.

Right then, May Eden went on the stage.

This act of the play was about the first conflict Cinderella had with her elder sister. After being bullied and insulted, Cinderella could only react by crying. She would sob silently in the basement looking at her mother�s portrait.

But when May stood in front of her, Irene found the atmosphere from the audience suddenly changed.

May, the star of the theater, stopped being silent as she normally was during the rehearsal. Instead, she became the ruler of the stage. Her arrogant manner, proper body movement, and unconcealed contempt gave Irene a strong oppression.

�Oh, look at this girl. What�re you doing under daylight other than working? Daydreaming?�

�You miserable creature. Go wash my dress!�

�Don�t be clumsy anymore. This dress is for an official banquet. You can�t afford to ruin it.�

May gave Irene a hard push. According to the script, Irene was supposed to fall on the ground. But looking at May�s cold gaze, Irene involuntarily stepped back and stumbled, which led to her falling on the ground with her elbow heavily hitting the floor. After that, there came a burning pain.

�You�re useless�� May stopped staring at her and walked to the center of the stage. Looking at the silent audience in the square, she started her monologue.

�She�s worthy of her fame.� Margaret could not help but praise May with a low voice. �She drew everybody�s attention with a few words. She totally gives life to this character she plays.�

�Indeed impressive.� Roland nodded. �But isn�t she too talented? The disgust and contempt she showed toward Irene are so real that I could feel her ruthlessness while sitting in the audience section. Her emotional appeal was so strong that it could be felt from the audience�s looks� but, she isn�t the leading actress. Irene�s poor-to-fair acting looks so inferior by comparison. If it goes on like this, I�m afraid the attention the supporting role gets will exceed the leading role.�

Irene felt at a loss.

She understood she must stand up right away. May�s monologue mainly expressed her craving for the prince, which served to lead out the royal ball, so it would not last long. Irene needed to leave the stage before the scene changed. But at that moment, she felt the familiarity she gained during the rehearsals left her and for the first time, the stage appeared strange to her.

�Is that all you�re capable of?� Irene felt disappointed at herself.

�When May finished her performance and walked by Irene, her waving dress touching Irene�s face, Irene came back to senses. Through May�s cold expression, Irene could feel what the Star of the Western Region meant to say to her. She understood that May could not pull her up because the characters they played were on the opposite sides. If May reached out a hand to her, this play would be ruined. She bit her lips so heavily that she could feel the taste of blood. Watching May�s figure disappearing to the back of the clapboard, Irene tried to climb up and follow May, but at that time Gait and Sam had run on the stage carrying props with them. Sam took the opportunity when he put a bucket beside Irene to whisper to her, �You�re in the next scene anyway. Keep acting. Be strong!�

Irene understood that it was against the rules not to exit the previous scene, but indeed� she had missed the chance.

The audience then witnessed something spectacular�Cinderella sat in the middle of the stage motionlessly, and yet the surrounding scene was shifted from a living room to a basement. A beautiful round table and wooden chairs were replaced by wine buckets and cane baskets. The staff moved back and forth carrying props, while Irene remained in the middle of the stage with one position as if she was frozen in time.

The following plot was that Cinderella was prisoned in the basement, then a witch showed and rescued her. The witch not only gave her clothes but also summoned a carriage to take her to the palace.

�Remember, you can only stay there till midnight. Before the midnight clock sounds, you must leave the palace, or the clothes and carriage will all disappear.�

�Ah� yes. I see. Thank you.�

Irene was still at a loss. She used to peek at May�s performance from backstage. At that time, she was impressed by this woman who could act freely and smile brightly in front of 1,000 viewers. Now when she stood on the stage looking at this shining star right in front of her, she fully understood how astonishing May�s acting skills were.

Perhaps this was the distance between the star and the flower?

After Rosia and Irene finished their lines, there came the first climax of the show�the royal ball. In order to achieve a grand effect, all the actors went on stage for this scene, except for Irene and May. Gait, Sam, Rosia, and Tida would all put on masks to act as noble dancers. The one who played the prince was Irene�s lover�Ferlin Eltek.

�The actor who plays the role of prince looks handsome, but isn�t his facial expression too stiff?� Margaret commented.

�Ah, it�s him,� Roland said with a surprise, �Morning Light, the number one knight of the Western Region. He works as a teacher in Border Town, not a professional actor after all.�

�Not an actor?� the businesswoman said with a surprise, �Is he qualified then?�

�We�re short of hands,� Roland said smilingly, �Look at the other two guys who carried props earlier. If either of them plays the prince� he would definitely not look like a guy who can win Cinderella�s heart at first sight.�

�� If you put it like that.�

Splendidly dressed Irene stood aside, looking at May walking to Ferlin Eltek, putting her hand on his shoulder and starting to dance with him. �No, Ferlin doesn�t dance. He�s only guided by May�s excellent dancing skill and waggling with her steps.� Irene had not seen this plot during the rehearsal, which meant May was improvising.

The elder sister tried to seduce the prince with all her might, but the prince was not impressed at all. He only had a conversation with her out of politeness. When Cinderella appeared in front of him, all his attention was drawn by this pretty and charming girl.

Irene knew she only needed to go over there then Ferlin would push May away and put on this love-at-first-sight show with herself, but she felt everybody could see at her lost state, she looked totally unattractive compared with May. �So how could the prince abandon a prettier and more attractive woman and choose the common me?�

At that moment, she saw Ferlin looking at her.

The expression in his eyes meant helplessness, consolation, encouragement, and� affection.

Irene felt her surroundings suddenly quieted down: the laughs, cheers and discussing noises from the audience vanished, and her friends in the theater disappeared. Only May, Ferlin and herself were left on the stage.

It �s true that my acting skill is so much poorer than the Star of Western Region, but should I just quit and admit defeat?

�No.� Irene felt there came a voice from the bottom of her heart. She wanted to keep acting. This was a rare chance, or in other words� her last chance. If she chose to give up, she might never get the chance to play with such an outstanding actress on the same stage again.

She wanted to become someone just like May who could draw the audience�s attention to herself only by gestures and expressions.

Sorry, May.

She murmured in her heart.

If the prince had been played by an actor from the theater, she might not have the encouragement to compete with May. It was merely impossible to defeat the Star of Western Region with acting skills.

�Unfortunately, he isn�t. He�s Morning Light, my lover,� Irene thought. �Please forgive me, May. I don�t want to be defeated by you in front of my lover.�

The stage seemed to have disappeared. Irene felt in front of her was a piece of wheat field. The heavy golden ears had ripened and bent, slightly waving with the evening breeze as if waiting for harvesting. At the far side, the sun was about to set beneath the horizon, which dyed the slowly flowing water in Redwater River with a warm color. This was the place Irene and Ferlin used to date. Under this reddish orange sunset glow, the prince resumed as the knight, the person who had been in love with her for long.

�As long as I show my finest side in front of him, I could draw all his attention� it�s not performing, but a present of my true self.� Irene lifted the sloppy cope and tied a knot on it, and then walked up to Ferlin.

The confidence returned to her and everything felt so natural to her again. She walked to the knight and smiled at May, then May subconsciously lowered her hand on Ferlin�s shoulder.

�May I have a dance with you?� Irene asked.

A familiar smile appeared on Ferlin�s face. �Of course, Miss.�

Although Irene could not dance as skillful as May did, the knight danced more naturally under her leading. The entire audience was infected by the coherence of their dance. They began to applaud, whistle and cheer all over.

The noise brought Irene�s mind back to the stage. She stood tiptoed, gently kissed on the prince� cheek, then pushed him away and quickly ran toward the backstage. At the same time, sincere bell tones came on top of the square and echoed by the remote mountains. No more, no less, exactly 12 strokes.

Soon enough, the show drew to the end which was also the climax of the entire play.

To look for Cinderella, the prince initiated a ransack in the outer city from house to house. When he finally came to Cinderella�s house, the little girl had already changed back to her dirty gray cope. With a broom at hand, she was pushed aside by her sister. Her sister was still pretty and appealing and could put on that crystal shoe.

�Your Highness, what�re you waiting for? I�m the girl you�re looking for.�

�No, she isn�t.�

�You� shut up!�

Although May�s performance was still excellent, actually even more oppressive, Irene was not intimidated anymore. She walked from the corner to the stage center step by step, looking at May in the eye, showing an unyielding expression.

The audience burst into the applause at this splendid scene.

At that moment, the witch appeared. She waved her hand, and then Cinderella was in her ball gown again.

�Your Highness, she�s the girl you�re looking for.�

Rosia jerked down Irene�s cope, revealing her night gown. At the same time, Irene�s hair, which was tied on her head, scattered. After her hair being combed, the girl who stole the prince�s heart once again presented in front of everyone in an incomparable poise.

The atmosphere in the theater was instantly detonated.

Everybody got excited upon seeing the prince and Cinderella hug together. Gun salutes sounded outside of the theater, which pushed up the atmosphere to the peak. The sounds of unceasing applaud and cheer filled the theater. Until the ending narration started and the actors and actresses bowed and left the stage, the applause was still sounding.

�It�s marvelous,� Margaret exclaimed and said while clapping, �I thought the little girl would be totally crashed by May, but yet she was able to make the situation turn. I wonder if it�s only an illusion, but I feel the interaction between Irene and the prince is more natural than May. It�s as if� Irene is meant to be together with the prince.�

�Indeed surprising,� Roland said, nodding. In the last few sets, Irene was like totally different, which was exactly herself, so that she could remain confident in front of the intimidating May. To convert the prince back to her husband in a short time, shaking off the shackle of the stage, she indeed showed an impressive ability. Given time, she would become a rising star. Besides, the sounds of bell tones and gun salutes created by Echo were equally perfect.

�

�I lost,� May thought with her eyes closed.

She exerted all the effort to make Ferlin Eltek play the leading actor, with an aim to impress him on the stage where she could show the best of herself. She could defeat Irene with her acting skill by showing Ferlin she was much better than Irene.

In order to achieve that, May stayed in the little town for nearly a week to rehearse with actors who were normally despised by her. Having stayed here for so long that the boss of the Stronghold Theater might not extensively boost her anymore. And the result of her scheme was rather ironic�she failed to defeat Irene on stage. But what led to her defeat was not Irene�s acting, but Irene�s love toward Ferlin.

That being the case, it�s time to give up.

May inhaled deeply. After changed her custom with a long face, she prepared to leave the preparation room early.

While she stepped down the wooden stairs, a man suddenly walked up to her.

He was a tall, straight and handsome guy. Judging from the shining armor he was wearing, he must be a knight of Border Town�but different from Morning Light who had a warm smile, this guy looked proud and cold with his rising eyebrows, long eyes, and thin lips.

�What�re you up to?� May asked, frowning.

�Hello, Miss May.� Unexpectedly the guy did not appear cold at all when he spoke. �I�m Carter Lannis, Chief Knight of His Highness. Your acting was splendid. Can I invite you for a drink?�

Petrov took a sip of black tea. Leaning on the soft chair for the lord, he exhaled deeply.

It�d been for two months since he took over the management of Longsong Stronghold. He found he had gradually grown a fondness toward this hall�the escalating structure under his chair enabled him to overlook the officials and guards standing in front of him, which gave him the satisfaction of taking everything under control.

At the beginning of the first month, a few nobles occasionally stood out and publicly questioned him, or secretly planned riots�of course, those who incited them were most likely from the big families like Elk and Wolf. Taking his father�s advice, Petrov did not hang those civilians and Rats involved. Instead, he prisoned the minor nobles and planned to expel them after their families paid their ransom.

After these hardball measures being adopted, the situation quickly subsided. After all, except the Honeysuckle Family, all the knights of the other big families had been dispatched to Border Town, so they could not resist Petrov�s policies openly. He planned to distribute part of the earnings of Longsong Stronghold to compensate for the big families� losses caused by the subsidence, in order to integrate the nobles as a relatively stable interest group.

Now 30% of Longsong Stronghold�s earning was turned over to Border Town; another 30% was to maintain the city operating; 20% was to pacify other great nobles; what was left, the final 20% went to Hull�s domain.

Right now, the portrait hanging on the wall behind the lord�s chair was shifted from Duke Ryan to Prince Roland Wimbledon. Petrov hoped one day his own portrait could be hung there�the portrait of Petrov Hull.

If he could completely own Longsong Stronghold, the domain he owned as an earl would be integrated with Longsong Stronghold, which would become the domain of a duke. The 50% of annual earning to turn over and to pacify would be saved and used elsewhere�to invest in the operating and trading of Longsong Stronghold and generate more generous payback.

Of course, for that to become true, Roland would have to be crowned, namely, to become the King of the Kingdom of Graycastle.

�My lord.� A guard walked into the hall and presented a letter. �It�s a message from Border Town.�

Upon hearing the word �Border Town�, Petrov instantly stood upright.

He took over the letter and shook the sedge-made paper to level it. Judging from the poor quality of the paper used, the letter was from the confidants he placed in the serfs.

The battle happened two months ago ended in an inconceivable way. Although Petrov did not attend it personally, the story he heard from his father was rather bizarre. In order to figure out the reason led to the duke�s failure, he placed a few confidants among the men he sent to Border Town. Disguised as craftsmen, herdsmen, and serfs, they were supposed to send information they collected back to Longsong Stronghold.

Petrov believed other big families would do the same.

But until now, except for the two confidants disguised as serfs were still sending back new information every month, the others disguised as craftsmen and herdsmen were totally mute, as if they had vanished into thin air.

Have they betrayed me, or have been discovered and eradicated by the prince?

Shaking the head, Petrov focused on the confidential letter.

The letter was written with a charcoal pen. It was not with a single line straight, and filled was water spots. It seemed the man had sneakily written it while working on the land.

The first paragraph said speculative iron towers were being constructed by Redwater River. Giant iron cans were put on top of the iron towers. Up until then, three such towers had been completed, each with a height of the stronghold city wall. It seemed the iron towers were manufactured by the blacksmiths within the town, then shipped to the river bank in a whole, and finally the soldiers of the First Army would set up baffle plates around the towers. The next day, the towers would stand up as a miracle.

��Construct�� this word again,� Petrov thought, �Same as the previous letter. Judging from the information collected, the prince is constantly building the little town. The last letter said there was constructing roads and bridges, while this letter said there was constructing iron towers. Could it be the prince would not stop until he spent out the gold royals he extorted from Longsong Stronghold? Besides, the towers are speculative� After all the confidants he sent to the little town weren�t real serfs but well-informed guards. If the towers were to be used as observative towers or embrasured watchtower, they would have known it at a glance.�

�Perhaps it�s hard to judge before the completion of the iron towers.� Petrov shook his head. �Maybe next month I�ll get more details.�

He continued to read the second paragraph.

It said that a large scale of merchants� fleet headed east after it stopped at the little town dock for a week. The ownership of the fleet was unclear. During its stay at the dock, a lot of ore ingots and saltpeter were unloaded of it.

The demand for saltpeter was easy to understand�the second month in summer would be very hot, so the castle needed a large amount of saltpeter to lower the temperature; it could also be used to cool wine and juice. As a royal noble, Roland would definitely avoid being sweaty all day long, which would make him as shitty as a farmer working in the field.

But the purchase of ore ingots bewildered Petrov. Border Town was an origin place of ores. He remembered during the Months of Demons when he went to the little town as an envoy, Prince Roland even exaggeratedly said that he would double the ore sales volume, but now he stopped ore export and started ore ingots import?

Associating with the iron towers as tall as the stronghold city wall mentioned in the previous paragraph, Petrov found it harder and harder to understand what His Highness was up to.

While the last paragraph totally startled Petrov.

In the previous two weeks, several open-air plays were performed in the Border Town square?

There was no charge for an entrance fee, the title of the play was unheard, and serfs were encouraged to go and watch. What startled him the most was that the recently missing Star of the Western Region, Miss May was in the cast!

What�s going on?

May�s recent missing was big news in Longsong Stronghold. The leading actresses of several plays had to be replaced due to her missing; nobles left in the middle of the plays as protests; the theater had to put an announcement, stating that May had left the theater without explaining to anybody, and her whereabouts remained unknown. The news caused an uproar among the play-loving nobles in the Western Region.

�She went to Border Town? There isn�t even a theater! She even played for civilians and serfs�� Petrov found it hard to imagine. His impression of Miss May was that she was not an amiable actress.

After thinking it over, he decided to write His Highness Roland a letter to officially inquire about it, saying as a play-lover himself, he not only had not seen the Star of the Western Region�s splendid acting performance for a long time but also had fewer chances to invite Shirley. �Since the plays were publicly played at the little town square, it�s not strange that they were seen by a businessman from Longsong Stronghold, which is how the message passed to my ears.� Thought of this, Petrov felt the guard he placed in the little town disguising as serf should not be exposed.

Just when Petrov was about to tell a guard to draw up the letter, a knight hurriedly walked into the hall and urgently said, �My lord, a guard in lookout tower of the east gate finds a knight troop is approaching Longsong Stronghold!�

�Knights? Can you recognize where they�re from?� Petrov instantly stood up.

�They were holding banners with images of high-tower and double-spear on,� the knight replied, �If they�re not shamming, they must be a troop of the new king.�

There were around 50 knights, all in armors that glittered in the sunlight. Three flags among the troop were with images of high-tower and double-spear which symbolized the royals of the Kingdom of Graycastle; the other flag had a pattern of high-tower and horsehead. Petrov thought for a while and then remembered that it was the symbol for the Hawes Family.

One man walked out of the troop and shouted, �I�m Lehmann Hawes, the envoy of King Timothy. I bring with me the resolution of the king�s city. Please lower the drawbridge.�

�Where�s your certificate?� Petrov stuck out his head and shouted back.

The knight took down the bow and arrow from his back, tied a roll of paper on the arrow and then shot it to the top of the city wall.

Petrov�s guard picked the arrow and brought it to him. He unfolded the parchment and saw on the bottom of the document there embedded interlaced gold threads; on the lower right corner was the Wimbledon Royal�s seal. He was sure then that the knight was the new king�s envoy.

�Lower the drawbridge. Open the door.� Petrov inhaled deeply. He could roughly guess the content of the king�s city�s resolution�most likely something about Roland Wimbledon. Since the knight was not a sham, he had no reason to turn the new king�s envoy down, or he would be regarded as an enemy of the king�s city of the Kingdom of Graycastle. As soon as this message went out, the other big families would turn against the Honeysuckle family without any hesitation, and the undercurrent which had been suppressed by him would return.

But the fact that Timothy only dispatched an emissary delegation of 50 knights to inquire the situation just proved what Prince Roland said�the new king probably had no time to administer the Western Region.

Since His Highness could defeat the Duke Ryan�s Coalition of over 1,000 soldiers, these 50 knights would most likely return empty-handed.

Of course, Petrov needed to convey this information to His Highness Roland quickly.

Thinking of this, he called the previous knight. �Westeros, bring three short-tailed horses so that you can ride on them successively. Bring this information to the Lord of Border Town as soon as possible, and tell him that Timothy�s troop is here.�

�Yes, milord,� Westeros said, nodding.

Watching the knight leaving, Petrov sighed. �Let�s go and welcome the new king�s envoy.�

�

Standing at the city gate, Petrov found those 10 plus knights walking in the front row looked in good spirits, but yet all the others looked rather weary, most of which sitting on the horse backs as if they could fall off at any time.

�Hello, Knight Lehmann.� Petrov greeted him while nodding. �I�m the manager of Longsong Stronghold, Petrov Hull from the Honeysuckle Family.�

The term �the manager of Longsong Stronghold� made him feel awkward. If he were the Lord of the Western Region or the Duke of Longsong Stronghold, he would not have to salute the envoy; he did not even have to welcome the envoy at the city gate. All he needed to do would be waiting at the lord�s castle for the envoy�s quest for an interview.

�I�ve heard about your name at Coldwind Ridge, �Lord of Deputy Duke�,� Lehmann got off the horse, walked to Petrov, said with a smile, �The Western Region is indeed a weird place. The large army that Duke Ryan summoned failed to conquer a little town, and he lost his life. This is quite rare in the Kingdom of Graycastle. Of course, this probably is a piece of good news to the Honeysuckle.�

Petrov automatically ignored the envoy�s sarcasm. �How�re your subordinates? They look a little� unwell.�

�Never mind of them.� Lehmann glanced at his men behind him. �Probably because they�ve traveled a long way and aren�t acclimatized to this place. A rest will do them good. To be honest, this place is a bit too hot.�

�It�s a bit too cold in the north.� Since the knight seemed nonchalant, Petrov would like to neglect it too. �I�m very curious why His Majesty sent the envoy team from Coldwind Ridge instead of the king�s city.�

�That�s because His Majesty Timothy is in the Northern Region right now,� he answered frankly, �Duke Ise created a riot in the Northern Region taking advantage that the border army is weak at this moment. He was suspected of rebelling, so the king had to lead an army to put it down.�

�A rebellion?� Petrov frowned. �This doesn�t make sense. Although in the border army, there�re knights and mercenaries from various places of the Kingdom of Graycastle, and most of its members are the duke�s soldiers. How could he start a rebellion when his soldiers had suffered a heavy loss?� Then he remembered that in Duke Ryan letter, who mentioned he planned to annex the Northern Region� and this gave him an ominous feeling. �Perhaps Timothy Wimbledon has the same plan?�

�So what�s the king�s city�s resolution?�

�A recall order,� Lehmann answered, �His Majesty sent me here because he doesn�t wish to see the Western Region fall into wars as the Northern Region did. If my memory serves me right, as early as the Months of Demons, His Majesty had sent Roland Wimbledon a recall order too, but yet he hasn�t returned the king�s city.�

�I suppose the document arrived at Longsong Stronghold five months ago, but His Highness Roland didn�t return to Longsong Stronghold for sanctuary before the fall of the Months of Demons like the other lords did.� Petrov paused. �At that time, he was leading his people to defend the attacks of demonic beasts, which was why he couldn�t instantly return the king�s city.�

�Since the Months of Demons ended three months ago,� Lehmann said without commenting on Petrov�s words, �the king sent me to escort Roland to the king�s city.�

�When do you plan to leave for Border Town?�

�I�ll set off tomorrow morning.�

�With a normal speed, it takes a person three days to arrive at the little town. If I send a knight to travel by day and night, I could send His Highness the message 24 hours later, which will give His Highness Roland enough time to prepare,� Petrov thought, �This is all that I can do.�

Leading the emissary delegation to the stronghold camp, Petrov stopped. �This used to be the stationary for the duke�s knightage. I wish you rest well here tonight. Dinner will be sent to here later. As to you, Mr. Envoy,� Petrov looked at Lehmann Hawes and said, �we�ll prepare a special feast in your honor in the castle. Please do come and join us.�

�I appreciate your generosity, Sir Petrov,� the envoy said smilingly.

***************

After the feast, Lehmann returned to the camp. While stepping into the big tent, several of his subordinates hurriedly surrounded him.

�How�s the situation?� he asked.

�There�re people watching everywhere. At the exit a troop of around 100 soldiers is stationed, most of whom aren�t fully armored. I think that�s the city patrol team,� one of his subordinates reported, �It seems the lord is worried about us.�

�At least the information is accurate because that�s also what I heard during the feast,� Lehmann said in a low voice, �After the defeat of the duke, most of his knights were sent to Border Town. There aren�t many elites left in Longsong Stronghold for military operations.�

Before he reached this place, he had carefully inquired the situation in Longsong Stronghold. The mission His Majesty Timothy gave him was very simple, which was to investigate the reason leading to the duke�s defeat and take corresponding measures to seize the control power over the Western Region.

�Those on medication� how are they?�

�They almost reached their limit,� a guard replied, �Now as long as the pills are provided, they�re willing to do anything.�

The emissary delegation was only a camouflage. Among the 50 soldiers in the troop, only 13 of them were real knights, and all the others were mercenaries who, on the influence of the pills, were more obedient than hunting dogs and crueler than demonic beasts. They were the key to opening the city gate. According to his plan, another troop with 1,500 militias was approaching Longsong Stronghold. As long as this city gate got opened, this city would be at his command.

�Distribute pills. Leave 10 soldiers to take care of the patrol team; the rest march toward the east gate,� Lehmann ordered.

The theatrical performances were a huge success.

Over two weeks they performed �Cinderella� three times with many people coming to see it more than once. Many people attended the premiere due to its publicity and advertisement, while the next two showings had a spontaneous rise in crowds. There were even subjects who came to City Hall to enquire about the next performance.

This left Roland feeling overjoyed. Everyone had been completely fascinated by the story. In fact, there had been almost no-one to cry out in objection, asking, �Why does a witch help Cinderella?� Next month he would show �The Cock Cries at Midnight�, a play whose audience was mainly comprised of poor subjects. He did not know what the serfs would think about the witches helping them in the show.

He was also happy that the cast had accepted the existence of witches after settling down in the town. After the third performance, Irene had sought out Roland and asked him why they were able to have such unique accompaniment. Roland decided to tell her about Echo.

From what Nightingale observed from the darkness, although Irene was surprised, she had shown neither offense nor disgust. After she composed herself, she became curious, asking all sorts of questions about Echo and making her demonstrate her magical sound several times. After that, Echo joined the theater crew, becoming the obscure music director. In order to avoid accidents, Irene would hold a separate rehearsal with Echo where they would line up sound effects. All of this happened without the knowledge of the rest of the crew. Without a doubt, the richness of the sound would reach a new level in the next play.

In addition, something else to be even more joyous about was that the castle was reaching the era of tap water.

A tall water tower had been built in the castle backyard. The tower was triangular and made of a welded iron frame. An iron water drum, three meters tall and two meters in diameter, was attached to the tower. A float valve was attached to the drum, which made it convenient to adjust the water level. The tower was welded by Anna and then it was given an anti-rust coating by Soraya. Finally, with the help of Hummingbird, it was lowered considerably so that it could be erected on a pre-poured cement base.

Due to the height of the castle, the water tower in the backyard was higher than the Redwater River and was approaching 12 meters, approximately equal to the top of the castle. In order to stop it from collapsing, Roland added a wall section to the tower, integrating it and the castle into a single structure.

A steam engine was set just outside of the backyard and was used to bring source water to the tower. The water came from the well in the castle backyard. This was the third generation of the steam engine. The largest improvement in this generation was a large reduction in sound pollution.

A gasket was fitted at each junction of the steam engine. These light blue gaskets were the color of the sky when Soraya created them. They were very soft but tough and could greatly lessen the noise made in running the machine. The inside of the cylinder, as well as the sides of the pistons, were the color of grass. These parts reduced leakage while simultaneously increasing efficiency. All of the steam engine�s components that were prone to tremors, such as the exhaust pipe, were replaced with coated hoses.

In order to protect the steam engine from rain and sun, and to further isolate noise, Roland created a small room to enclose it. The walls of the room were given a honeycomb coating by Soraya. This worked as a porous, sound absorbing material. The test results showed that even when the machine ran at night, its sounds did not wake the people sleeping in the castle.

However, Roland�s attempt to make the steam engine run automatically was ultimately a failure. He had thought that a flying ball controlled by the steam engine could work the wooden box flap. When the steam pressure was lowered, the shifting ball would open the flap and push the firewood from the storage box into the furnace. However, he had to enlarge the speed controller so that the ball would be able to move the flaps with its own weight. After thinking for a bit, Roland decided to give it up. If the wooden box was loaded with firewood, it was better to have people fill it. Furthermore, men had to fill the water tank daily anyway.

The last step was installing water pipes into homes. This included faucets, showers, pipes, and the corresponding drain pipe installation.

The castle was not like the newly built brick buildings in small neighborhoods where holes were prepared. The stone walls and roofs were quite troublesome to reconstruct. This step alone took nearly a week to complete. In order to improve the quality of life, Roland personally commanded Carter to have a room converted into a bathroom on both the second and third floors.

For this, Soraya�s new ability once again played a critical role. She paved a drain on top of the cement flooring and then painted on a thin layer of grass. Not only did this help with waterproofing, but it made entering the bathroom feel like taking a stroll in a valley. After he had received this inspiration, Roland told her to paint over the entire room. The ceilings became open blue skies with clouds, and on each of the four walls, one could see distant valleys and forests. The walls of the bathtub were made crystal clear like a gemstone.

On the day when the water system was up and running, the prince called all the witches into the bathroom, so that they could experience this great achievement for themselves.

The backyard water tank had been filled with water. He twisted the faucet, and water flowed through the pipes.

�From today on, there�s no need to raise water from the well,� Roland proudly announced, �Bathwater also doesn�t need to be used for three days. All you need to do is to stand in the shower, and pull this lever.�

�Huh? Where does the water come from?� Lightning stretched out her tongue and tasted the stream of water. �It�s sweet.�

Maggie stretched out her head from under Lightning and did likewise. �Very sweet, coo!�

Roland grabbed Nana, who was also trying to put her head over it. �If you want to drink this water, you need to boil it first. This water is only for washing hands and taking showers.�

�This is the siphon principle, right?� Anna looked at Roland, her lake-blue eyes sparkling.

�What�s that?� Hummingbird raised her hand and asked.

Under Teacher Scroll�s training, the witches had developed the habit of raising their hands to ask questions.

�Elementary Physics says that when the two uneven vessels contain liquid, and the liquid is connected by a pipe, it will move to the lower vessel due to gravity, regardless of the shape of the tube,� Anna explained. �We�re in a lower position than the water tower, so the water will keep flowing here.�

�You�re completely correct,� Roland praised. She really was a genius, able to learn new information and connect it like this.

�What about these?� Nightingale pointed to the tall shower curiously. �Why are there so many tiny holes at the bottom?�

Roland opened the valve, letting a small bit of water pour out. �It�s designed for a more convenient bath. All you have to do is to stand here, and you�ll easily be able to clean your body.�

�So you�ve been busy around the castle all a week just to make a more comfortable bathroom?� Lily curled her lip and whispered, �it�s indeed the sort of luxury that the noble would enjoy.�

�Lily!� Scroll frowned.

�It�s alright.� Roland waved, showing that he did not mind. �The pursuit of enjoyment is the source power of human progress, and I�m no exception to that.�

Scroll walked in not too long after Prince Roland had returned to his office.

�Your Highness, my apologies. Lily, that child� she wasn�t being intentional.�

�I don�t really care,� he smiled and said, �She�s just a little girl.�

�Only you�d be so forgiving towards us.� Scroll sighed. �She didn�t begin like this, only after being deceived did she lose her ability to trust people.�

�Was it before joining the Witch Cooperation Association?� he asked, �I remember she only joined you for a year.�

�Indeed, I found her on the outskirts of Redwater City,� Scroll said, �You know that I�m able to feel the existence of magic power and the closer I�m to it the stronger the feeling. I can�t see the shape and color of the magic power like Nightingale, but I can still sense it enough to discover new witches. To better use this ability I would dress as a noble lady looking to adopt a child, and I would walk through a town and visit the local asylum and orphanage to see if I could find any sister who may have awakened.� She paused. �At the time, I found Lily confined in a remote asylum and I was rejected when I petitioned to adopt her. The lord that ran the asylum told me that they only sold the females that were fully grown.�

�Why?� Roland asked confused. �Could the reason be related to the fact the awakening period for a witch happens before adulthood?�

�We also felt suspicious, so Nightingale snuck into the asylum and looked through their account books, records, and other related information. Fortunately, the asylum was far away from the town, so we were able to take our time.�

�Why didn�t you bring Lily back with you? It wouldn�t have been difficult with Nightingale�s help.�

�Indeed, it would not have been difficult.� Scroll nodded. �There wasn�t a God�s Stone of Retaliation in the asylum, except for one that the lord wore himself. Unfortunately, we were unable to do that since there was a previous incident.�

�What previous incident?� Prince Roland poured some tea for Scroll.

�Thank you.� She took the cup. �We would initially try to take the witch by force once we had found her, but there was a misunderstanding that happened in Seawindshire that ended up changing our method. A newly awakened witch was taken by surprise and thought we were enemies and attacked us. She had been brought back to the Witch Cooperation Association and refused to listen to reason or explanation. It ended after she had killed two sisters and she was taken down by Cara�s �Death� magic snakes. Since this happened we now carefully observe the witches and determine their situation before intervening. If we were being closely chased by the church� we�d like to give up.�

�You mean, the encounter between Nightingale and Wendy was not an accident?�

�Of course not.� Scroll sipped her tea and shook her head with a smile. �It was over a month from Nightingale discovering her to Wendy contacting her. During this time we recruited other sisters, Red Light and Windseeker�� She looked solemn as she said it. �Unfortunately, they ended up being buried in the wilderness. I wish they would have immediately decided to settle down in Border Town.�

Roland felt sorry hearing this. �If the more than 40 witches had gathered in this town, they would all be living the modern life.�

�Let�s not talk about that.� Scroll inhaled deeply and changed the subject. �Let�s talk about Lily. After we tracked down the information from the asylum, we spied on the lord and found out a surprising fact. This small country house was not established to be an actual asylum or to screen for witches.�

�What was it created for?�

�It was for satisfying the lord�s selfish desires.� Even the well-bred Scroll looked gloomy while mentioning this. �The lord would visit the slums in Redwater City every week to abduct homeless girls. He would lie to them by pretending to be a kindhearted noble who opened the asylum in the suburbs. He said that if they came with him he would make sure nobles in fancy-dress would come to adopt them as their daughter. They wouldn�t need to worry about food or clothing as long as they got picked. Even though he couldn�t fool every girl, there were hundreds of girls he had tricked over the decades.�

�That many?� Roland frowned. �But, you said the asylum was not very big.�

�Only hundreds of them were officially recorded in the account book, and most of them were listed as� dead,� she said softly, �He had only found three witches in the last 10 years and they were all sold to the church. The pretty girls he dressed up and sold them as prostitutes to wealthy men. The homely or unwanted were killed in the woods behind the asylum.�

��� Prince Roland was suddenly at a loss for words, and he felt a hand gently resting on his shoulder from someone standing behind him.

�The chances of a witch awakening aren�t high. Based on the records in the account book, he only earned around 20 gold royals, after deducting the asylum expenses. Nearly 300 girls died for just 20 gold royals, leaving that pit in the woods filled with corpses. Cara asked him why he had done this during their interrogation and he replied that it was not about money but keeping the asylum open to feed his desires and allow him to sell the grown women. Not to mention a witch was worth more than an ordinary woman.� �He made it his purpose to enjoy having the king-like-power to decide who lives and who dies, freely disposing of the homeless girls after he had fulfilled his needs. Upon hearing this, Cara killed him in anger and we went to free the girls. Instead of gratitude, they acted as if we had taken away their chance of becoming a noble.�

�Lily felt like the majority of other girls until Cara had taken her to the woods behind the asylum. Here she saw her friends, the �lucky� girls that had been chosen to go live with nobles a month ago. Seeing this and a few other revolting pits had Lily vomiting and retching so badly she passed out in Cara�s arms. When she revived she sat stunned, with no light in her eyes. After that, she has slowly been healing under Wendy�s care. Now she�s wary, vigilant and full of mistrust towards any noble.� Scroll then said, �However, I believe if there�s anyone who can improve her perspective, it would be you.�

�I see.� Roland emotionally thought to himself, �After experiencing such a traumatic event, it must be tough for her to cheer up.�

Scroll picked up the kettle to refill both of their cups. She was silent for a long time before saying. �Your Highness, I have a question to ask you.�

�What�s the question?� he replied stunned, noticing Scroll�s serious demeanor.

�Nightingale, are you here?�

�Ya.� Nightingale revealed herself. �Do you need me to leave?�

�No� You already know about this anyway.� She shook her head. �Just stay where you are and be my audience.�

After that, Scroll looked directly at His Highness and said, �You said you�re going to marry a witch, but I�m not sure you know that witches can�t bear children.� She paused, letting the information sink in, and then she clearly asked, �Your Highness, now that you know this are you going to change your mind?�

Roland was wondering if he had heard her wrong. �Pardon?�

Scroll, clenching her teeth, repeated the question.

This time he was sure he was not experiencing a hearing problem and thought, [This witch is really concerned about my marriage?] He then said, �Are you sure all witches are unable to bear children? Is this due to� any specific reason? Something that could lead to a misunderstanding? For example, the previous Holy Mountain.�

�I hope so,� she said with a sigh, �unfortunately, there�s no documentation of a witch bearing a child and there�re countless examples that confirm the theory. Whether it be a normal relationship or taken by force, there has never been a conception in the Witch Cooperation Association or any of the other organizations.�

[Reproductive isolation]� was the term that emerged in Roland�s mind. [Was it possible that witches had evolved into the next form of human being, preventing them from reproducing with the older version? Or, perhaps, it was the magic power they stored in their bodies?]

[However, now was not the time to speculate,] he thought, [The current problem was its possible influence. Will it prevent me from entertaining the idea of marrying a witch?]

Roland immediately thought of Anna.

Although it would be a pity if he couldn�t have kids with Anna, the basis for Roland�s love for any children would stem from his initial love for Anna, and this love was not going to decrease if they could not have children. Not to mention that, as a person with a modern soul, having a blood-related next generation was not as important to him as it was for the past generations. He believed himself to be an individual entity and since children were not actual clones, they were not a continuation of himself but other independent humans.

Therefore, he would totally accept a witch that could not bear him any blood-kin.

In this case, the only real problem would be creating an heir. However, it was still not a too difficult-to-handle task for Roland who had gone through their world�s long history. All he needed to do was build an empire that did not require an heir. There were a few choices for that specific implementation and he had time to consider it later.

Roland was surprised to find that it was actually extremely good news as a whole.

He had been thinking about how he could create a social framework that included the New Mankind Witch could live in peace with the normal human and together progress. He had been pondering this since he had that late night conversation with Nightingale. However, he did realize that the witches and their future generations would still be able to form powerful groups, even with the development of the God�s Stone of Retaliation. This stone would not close the gap between human and witch abilities. Even with the newly developing technology, the witch�s superior intelligence would still give them an advantage.

But, now he had been told that the witches could not procreate. This had largely prevented the formation of family organizations and increased the population gap between the witches and the ordinary humans. The thought gave him hope that both parties could progress hand in hand, at the same time.

Perhaps he had been thinking for too long, Nightingale could not help but grab his arm.

Roland retrieved himself from his thoughts and patted Nightingale�s hand on his arm to comfort her and, after clearing his throat, said, �I thought so before and I still think so now.�

��� Scroll was stunned momentarily. �What?�

The hand on his arm suddenly tightened.

Roland could not help but laugh. He had been the one who thought he had heard incorrectly and now they were thinking they had misheard him? He coughed before repeating. �Yes, I�m still willing to marry a witch.�

�

Scroll left with a strange expression on her face, satisfied and yet, slightly sad, and this confused Roland.

After hearing this he turned around and asked Nightingale who was still standing beside him, �Is she okay?�

Nightingale did not answer but looked at Roland with a smile instead. The sun outside the window was streaming in and enchantingly shone on her fair face and smooth hair.

�Well.� Roland looked away. �I�ll just take that as a sign you�re both in a good mood.�

Then they all heard a knock coming from the door to the office. �Your Highness, a knight from Longsong Stronghold is here. He says that he has some information for you.�

�Bring him to the hall, and I�ll be right there.�

When the prince entered the hall, the waiting knight quickly walked over and knelt down on one knee. �Lord Petrov has sent me to inform you that Timothy Wimbledon has sent his emissary delegation and they�ve already arrived at Longsong Stronghold.�

�Emissary delegation?� Roland muttered. �How many of them arrived?�

�A total of around 50 people.�

[It seems to be the persuasion team,] Roland thought, [It�s futile to me if he�s just being diplomatic.] He asked, �When did they arrive?�

�Yesterday afternoon,� the knight answered in a low voice, �Lord Petrov ordered me to inform you as soon as possible.�

It only took him a day to arrive and he had probably been on the road all night riding by torchlight. �You must be tired, and get a good night rest here before you return.� Roland looked at his guard and ordered, �Reward him with a gold royal and take him to the hotel.�

After the knight left, Roland wanted to ignore the matter since a team of 50 people would not really be a threat to the town and it was simply a show for persuasive purposes, besides he only had to let the leader in. However, Petrov was taking it seriously so it would be better for Roland to keep track of the emissary delegation�s whereabouts.

After thinking about it, Roland summoned Lightning and Maggie. He asked them to fly to the stronghold to look at the situation, one after the other.

After only two hours, both of the witches had completed their investigation and returned to the castle.

�Nothing was discovered, � Lightning reported, �There was no army of 50 knights along the way, actually, not even a single knight was found.�

�Not even a single one, coo!� Maggie confirmed.

[It looks like they needed to have some fun and relax their tired bodies after the long travel to the city.] Roland relieved them. �Both of you just continue to investigate along the path once every day before the emissary delegation arrives.� He paused. �By the way, how�s progress on the map?�

�We�ve put about hundreds of pieces of it together and it�s almost filled up Soraya�s room,� Lightning said, �she already moved the map out into the backyard. Would you like to take a look?�

�Sure,� Roland said with a smile.

The castle�s backyard had become a botanical garden and there were all sorts of exotic plants growing there since Sean had brought some crops seeds back from Port of Clearwater. Leaf had put up an elevated wooden shelf in order to leave the bare ground and flowerbeds for the vining plants. The grape vines crawled up to the shelf and even halfway up the castle wall. Along with the grapes, there were apple trees, and sugar cane hanging on the back wall to the castle. The witches would gather here and eat fresh fruit and chew on sugar cane. Unfortunately, the success of this garden was due to Leaf�s influence, so they were not a good example of what could be freely cultivated.

The map was located in the middle of the yard, five to six square meters and comprised of the various pieces of parchment that had been put together.

�We�re here.� Lightning held onto Roland�s waist with one arm and they slowly floated above the map. �Can you see that palm-sized grayish-brown square? From an aerial perspective, Border Town looks like this.�

�The blue-colored place to the east and the south� could those be the ocean?�

�Yes, however, we would need to cross a mountain to reach it.�

Roland was slightly worried. This would be considered normal if Barbarian Land were 10 times bigger than the Kingdom of Graycastle, however, he had not expected the Western Region to be so small once the entire map was completed. Graycastle was simply caught in the middle of the borderlands created by the natural barriers, the Impassable Mountain Range in front and an ocean behind. No� Not only the Western Region. He filled in the unfinished portions in his mind, using the Impassable Mountain Range, that divided the mainland, as a wall. The Kingdom of Graycastle and even the entire �mainland� would be just a small plot of land behind the wall.

�

Lehmann and the others rode through the streets of Longsong Stronghold on horses.

The residents in the city were all hiding in their houses with their doors closed. There was no one on the street and it had become a little deserted after the war.

�Sir Lehmann, is your arm okay?� �Shield� Knight Levin asked.

�It�s not a big problem.� Lehmann Howes shrugged. �At least I can still move.� However, the shrugging move had caused him to frown suddenly.

The hasty war last night was very successful. There were only 20 soldiers guarding the eastern gate of the stronghold and they did not expect the enemy to attack within the city.

Although the horn was sounded, it took the reinforcements at least 15 minutes to arrive. The mercenaries who had taken the pills jumped onto the city wall and killed the soldiers on watch one by one, and Lehmann opened the city door along with the knights. He did not notice that there was a side door beside the city wall in the dark, and two soldiers came out from the door, one of whom jumped over to Lehmann with an iron hammer in his hand.

In order to facilitate the rotation of the capstan, he had kept his weapon by his waist and Lehmann could only block with his arm in the haste while Levin, on the other side, pointed out his swords and pierced into the soldier�s waist almost at the same time. The hammer force that struck on his arm was decreased by half under the influence of the deadly attack, but yet it still left a dented mark on his arm armor.

Lehmann did not feel much pain at that moment, only after they won the city gate did he realize that he could barely lift up his right arm. He found his forearm swollen like a rolling pin after taking off the armor.

�I hope there�s some painkiller herb in the church,� Levin said, �They always have some strange and eccentric stuff.�

�Such as the pill,� another knight, Duane, came up and said with a smile.

[Two people were killed in the night attack among the 13 knights and one is seriously injured and currently lying in the camp groaning. He probably won�t last through the night. The loss is acceptable in general,�] Lehmann thought, [now that the militia army had entered the city, the stronghold should entirely fall into my hands.]

After a while, they came to the church entrance and there was already a team of over 100 militias awaiting command. They all looked hopeful when they saw Lehmann.

�Distribute the pills to them.� Lehmann turned around to dismount and walked up to the stairs towards the main hall with the team after everyone received their pills.

�Stop!� two believers who were on the watch shouted, �no weapons are allowed in the holy place!�

Levin pulled out his weapon and delivered it with both hands. �Alright. I�ll give it to you now, okay?� He suddenly held onto the sword handle and pointed it upwards when the believer was about to reach out for the sword, both of the believer�s arms dropped on the floor.

�Ah�� Before the believer could scream, the knight had pierced his sword tip into his throat.

Levin�s nickname was �Shield�, however, it did not match with his swift sword skills.

The other believer�s throat was also cut by Duane. Lehmann kicked the door open and walked into the hall without any expression.

�Who�re you?� A middle-aged man, wearing a priest robe with a white base and blue trim, walked towards them. Facing the bloody edge of the sword, he showed no fear. �How dare you break into the church! My children, catch them!�

Lehmann sneered. Most of the people were now hiding in the house and there were only 20 or 30 believers residing in the church. There would only be a dead end for them, facing the knights who had fought in hundreds of wars.

Duane did not wait for Lehmann�s command. He drew his sword with a sneaky smile and rushed towards the believers. The others quickly joined the war and the church was suddenly in chaos. Looking at the situation, the priest loudly shouted, �My children, take the pills and let the Gods give you the power to defeat the mob!�

Timothy, His Majesty, was right and Lehmann was pleased. There really were pills here! The believers� eyes turned red and the blue veins appeared on their faces. An ordinary human could overcome the limitations of a human body in both strength and speed, and they were harder to handle in smaller spaces when the pills took effect. [Unfortunately, you�re not the only ones who have the pills,] Lehmann thought, [you�re going to have a taste of your own power.]

�Get out of the wat!� He yelled. �Militia, engage the enemy!�

The militia behind him quickly swallowed the double-colored pills after hearing him and fought the frantic believers closely. The priest finally turned pale and said, �Why would you have�!�

�The Holy Medicine?� Lehmann walked around the group of people from both parties and approached the priest with a sword in one hand. �This is a gift from the church. If you didn�t come in between, His Majesty would probably have ruled the Kingdom of Graycastle.�

�His Majesty?� the priest stared at him and said, �you�re Timothy�s��

His voice abruptly stopped, and the sword in the knight�s hand was already piercing through his heart from his chest.

The war of great disparity quickly ended and over 20 believers were killed, with the corpses lying all around the floor. After the efficacy faded, the militia was breathing heavily and sitting down beside the corpses contentedly without caring about the blood that was wantonly flowing.

Lehmann started to notice that his arm was getting increasingly heavy, and he could feel a searing pain from pointing his sword. Sometimes he also wanted to swallow the black-colored pill to ignore the physical exhaustion and pain, but he put away this idea every time he saw the ugly appearance of the pill-takers.

Lehmann had had a deep understanding of the two pills sold by the church. For a healthy person, the pills would only take effect for three times. The first time lasted for about 15 minutes, and then the duration would become shorter and shorter, forming a strong dependence on it. If no medicine was taken for a long time, the body would gradually decline until the person died.

Using this characteristic, he had unified the militia to take the pills before the departure in order to make them follow his command. The desire of the drugs would turn the weakest farmer into a bloodthirsty beast. This was the second time the 100 people took the pills and they had only one use remaining.

However� after three times of continuously supplementing the drugs, they would only help to reduce the pain but it could not reverse the process. In other words, it was equivalent to putting one foot in the coffin. Of course, Lehmann would not share this with the group of people.

There was no doubt that the double-colored pills were the church�s conspiracy. Timothy, His Majesty, recognized this point clearly and stopped the knights from taking them. However, they were also a weapon that would unify the kingdom, or perhaps� a necessity. His Majesty would not be able to defeat Garcia Wimbledon, who possessed the same pills, without them.

When His Majesty first mentioned this matter, Lehmann found it unbelievable, as he was not able to understand why the church wanted to support both of the royal blood to fight for the throne. However, a series of misfortunes had made him increasingly agree with His Majesty�s judgement. He had no further doubt about it after seeing the pills in the Western Region church today�the church did not plan to assist any of the royal blood to ascend the throne, but they wanted the entire Kingdom of Graycastle.

�The pills were found in the basement, four big boxes, and there were thousands of pieces in total.� After the church was searched thoroughly, Levin excitedly reported, �There were also a lot of gold royals, jewelry, and silk that were supposedly donated by the believers.�

�Take what we can and burn the rest,� Lehmann ordered. �After all, all of this was done by Roland Wimbledon, we were just assisting the church to suppress the rebellion.�

As the drugs could only be reliably supplied by the church, it was not the time to completely ruin the relationship yet, and pushing it to Prince Roland, he would have no testimony from a witness. His Majesty was staying in the north in order to prevent the church from being suspicious to create the illusion of complying to the other party, sending only several knights to recruit a large number of militias to take down the Western Region.

Now the church had focused the entire force in the Kingdom of Wolfheart, ignoring the situation here. Therefore, it was necessary to unify the Kingdom of Graycastle as soon as possible in order to draw the strength to resist the church�s attack�Timothy, His Majesty, believed that they would soon attack the Kingdom of Graycastle and it was necessary to store and collect as many pills as possible before that. At the same time, he ordered the Alchemist Workshop of King�s City to study the composition of the drugs to imitate it as soon as possible.

Now that they had the pills on hand, the final step for the task was left�completely eliminate Roland Wimbledon.

Roland learned that there was a huge platoon of soldiers and horses approaching the next morning, and Lightning�s routine patrol found the slow-moving platoon.

�What? More than 1,000 of them?� Roland was startled. [Didn�t you say 50 emissary delegations?]

�Um, coo!� Maggie added, �However there�re only six of them riding on horses.�

�In that case, what�re the clothes and weapons� of those who�re walking?�

�Just normal, most of them don�t even have armor on, and they�re wearing ordinary linen clothes,� Lightning said, �weapons are various, however, there�re hundreds of them carrying a short spear behind them.�

[Such poor level of equipment, could they be the forced-recruited civilians or serfs?] Roland wondered. [There�s no special training provided for the militia in this era. They�re the logistics who�re responsible for transporting the provisions and gears supply of the knights, and they�re sometimes used as the �cannon fodder� to exhaust the enemy�s arrows.]

He would need to understand the situation of the war between Longsong Stronghold and Border Town if Timothy wanted to kill Roland by force. Over 200 knights of the Coalition of Duke Ryan had not even stepped into the town, not to mention the militia who were walking and running on their feet. They must be confident to break through the intensive gunning-line since they were still approaching the town after knowing the result and the process of the war.

Roland could not help but think of the pills from the church.

He was previously guessing if the church was supporting both himself and Garcia, they would probably support Timothy as well. The situation would be different if these people had possessed the pills.

They could enhance the running speed of a human to the speed of a horse in a short time and they would be fearless to pain, which also meant that the gunning-line would have to face the attack of over 1,000 �knights�. It would bring casualties to the First Army, even if only one of them was running into the line.

Luckily, the First Army was no longer the army of two months ago.

Although there were only around 100 revolving rifles modified, the firepower transmission density had been far more than the flintlock army, especially with the shooters equipped with the specialized loader�the enemies within a 300-meter range would be continuously attacked. The Artillery Squad had been expanded after the stronghold war from four teams to 20 teams currently. Every team was equipped with a 12-pound modified field artillery which increased the caliber that increased the effective range to over 1,000 meters.

However, another question came to Roland�s mind.

�Did you see any God�s Stone of Retaliation on those who were walking?�

�I didn�t get too close to them,� Lightning pointed at Maggie and said, �but she can see much better after transforming into an eagle.�

The latter shook her head and said, �I didn�t see any, or perhaps it was hidden in their clothes, coo!�

�In that case�� Roland pondered and said, �You bring Nightingale with you this time. You could probably fly around 10 meters high with only one person behind you. You just fly along Redwater River. Maggie is responsible for the front line alert while Nightingale goes forward in the Mist state in case there�re any passing ships.� He looked at Nightingale and said, �You�ll need to observe if most of the army is wearing the God�s Stone of Retaliation after approaching the enemy. Make sure not to attack.�

�Yes,� Nightingale and Lightning said in unison.

Just when the three were about to depart, Roland stopped them and said, �Remember, safety first. Protect yourselves.�

�No problem.� Nightingale blinked her eyes and smiled.

Roland was feeling a little uneasy after the witches left. [Was my last sentence similar to setting up the flag?]

And he noticed that he made a major mistake in his work, which was that he had very weak control over the information of Longsong Stronghold�if it was not for the carrier pigeon Petrov sent, he would probably only notice the condition when the enemy was attacking at the door. It would be hard for the First Army to redeem the situation once they were caught in the street battle.

[I�m too young and too naive,] Roland thought, �it must be made up after the war, not only on the intelligence but also placing the manpower for Petrov.]

Prince Roland was restlessly sitting in front of the table, he even lost his appetite for lunch and he was only relieved when Lightning flew into the room with Nightingale on her back.

Maggie patted her wings and stopped on Nightingale�s shoulder and said loudly, �No, coo! No, coo!�

�No God�s Stone of Retaliation?�

�Mostly no.� Nightingale took off her hood and her blonde hair fell out. �I had been observing from the front of the army to the back. Other than 10 people who lead, there were only three or four parts with a black empty hole within the militia.�

�Very well.� A preliminary battle plan was quickly formed in Roland�s mind. �Are you hungry? Go to the dining room and ask the chef to cook whatever you like.�

�Honey barbeque meat, coo!� Maggie extended her wings and raised her head.

*******************

The east side, outside of the town.

Van�er glanced at the busy stonemasons and workers on both sides of the street. �What�re they actually building?�

A few hundred of them were first digging a few huge pits on the ground and started to build a brick wall along the side of the pits. He first thought that both ends of the wall would be joined to block the road but the wall was unexpectedly surrounding the pits.

�Who knows? I only know that there�re enemies to be beaten up again,� Jop fixed the carriage and excitedly said.

�Indeed,� Van�er thought. Since they defeated the Coalition of Duke Ryan, Prince Roland, His Highness, personally issued a bronze emblem to every member of the mortar team� No, it was a medal. The front side of the medal was the pattern of the Longsong Stronghold�s high wall and the back was engraved with the reign title and military exploits. It was exquisitely made, making the Flintlock Squad badly envious.

Other than the honor, everyone was promoted a level and Van�er was currently a captain of the cannon teams, managing 10 cannon teams. And the Rodney brothers, Cat�s Claw, and Jop were promoted to be the team leader, and three of them were transferred to a newly-formed team to teach the new recruits how to operate a cannon.

The most exciting thing was that Prince Roland, His Highness, had fulfilled his promise and divided a piece of land at the bottom of the Impassable Mountain Range located at the east side of the town. Although it was still a forest currently, there was already a monument erected on the ground which signified that the land had belonged to him.

Therefore, the First Army was suddenly worked up, knowing that there was an enemy invading the town. Everyone was eager to fight, hoping to contribute to this war.

In the evening, Van�er wiped off the sweat on his forehead after completing the training of the day. He leaned against the carriage to take a rest. He was checking on the new recruits� compliance and confirming if they were launching the cannon in accordance with the rules the entire evening. His throat was almost fuming due to all the screaming.

�Drink some water.� Jop passed him a leather sack.

�Thank you.� Van�er twisted open the cover and took a huge gulp of it.

�I think I know what they�re building,� the former smirked and happily said.

�Do you?� Van�er returned the sack to Jop. The brick wall was built as high as half a human, and the pits were roughly surrounded by a hexagonal wall. However, each wall was 30cm to 40cm away from the ground, leaving a long and narrow gap. It looked a little like a window, but it was a little narrow. �Would it be a house?�

�It�s also correct to say it�s a house. I�ve asked one of the stonemasons.� Jop nodded. �He told me that it was an idea of His Highness, who wanted to build the underground house for the Flintlock Squad to hide inside when firing as a protection shelter. However, it has a unique name. His Highness named it a bunker.�

Three days had passed quickly, and the defense line had been basically constructed.

Roland stood on the high platform behind the battlefield in order to inspire all the soldiers in the First Army as if he would go to the battlefield, which was like the Months of Demons against the demonic beasts.

Due to the special task assigned to her, Nightingale had sneaked into the battlefield with Echo, and the witch Anna took the place of protecting Roland.

Roland also put on the coating armor, with two revolvers in his waist. If the line of defense did not totally collapse, it would be hard for the soldiers who escaped to cause a threat to him.

�Coo! The enemies are about 10 kilometers away from here.� The huge pigeon fell from the sky and landed on his shoulder.

�Well done. Continue to monitor.� Roland took out a piece of beef from his pocket and handed it to Maggie, and she pecked the meat and swallowed it into her belly, and then flew towards the east.

With the alternate investigations of Lightning and Maggie, he was clear about the movements of the enemies, so he could easily arrange the battlefield.

To deal with the crazy warriors who had taken the pills, long and thin lines were not safe, especially according to Lightning�s report. Hundreds of people bearing short spears made him particularly care. If it was not wrong, it was likely that the enemies struck first to gain the initiative.

Usually, the range of throwing weapons was no more than 50 meters, but that was for ordinary people. And Roland was not clear how far the militia could throw the short spears after taking the pills. Once the range was over 100 meters, there would be a threat to the Flintlock Squad. So he chose to put down a number of bunkers and implemented the city with tactics which built an insurmountable line of defense, with buildings covering the hole and flintlocks blocking the roads.

In the case of sufficient cement, it was easier to build bunkers quickly than construct walls. Although the monolithic bunkers were somewhat fragile in structure, for the Militia without heavy siege equipment, it was an indestructible fortification.

The 10 bunkers were arranged in a diamond on both sides of the road to form a crossfire. Each bunker was equipped with 24 soldiers, half of which were veterans, and half of which were recruits. The skilled veterans were responsible for the shooting, while the recruits were responsible for filling ammunition. Soraya also painted �optical camouflage� for bunkers. Standing in the distance, the bunker and the surrounding environment were almost the same, it was hard to tell the difference between them.

In the rear was the artillery, and 20 cannons were lined up. The firing order was the same as the previous one, with the cannons� angles adjusted and the corresponding ammunition loaded according to Lightning�s instructions.

There was also an emergency force standing around the shelling position, which was about 100 people, equipped with flintlocks, which were used to protect the artillery and His Highness from the rear.

Looking at the soldiers with high morale, Roland felt a little emotional. These people who joined the army because of eggs had shouldered the responsibility to defend their homes after the experiences of the Months of Demons and the defense wars.

�Your Highness, the enemies are only two kilometers away from us.� Lightning flew back to report this time.

�All right, it�s time for Maggie to monitor. You can send the signal for artillery over the forest.� Roland nodded and turned back toward the chief knight saying, �I order all members of the First Army to prepare for combat. Get ready to meet the enemy!�

�Yes!� Carter saluted.

*******************

Lehmann felt his hand was getting heavier.

Two days ago, there was still a burning pain in his hand, but now his hand almost lost consciousness. Armor could no longer hold the swelling arm, and there was a red and black mark left in the part which was hit by the hammer. The skin looked like a layer of shiny oil, which was kind of transparent.

He thought the bone might be broken, and the arm would be gone without treatment. The analgesics found in the church could relieve the pain, but they could not make the bone regenerate. He decided that he would return to the king�s city immediately after the battle had stopped. The best pharmacists and alchemists were there, and they might cure his fatal internal injury.

�Sir Lehmann, is your arm okay?� Levin asked anxiously.

�It just looks scary.� He pretended to be unconcerned. �And the attack on Border Town doesn�t need us. We just need to watch by the side.�

�I hope the pain in your arm doesn�t make you dizzy.� Duane laughed. �Do you known how to attack the town?�

Duane�s tone made Lehmann frown, but now was not the time to care about these little things. �According to the information from the Wolf and Elk aristocracy, they mainly relied on long-distance offensive weapons to curb the knights. This weapon could attack before the knights were speeding up, accompanied by fire and a loud noise, which was similar to a large ballista, and the launch of the projectile was much faster than the bolt.�

�In other words, although it�s powerful, it still can�t shoot continuously, right?� Levin quickly caught the key points.

�Yes, the faster we approach the defensive line of the enemies, the less we�ll be attacked.� Lehmann nodded. �As far as I know, the number of people is also important. The Knightage of Duke Ryan and the knights enlisted by the noble are no more than 200. It was only one step away from breaking the line, and we had 1,500 people. The speed of these idiots after medication was not much slower than the horses, so the results would be completely different from the last one.�

�Or it shouldn�t happen at all.� Duane did not agree. �Roland Wimbledon might still be waiting in the castle for the messenger group to visit, we just need to go into the castle and cut off his head.�

�No, he must have noticed us,� Lehmann said, �don�t you see that we haven�t met any caravan for three days? The businessman from Longsong Stronghold saw the large army and chose to stay or to return, so it isn�t strange. But it�s not usual to see the caravan from the town, which only shows that the prince has blocked the border.�

�Now do you understand why His Majesty chose Sir Lehmann as the captain, and not you?� Levin laughed.

�OK, it seems that your brain is still working right.� Duane shrugged. �This way, rather than killing only the prince, killing those who dared to defy His Majesty will be more interesting.�

�Sir Lehmann, there are troops and horses of Border Town in the front,� the knight who was responsible for investigation reported.

�Go, let�s check it out.� Lehmann pushed the mount forward. At that moment, the outline of the castle had been faintly visible. At the end of the road, there was a shadow moving. He took out the telescope to carefully observe the enemies� defense line. �Those wheeled things should be what the intelligence said were the long-range assault weapons, but their numbers look much greater.�

�Do all of us rush up directly?� Levin asked.

�This road is so narrow that it can�t hold all of the militia.� He looked at the right side of the woods. �It�s okay to divide a few people from the woods. It doesn�t matter if you�re slow. If you can attack from the side, that line of defense can�t hold up for a long time.�

The moment when Lehmann was ready to adjust the ranks, his eyes suddenly caught a touch of a white shadow.

He was startled. [Is that� the illusion caused by broken-arm?] When he turned around, he found it was a woman, unexpectedly. She wore a hood, shrouded in a white robe. Before she opened her mouth, a flame suddenly appeared in her hands.

Lehmann felt as if his head was knocked by a hammer, and the world went into darkness.

�All charge!� Lehmann shouted almost at the same time.

Levin stared at Lehmann Howes, who had fallen from the horse, and Lehmann Howes�s head had completely exploded, revealing a red and white sticky paste. His broken helmet fell to the side, with a big hole on the top. It seemed that the helmet did not have any protective function.

�Attack! Everyone attack!� Levin�s voice followed.

No, it was not right! Levin did not say anything at all. He covered his mouth and looked back to see the militia, who had quickly swallowed the pills and began to run, as if there were a wall of people coming towards him.

It was the witch. He realized that it was the witch who imitated his voice. �Don�t charge. Stop!� he exclaimed.

However, his voice was like a tiny splash among the turbulent crowd. After hearing his command, some people stopped, but more people were still charging forward.

�Quick! Charge forward! Break the enemy�s line from the center, and then the town is yours!� Not just his voice, but the voice of Duane and the other knights rose together and their voices drowned out all other noise, just like a shout in the ear.

There were also shouts bursting from the team as if they were in line with the command. Everyone was shouting �Plunder�! Levin did not know who started the shout, but soon the shout rang through the team. The situation had gotten completely out of control�no matter how Levin shouted, it was completely drowned out in the excited roars of all the people. He needed to take full control of the horse in order not to be swept away by the crowd, as the militia had lost their senses and rushed toward the central road.

No, no, they were not rational at all, especially under someone�s guidance. They would enter a state of extreme excitement after taking the pills, and any killing would stimulate them to be irrational. At first, the militia avoided Lehmann on the ground, but later they trampled on his body directly. Levin wanted to find Duane and the other people, but he found that they had been wiped away by the crowd. Finally, he had no choice but to follow in the direction of the team, and gradually leaned to the side of the forest. If his horse was suddenly hit, it was more likely to knock down the militia who had eaten pills, and then it would be hard to get up again.

Departing from the team, Levin looked around. He wanted to find the witch who had created the chaos and tear her to pieces. In his opinion, this was definitely the conspiracy of the witch!

Fifteen hundred people who had eaten the pills rushed towards the town�s defense line. It was a fatal assault for the prince�even if the other side had a large number of new weapons, they could not withstand so many people, so the end result would be no better. If both sides were in disadvantageous circumstances, the witch would be happy. Therefore, she caused trouble in secret, which induced the army to advance without authorization.

�The witch who killed Lehmann isn�t the witch who made this chaos.� He looked at the few militiamen beside him. Standing in front of the team, they had witnessed Lehmann fall down, and also heard his command to stop. But compared with the huge army, the militiamen nearby were less than 30 men. �One has the ability to hide his appearance; one has the ability to imitate sound. A witch can�t have both of these abilities. Find the latter one! I want to tear her throat out!�

�

Brian could see from the shooting window that the enemies were approaching closer. Gunfire had arisen in the front bunker.

His offensive position was located in the middle of the diamond, and he could not shoot until the enemy went through the purple signs on the roadside. This waiting made him anxious.

Brian went to the window on the other side and looked back. The artillery was jumping with continuous white smoke and a loud sound like thunder rolling over. They were the first to be very busy and the range of fire for the 12-pound cannon covered almost the entire battlefield. Listening carefully, people could even hear the shells across the air.

�Oh, God, they�re running so fast!�

�Look at that guy. His hand has been cut off by the shell, but he�s still running forward.�

�His Highness was right. That guy isn�t a human but is the same as a demonic beast.�

During their pre-war mobilization, the First Army had been informed that the enemies were all maniacs who had madness pills from the church, so the battle against the hail of bullets did not intimidate the crowd and they were full of fighting spirits. After all, the First Army grew up fighting against demonic beasts.

�Captain, they�re coming!� Someone warned.

Brian quickly returned to his position and put the rifle out of the window. Compared to flintlocks, which needed to be loaded every time, the new weapons issued by His Highness had a qualitative improvement. He could shoot five bullets in one breath, throw the nest to the recruits who were following, and then finish the spare five bullets. By then, the recruits should have already loaded the bullets.

However, His Highness had stressed in training that only when the enemies approached 50 to 100 meters could they use this method to suppress the fire. They should increase the accuracy of long-range shooting as much as they could, because the bullets of the rifles were very difficult to make and there was a limited rationing for everyone.

Brian believed that, and almost every shell was the same shape, thin in the front and wide in the rear. The blacksmiths could never make such an ingenious thing, so he thought it must be made by the witch. Usually, everyone collected the bullet shells and handed them over to Iron Axe. But after the shooting training, there was a reinstallation practice. A group of people sat around the camp and, according to operational norms, assembled the primer, gunpowder, and warheads into the distribution of the shell that was, in turn, assembled into a new bullet. So he was also reluctant to waste his ammunition casually on targets which were difficult to hit.

When the enemies crossed the purple signs, Brian took a deep breath and shouted, �Shoot freely!�

The soldiers had waited for this command for a long time, so they could not wait to aim at a good target and pull the trigger, and the bunker was flooded with the sound of gunfire. The first enemy coming across the firing line was struck by the bullets from both sides, and with blood emerging from his waist, he fell to the ground after staggering a little. Obviously, they could suffer more than ordinary people. But when they were facing large-caliber bullets, they had no hope.

Brian noticed that several people had jumped to the top of the front bunker, trying to attack the soldiers from behind. But there was a thick, iron gate blocking them. He did not hesitate to turn the muzzle to kill the exposed fanatics. The reason why the bunker was arranged as a diamond was to cover each other, and enemies who attempted to bypass it would be strangled by the fire from the rear bunkers.

�Look out, they�re throwing the spears!� someone shouted suddenly.

Brian saw dense shadows coming from the enemy forces, fleeing out of the air. The shadows crossed the highest point in the air, and then came towards the bunkers on both sides.

The distance was two or three hundred meters away! He subconsciously drew his head down close to the pit, only to hear a series of crackling sounds overhead. After that wave of attack, he stood upright and found that no spear had been thrown into the fort. The situation in the front bunker was similar, with only a few short spears plugged into the wall, like solitary feathers.

�It looked scary, but it didn�t really work,� everyone said, laughing.

At that moment, Brian saw an enemy approaching the bunker, with a series of sputtering dust streaks flying everywhere. The enemy bent over and threw the spear out of his hand. The moment that the weapon was released from his hand, he was knocked down by a shower of bullets.

�Get down!� Brian warned them, but the spear happened to pass through the shooting window into the chest of a shooter, who issued a muffled sound and fell back to the ground.

�Freckles!� Someone shouted, �He�s hurt!�

�Don�t move him!� Brian roared. �I�ll check his wounds and you keep shooting.�

He handed his rifle to the recruits who were responsible for it and bent over to the wounded. The wounded man was conscious and asked tremblingly, �Captain, I� am I going to die?�

A short spear squint had pierced his lower chest and it was not clear whether it had pierced through his body. Based on his smooth breathing, his lung was not hurt. In his literary class, the prince had briefly explained the functions of each organ in the human body as well as the emergency measures to be taken if they were injured. In cases like this, the best way he could think of was not moving him until Nana could treat him after the battle.

�Does it hurt?� Brian asked.

Freckles nodded painfully.

�If you�re feeling pain, that means you won�t die.� Brian put his hand on the man�s forehead. �You should be aware of Miss Nana�s power, right?�

�Yes.� Freckles barely managed to smile at him. �Everyone wants� to meet her so� I guess I can finally meet her.�

�That�s right. So hang in there.�

After Brian finished speaking, he returned to the shooting window, and the recruit looked back anxiously. �Don�t we pull out the short spear?�

�Pulling out is easy to cause a lot of bleeding, and when you learn this, you�ll understand.� He paused. �What we can do now is to destroy the enemy as soon as possible.�

�

Standing on a high platform, Roland could clearly see the enemies that rushed towards the town like a tide.

With each bunkers they crossed, their speed significantly slowed. When they passed the third row of bunkers, the enemy�s central wing was completely exposed to crossfire by the shooters.

Echo�s use was very obvious. Even when the team was scattered into a long strip, most of them were still following the witch�s command to charge at the center, running on the road.

Each minute, groups of people fell over, helpless to do anything. Facing fortifications that could not be destroyed by swords and spears, Timothy�s militia could only endure their casualties and continue to move forward.

300 meters away from the third row of bunkers were the artilleries. Within this range, this was the death zone covered by grapeshot.

In the sky, Lightning turned the flag a vibrant red.

The firing angle of the 20 artilleries was set level to give off flames and smoke. Roland roughly estimated that the skilled mortar team could fire a grapeshot in 20 seconds and the lesser team in half a minute. Upon first glance, it was similar to the firing rate of the excellent mortar team in the American Civil War, but the result of three rounds per minute for the latter was based on a solid shooting performance with a lot of time spent on targeting and repeated reduction. But there was no need to target and wipe the gun. Thus, their firing rate could be even higher.

But for the enemies, this was a formidable firing rate because grapeshots could cause astonishing hurts on unarmored targets with each iron ball capable of penetrating two to three people. Though pills could cure the pain, it could not resist terror. When witnessing people around riddled, excited greatly and eager to kill as they were, they could not resist this extremely terror of losing lives, let alone they were not so determined. Without pills, they were untrained and unexperienced commoners. After a half of them were killed, escapers appeared in the enemies.

The fear spread among the people like a plague. When the first runaway disappeared, so did the second and third. It was so bad that the front line stopped moving forwards and turned backwards to escape. The cannon team once again reloaded solid shells and fired at the center of the road, as the flintlock squad continued to shoot.

Bodies were piled up on the road.

�

Levin�s anger gradually subsided and he began to feel afraid.

The 20 more people all discovered that witch who caused chaos. She wore so strange clothes that she could be incorporated into the woods when on the lurk. No one would be able to discover her if she did not follow the team to march and lead all to pool together toward the center of the road.

Even so, she had already made huge trouble for Levin�he found that the sounds imitated by the witch were from everywhere, sometimes from the left, sometimes from the right, sometimes from the behind of his head. Besides, their contents were diversified, such as imitating his sound to send orders or some militia�s painful sound.

The moment they wanted to catch her, the lady in white appeared again.

Levin relived the shocking phenomenon where Lehmann Hawes was killed within the blink of an eye.

She held a silver �light crossbow�. With a spark and a loud noise, a man would then drop dead.

The roundup net was instantly torn into pieces. Everyone became terrified as their armors and shields were not working. What was worse, Levin�s iron buckler was shattered into half. The small hole in it showed that his enemy�s weapon could not be any more powerful. Perhaps only two-handed crossbows were enough to go against it. Had he not subconsciously lowered his head, he would be a corpse by now.

However, crossbows could not be shot consecutively.

Levin soon realized his desperation when he found out that the witch in white was not only capable of appearing and disappearing at will, but was also equipped with a fearsome weapon that needed no reloading. Once this thought prevailed, it was as if his anger met the cold wind and was extinguished in a flash.

�Eat the pill and kill her when she shows up!�

Even as he was shouting this order, Levin himself was making his retreat. He ran towards the woods when her attention turned to the militias.

It would be safer to stay with the main army. She would not dare to attack him when he was in a crowd.

The woods were filled with peculiar wild grass that reached his knees. There were also creepers on the grounds. If he was careless, he would definitely trip over them. Stumbling out of the woods, he looked ahead and wanted to join the army. But the scene before him terrified him.

The militias who were still under the effect of the pills were retreating� No, it was more accurate to say they were escaping. Those who were slow or did not react in time were pushed to the ground and mercilessly trampled by the others. They were like roaring horses when they charged forward and they were the same when they escaped. The runaways stirred up all the dust and Levin dared not step forward to stop them.

What happened on earth? Levin was stunned and could not believe that 1,500 people taking the pills had been defeated in such a short time? Were Prince Roland�s army all monsters?

At this moment, he heard someone treading on the grass, he gritted his teeth and pulled out his sword to stab in the direction behind him�at the life-threatening moment, this pull was even quicker than his usual speed, but he could only see a dazzling fire spark. The sword was smashed by something and the sparks were flying. Then he felt a pain in his right hand, which was holding the sword and he lost all sense at his fingertips.

When his eyes turned to his hands, Levin found half of his arm had disappeared, with his red-white muscles and bone exposed like a blooming snake flower. The lady in white approached him without expression and he retreated, before falling over in panic.

With one foot pressed against his shoulder, the witch held a cold weapon against his forehead. From this angle, Levin could see her face hidden under her hood.

So� beautiful.

This was his last thought before the gun was fired.

Roland considered the effects of the pills and did not instantly order the First Army to chase after them. Instead, he sent Lightning and Maggie to spy on the other side.

The wounded on the defense line were given immediate treatment. Only five were injured by spear throwers, four of whom belonged to the Artillery Squad. It delighted him that the Artillery Squad stayed put even when the enemies were as near as 150 meters away from them. Instead, they laid low and hid behind carriages to avoid the spears and rejoined the combat as soon as possible.

Nana remained behind the battlefield the whole time. When the enemies ran away, she disregarded the noise of the artilleries and rushed to treat the wounded with Viscount Tigui. It was hard to imagine she was a young girl who would faint upon seeing blood just half a year ago.

The five wounded ultimately survived. Surrounded by cheers, many soldiers saluted her as she left the battlefield.

Actually, this battle was much easier than that against the Coalition of Duke Ryan. Without the support of pills, addicted militias were so bad at fighting that someone lay down on the ground after escaping a few kilometers away and were unwilling to move.

The hunting squad rounded them up quickly and escorted them to Longsong Stronghold. The First Army also captured two knights at the same time. Even if the knights did not swallow pills, they had lost all will to resist. Facing the approaching soldiers, they chose to turn themselves in and requested to write to their families for a chance to be ransomed.

They arrived at Longsong Stronghold four days later.

Nightingale easily defeated the remaining enemies in the stronghold thanks to the intelligence extracted from the surrendered knights. The captain was instantly killed and the remaining 100 militias were soon captured by the First Army waiting at the gate.

Roland�s men found the captive Petrov in the castle�s dungeon. He looked weary, perhaps due to his worries and anxiety. But with his status as the Earl of Honeysuckle, he was not treated inhumanely.

After nearly three months, the prince once again met this representative.

�Your Highness, I�m so pleased to see you.� Petrov was finally relieved from his tension and told Roland what had happened. �Those envoys from Timothy��

�They�re all dead,� Roland said, unconcerned as he leaned his back against the chair. �most of the 1,500 men they brought died on the borders of Border Town. The rest are locked in the stronghold prisons for now.�

Petrov looked surprised to hear that members of the emissary delegation were all dead. �Your Highness, I�m afraid that the new king, no, your elder brother will see you as an imminent threat.�

�So should I just do as I was told and obediently return to the king and allow myself to be used as he pleases?� Roland stared at him.

Petro lowered his head involuntarily. �No, Your Highness��

�He became my enemy the minute his army set foot on the Western Region,� Roland said quietly, �Timothy Wimbledon�s actions would only be more desperate in his bid to seize power. He needs lands and titles to repay the nobles who support him. If you�re doing this for fun, you don�t need to manage the stronghold in my stead. Besides, you should be fully aware that your position in the Western Region will only be secure if I become the King of the Kingdom of Graycastle.� He paused. �To prevent something like this from happening again, I need to build an army to defend the stronghold.�

�An army?� Petrov was stunned.

�Yes. An army comprising civilians, instead of knights.� Roland carefully explained his idea. �Choose 300 people to form a team. My subordinates will teach them how to fight. The requirements are that they must be able-bodied civilians aged between 16 to 30 years old. They must not be criminals or believers of the church. During the training period, they�ll live in Border Town, and I�ll provide the weapons. What�s more, your knights and patrol team are only responsible for urban security from now on. More details are here.� Roland handed Petrov a parchment. �You can issue a recruiting notice and screen the candidates according to its content.�

It was the most suitable way to station an army of his own if he wanted to control the defense lines himself. But the First Army was not even enough to defend Border Town, let alone protect Longsong Stronghold. Hence, it was the best compromise to have Petrov select the people and his men train them.

With her ability to detect lies, Nightingale could guarantee the sincerity of the squad. In addition, a new training method and ideological education could quickly help them form their fighting capacity. They would be equipped with soon-to-be-defunct front loading flintlocks, so it would not be a big problem even if the enemies confiscated their weapon. Besides, this army will also be responsible for the transfer of information and intelligence. If someone tried to attack the stronghold, Roland would instantly know.

�I understand.� Petrov nodded.

�I�ll reexamine your recruits, so it�s pointless to place spies into my army.� Roland warned. �Those spies of yours were all sent to the mines. If the same thing happens again��

�No, Your Highness.� Petrov wiped away the sweat on his forehead. �I promise it won�t.�

�Next is the church.� Roland leaned back on the chair, satisfied with Petrov�s answer. �You may not know that Timothy�s men burned down the church in Longsong Stronghold and killed High Priest Tylo. Only ruins were left.�

�They actually burned the church?� Petrov was stunned by the news. �I, I need to report this to Hermes.�

The church ruled that the king and the lords had the obligation to protect local church facilities from destruction. If they were helpless to stop it, they should instantly report it to Holy City. This was the normal reaction of a law-savvy former envoy. Such a matter could not be concealed anyway. The most sincere of believers in the stronghold might have already sent secret letters to Holy City on the same day.

�It should be reported but its content needs adjusting.� Roland lifted his lips. �You only state clearly in that letter that the church was attacked by the army led by Timothy Wimbledon and that they left Longsong Stronghold for nowhere after they�ve looted and burned the church. Besides, attach this to the letter.� Roland pulled out a pill from his pocket and handed it to Petrov. �They would understand if you say that the pill was picked up near the church.�

�What� is this?�

�It�s the church�s secret pills and also Timothy�s target. It�ll make civilians unleash super strength in a short time, but it�ll also gradually kill them.� Roland gave him a simple explanation. �Timothy wants to use these pills to strengthen his army to consolidate his precarious throne. The church will understand his intentions when they see the pill. �

Whether they would take counter measures was another thing.

�Yes, Your Highness,� Petrov places this pill into his blossom and said.

Sipping some tea, Roland said, �In addition, I plan to carry out basic education in Longsong Stronghold. It�s a test of whether you can continue to manage the stronghold.�

Petrov paid very serious attention when he heard the word �test�. He asked, �Basic education?�

�Yes.� Roland nodded with a smile. Now that the local church was destroyed and the high priest killed, the church�s power had been weakened by more than half. It was a good time to fight for the superior ideological position. He did not expect that all believers could be transformed into potentially qualified workers. It was fine as long as they could further eliminate influence from the church. If Holy City wanted to once again encroach on Longsong Stronghold, he had numerous ways to shut them out, let alone allowing them to build new churches.

�Basic education should be available for all the residents in Longsong Stronghold under the age of 40, regardless of gender. The content includes reading, writing, simple calculation, natural knowledge, and ideological education.� Roland waved his hand, stopping Petrov�s questions. �Don�t worry. The cost will be deducted from the tax paid to Border Town. From this month, you only need to pay 20% of the taxes and the remaining should be regarded as the cost of education. You can recruit several scholars from the king�s city, or hire local knight squires and sorehead nobles, but these people wouldn�t spend much money. 10% of the tax is at least 1,000 gold royals. What you have to do is far more than that.�

Petrov considered this momentarily. �Your Highness, do you mean this money can be used to encourage the residents to receive an education?�

This guy was really smart, Roland mused. He laughed and said, �Yes. Except for children, most people have to make a living during the day, so their education should start at night. But after a busy day when they can finally rest, no one would like to listen to some other people nagging or doing any learning that consumes brain power.�

�So you can use your ways to encourage them to learn, like providing dinner with meat or giving monetary rewards to those who do well in their studies. Of course, a bright and spacious classroom is also essential.� Roland paused and continued, �In short, you must spare no effort to turn this plan into reality for everyone in Longsong Stronghold. As what I told you earlier, it�s also a test for you. A year later, I want more than half the people in Longsong Stronghold to be literate.�

�But Your Highness�� said Petrov hesitantly, �whether it�s the scholars or the nobles, they don�t have the teaching experience necessary to spread literacy, let alone popularizing natural knowledge and ideological education.� He read the few strange words. �In fact, not even I understand any of the stuff. If we let these people teach, I�m afraid that you can�t achieve your goal.�

�I�ve taken it into account,� said Roland, �don�t worry. I�ll send a number of City Hall officials to assist you in implementing this work. Border Town will provide all the books necessary for the education here. The officials are experienced, so they can train the staff before starting their teaching work. You�ll understand after talking to them. They can handle all the specific matters.�

The prince thought that as long as Petrov wanted to continue his control over Longsong Stronghold, he would surely need the staff. This way, news from Longsong Stronghold could be delivered to Border Town at once by the officials from the Ministry of Education.

Noticing no objections from Petrov, he continued, �There�s a third thing. I plan to build a road between Longsong Stronghold and Border Town, to shorten the traveling time for pedestrians and caravans.�

�Your Highness, isn�t there already a road?� said Petrov, confused.

Roland shook his head. How could they call a muddy trail carved out from people�s stamping a proper road? It was less than two meters wide and was full of muddy potholes on rainy days. It was completely unsuitable for high-speed carriages. �The road I want to build can support at least two carriages side by side. I need the road to be flat and straight. I don�t want there to be pounding even on rainy days, just like the streets of Border Town.�

�Do you mean a gravel road?� This temporary mayor looked surprised. �It�s not cheap to build such a road. We need the masons to dig the gravel and pick out the right-sized stones that can be used together. If we build a gravel road to Border Town, we�ll be spending at least 5,000 gold royals. Your Highness, to be honest, I�m afraid we can�t get so much money if we don�t raise taxes in Longsong Stronghold.�

�The Longsong Stronghold only needs to provide the manpower,� Prince said frankly, �post a recruitment notice in every domain in the Western Region, including Longsong Stronghold and the domains of the major families. Pay the workers with a salary of six silver royals per month. The construction period is one year. I believe many will sign up.�

�It�s pretty a high salary for a handyman to earn six silver royals.� Petrov nodded. �How many people do you need?�

�At least 2,000,� Roland replied.

The monthly cost of hiring handymen would be large. In addition to that, they still have to pay for the masons. From the perspective of other people, it was a steep cost. Few lords would be willing to spend their money to build these things without any rewards. This could be seen from Petrov�s facial expression. But the people of Border Town could now sell steam engines. Their income and expenditure could be basically balanced. Roland did not plan to leave his gold royals in warehouses. There was a saying that if you wanted to be rich, build the road first. Pouring his remaining money into infrastructure was undoubtedly the best choice.

The construction of a high-quality road connecting the stronghold and Border Town was of great significance. Not only could it facilitate future businesses and connections between the two places, but it could also be the base for the rapid deployment of the corps platoon. If they did not have a proper transportation route, it would take them at least three days even if they received the news of Longsong Stronghold being attacked. The enemy�s flag would be flying from top of the city wall by then.

�I see,� said Petrov.

�That�s what you have to do now. I�ll immediately return to Border Town. Do a good job, my �representative�. Don�t let me down.�

�Your Highness, how should we deal with those who�re imprisoned?� Petrov asked just as Roland was about to leave.

It was the first time when Rolland did not answer immediately. He was silent for a moment. �Keep them. They won�t live long.�

�

Boarding the Littletown, the prince embarked on his way home.

�You seem to be in a bad mood.� Nightingale appeared beside him. �Is it because of those civilians?�

�They were all forced by Timothy.� Roland sighed. �If they didn�t take those pills and get manipulated, they wouldn�t be his accomplices and die in a foreign land.�

�It�s not your fault.� Nightingale reached out to hold his arm.

�Of course not,� said Roland, without any hesitation. �If I didn�t stop them, the town will be Timothy�s victim in his pursuit of power. And of course, the main culprit is the church that produced the pills.�

�You�ll destroy the Church and end the dispute, so people no longer have to kill each other for such unnecessary reasons, right?� Nightingale smiled. �Whether it�s the ordinary people or witches, we can all live happily under your rule.�

Roland looked into her shiny eyes and nodded. �I promise.�

The sea was like a blue earth, only more flat.

If Maggie were here, she would have been constantly chirping to inform her how far the island was. But right now, all she could hear was the sea waves crashing against the sides of the ship. Although it sounded a little monotonous, for the crew, it was actually a lucky beat, as it meant that today was a good day for sailing.

Oh, now there was another one, Ashes thought. The footsteps were banging against the old teak board, issuing a slightly squeaky sound�someone was coming over to her.

�I don�t expect that you�ve actually settled down in Sleeping Island.� A white-haired old man stepped to her side, resting his hands on the railing. �That place seems spacious but once the tide rises, most of the land will be flooded by the sea, so it�s not suitable for settling down. Why not live in Crescent Moon Bay? It�s the second largest island among the Fjords and there�re still many uninhabited spaces there.�

The one-eyed Jack, Captain of the Charming Beauty, just like his name suggested, had a blindfold on his face covering his left eye. He was also one of the few captains willing to transport goods for the witches�even though the people in the Fjords did not hate witches like the residents on the mainland, they still were not keen on dealing with outsiders.

�Not everyone is willing to deal with witches like you are.� Ashes smiled. �The sea will indeed flood Sleeping Island and that�s the reason why even if its area is the third largest among Fjord Islands, it�s still a deserted island.�

�Being the third largest area doesn�t mean that it has an equivalent inhabited area.� Captain Jack shrugged his shoulders. �If it�s impossible to live there, then size won�t matter. Take Searing Flame Island for example.�

�The witches are the best at altering nature,� she earnestly said, �after all, this island will be our home. As long as we�re free from the oppression of the church, we can create an entirely different world, a� brand new world.� She paused for a moment. �When was the last time that you were on Sleeping Island?�

The captain took off his hat and scratched the back of his head. �It�s been almost a month now and last time I sent a group of witches and a full cabin of pearl rice. To be honest, the way those girls were playing around on the ship made my sailors drooling all over them. It�s really hard for young men sailing at sea, and they�re like volcanos that can erupt at any time, but fortunately, I was able to control them. Otherwise, my precious ship would be in trouble.�

Ashes instantly ignored the last part of his words. �One month is enough for Heaven and Earth to be turned upside down, Mr. captain. I bet that when you see Sleeping Island this time, it�ll be much more different than that in your memory.�

�Really?� Jack whistled. �Then I �ll be looking forward to� Wait, what�s that?� He leaned over the ship, staring at in front of him. �Monkey! Get up on the mast. There�s something in front of us!�

The sailor named Monkey swiftly climbed to the top of the mast, and lifted the telescope. �Captain, it looks like an island!�

�Island? What nonsense is this.� Captain pulled out and glanced at his compass. �There shouldn�t be any other island near us except for Sleeping Island.�

�But it�s really an island, captain, I swear!�

�Don�t swear to me. Let me see,� Jack said taking off his hat.

�No, no, Captain, it�s best if you don�t come up here, the wind is too strong.� Monkey continued to observe. �By the name of Three Gods!� He exclaimed incredibly, �This is actually the Sleeping Island! It�s taller!�

�

As the Charming Beauty approached the docks of Sleeping Island, all people on the ship could not almost believe what they were seeing.

The towering island resembled a small mountain located above the sea surface. The mountain slopes were straight and steep with the distance of at least dozens of feet to the top.

It was the first time for Ashes to arrive at the island so her reaction was much calmer than the rest. In the eyes of Captain Jack, this represented a calm and confident character.

�You won.� He sighed. �I never expected that you could raise the level of a whole island. No wonder why those church fanatics hate your witches so much, you�re comparable to the Gods.�

�Uncle Jack, it�s not like that we raised the whole island,� a smiling young girl standing on the pier said, �but we only built a �city wall� around Sleeping Island, and you�ll understand in a moment after you come with us.� Then, she turned to Ashes and bowed her head saluting. �You�re finally back. Lady Tilly has been talking a lot about you.�

Ashes stroked her head. �Don�t be so formal, Molly. I�ll have to trouble you with carrying my stuff.�

�I got this.� The young girl said patting her chest.

Once the sailors transported all the grain to the pier, Molly summoned her magic servant�a light blue sphere with two arms that could be transformed at will. The arms were turned into a net, firmly grabbing all the bags and carrying them in the air. �Let�s go,� she said proudly.

�Oh, what a convenient ability,� the captain said. �Did you see that, men? You can�t even compare to a little girl.�

The pier was built in the middle of the mountain slope. They climbed up the stairs and as they reached the top, Ashes instantly understood the meaning of �building a city wall around Sleeping Island�.

They did not raise the island itself, but rather the outline of the island�turning the whole Sleeping Island into a basin, surrounded by thick edges. This edge was what Molly referred to as city wall. Inside the wall, many stairs were leading down to Sleeping Island itself.

�This� is unbelievable.� Captain Jack curled his lips. �You turned the island into a city. What would happen here when the tide floods? My God, you would be living below the sea level!�

�That�s correct.� Molly laughed. �that�s the reason why we have two piers, one below the sea, and one above sea level. Of course, they can also be considered as one at sea level and one at mid-air.�

As they reached the center of the island, they came across all kinds of houses but unlike traditional wooden or brick houses, these buildings looked as if they were grown out of the ground, as the foundations of the houses were attached to the ground. Without a doubt, just like the wall itself, these were all Lotus�s work.

�Sister Ashes, the house in the most tip of the north is Lady Tilly�s palace. I�ll go with the captain to deliver the goods, and you don�t need to come with me, just going straight to see Lady Tilly,� the little girl said as she waved.

Ashes nodded, said goodbye to the two of them and walked towards the north quickly. She saw a lot of familiar faces along the way, some bowing to her and some waving smilingly. �The homeland of the witches� made her feel more and more hopeful and powerful.

The founder of this homeland was Tilly Wimbledon, Queen of Witches.

Unlike the royal palace, this spacious house had no guards or locked gates. Ashes walked straight through the vestibule and upon entering the hall, she saw a familiar figure in front of her.

She quietly walked behind the other person and used her hands to cover the gray-haired girl�s eyes.

�I sensed you as soon as you reached the door.� The other side laughed. �Don�t forget how I first found you in the crowd.�

Extraordinary witches had the ability to sense magic power, and between two extraordinary witches, the mutual feeling would be even more intense. This kind of magical connection, like an invisible fetter, had resolutely connected herself with Tilly.

�I�m back,� Ashes said softly.

�Yeah,� Tilly replied cheerfully, �Welcome home.�

They enjoyed a moment of affection, and then Ashes� attention was drawn to a bunch of diamond-like gemstones in front of Tilly. She asked curiously, �What�re these?�

�Come.� Tilly patted her sides. �I�ll show you something interesting.�

Ashes sat cross-legged next to her and saw her putting on a white silk glove the back of which was embedded with a red gemstone.

�Is this� a tracking stone?�

Tilly did not reply. Instead, she smiled and raised her hand toward the empty place. Suddenly, a lightning appeared from her fingertips, hitting the floor with a cracking sound. As a green smoke faded away, she saw a black spot at the size of a palm on the hit spot.

Ashes could not believe in her eyes. �Did you� obtain a new ability?�

Tilly Wimbledon was an extraordinary witch whose magic power could exert on herself, manifesting as genuine intelligence. It was impossible for her to unleash her magic power like the other witches. That lighting flash just now meant that she now had a brand new ability, but it was impossible for witches to have two types of abilities, which was a common knowledge among all the sisters.

Tilly took off the glove and handed it over to Ashes. �It�s not like I acquired a new ability and it�s actually because of this stone.� She smiled. �It has the ability to change the way magic operates, allowing the magic to manifest in different ways.�

Shocked, Ashes rubbed the gemstone in the middle of the glove. She knew that Tilly would not lie to her�this meant that even non-combat type witches would now possess the ability to fight, significantly increasing the witches� ability to resist an enemy. �How many these stones we have?�

�Only one,� Tilly said like she had guessed Ashes� thoughts, �Not to mention that using them is quite difficult. You�ll have to think of magic as something real and concrete, letting it fill in the stone and then release it through the gemstone.�

Ashes tried silently for a long time, but not even one ray of lightning appeared.

�Do you understand now?� Tilly smiled. �We, as extraordinary witches, can already sense magic, so for the rest of the witches, it�s even harder. It requires a tremendous amount of imagination and understanding. As a matter of fact, I�ve asked many sisters to try, but only two to three out of 100 people were able to understand it and release flashes of lightning.�

�Are you saying I�m stupid?� Ashes took off the glove.

�That�s right.� Tilly raised her eyebrow. �At that time I merely used� oh��

She was unable to continue talking as Ashes suddenly kissed her� When they parted, the latter exhaled a deep breath. �Fine, not too stupid.�

�What about the other stones?� Ashes licked her lips as if she did not have enough. Only in the presence of Princess Tilly, was she able to completely relax. �Do they all possess different types of abilities?�

�They manifest differently.� Tilly corrected with her cheeks still blushing. �They still won�t allow commoners to possess abilities like witches since they require magic to be triggered,� she paused and said then, �which left me with a question.�

�What kind of question?�

�What exactly magic power is?� Tilly said slowly and explained word by word, �For a long time, the abilities vary and manifest with a certain uncertainty, and they also feel different according to the senses of an extraordinary witch. But these strange stones are able to unify all magic power and through them, all witches can release the exact same ability. Thus, I might have been thinking in a wrong direction previously. Perhaps magic itself is an all-powerful type of force, but the witches can only possess one of its forms.�

�Then what about these magic stones?� Ashes asked.

�They can only be used to release, but not to gather magic power. It isn�t clear whether they�re manmade or naturally formed,� Tilly said regretfully, �according to legends, they were first excavated in the ruins and most of them were then spread out among commoners. I was only able to collect this much� I heard that some ancient ruins lied in the forest east of King City at Seawindshire. I really want to go personally and check it out, and we may be able to find more clues about magic and other historical faults.�

Tilly�s words were not making any sense to her again, Ashes thought helplessly. As long as they could manage to live on, who cared about what had happened 400 years ago. �It�s best if you don�t. Currently, Seawindshire is probably one of the most dangerous places in the Kingdom of Graycastle.�

�Why?�

�Before leaving Port of Clearwater, I heard the sailors mention that Garcia Wimbledon had dispatched the whole Blacksail Fleet with Seawindshire as her target�that�s Timothy�s territory. She probably wants to use the advantage of the sea to directly attack his homefront camp.� Ashes persuaded. �Only when the martial law had been lifted, I was able to leave the harbor. If what they said was true, I�m afraid that Seawindshire had already become a war zone.�

�They�re still fighting amongst themselves.� Tilly�s expression became worried. �If this continues, the church will take advantage of it and start an invasion. If we don�t unite, the Kingdom of Graycastle will fall just like the Kingdom of Everwinter and we�ll be swallowed by the church.�

These words startled Ashes, and Princess Tilly soon noticed it. �What�s it?�

�Nothing.� She blinked her eyes. �Just now, you looked a bit like Roland Wimbledon who also said the same words to me.�

�Oh? You managed to see him?� Tilly got interested. �Right, you still didn�t tell me anything about your trip to the Western Region. Come on!�

�Shadow must have already told you that after hearing the news about the Witch Cooperation Association I went to Border Town.� Ashes hugged her into her arms, �After arriving there, I found out that the so-called Holy Mountain search was just a lie created by Roland who had taken command of the Witch Cooperation Association and was secretly recruiting witches�� She then described to Tilly about everything that she saw and heard during her one week in Border Town. �In the end, he told me that we should unite to resist the attack of the church. If one day we couldn�t live at the Fjords anymore, he would gladly welcome us to Border Town at any time.�

�Well�� Tilly thought silently for a moment, then suddenly said, �This man isn�t Roland Wimbledon. He has been replaced.�

�Huh?�

�You�ve mentioned that many witches have gathered around him, right? I guess that a witch is controlling him, or maybe changed her appearance into his.� Tilly said bluntly, �I grew up with Roland, so I�m sure about this�compared with my two other elder brothers and my third sister, he�s the worst at deceiving, and his lies are full of loopholes. It�s impossible for him to pose as another person. As for the weapons you�ve mentioned that can fight against those of the God�s Punishment Army, they prove my point even more� One can hide his character, but can�t fake knowledge. Court mentors had never taught these things, so how did he come to know them?� Tilly said without any hesitations, �No one in this world is born knowledgeable, so that person is certainly not my stupid and annoying brother.�

�Is� that so?� Ashes frowned.

�Having said that, I still have to contact them.� Tilly sighed. �Roland Wimbledon is my brother after all. Even though he�s ignorant and incompetent, there�s still hope for him. Compared with the rest, he was the most harmless. Hopefully, the witches of the Witch Cooperation Association haven�t killed him already.�

�I think that�s highly improbable.� Ashes could not help thinking of Wendy. �I also left Maggie there, and at the end of this month, she�ll come back to bring us news from Border Town.�

�Alright, after all, our current priority isn�t that.� Princess Tilly freed herself from her embrace, going to the garden and opened her arms. �Now that you�re back, we can finally begin with the cleaning project. I want no traces of the church on the island so that Fjord Islands can finally become the home to the witches.�

The sun shone at the back of Tilly�s body, covering her figure with a golden halo. Her long gray hairs fell on her cheeks like golden threads and her face was full of confidence as if no difficulty could ever bring her down.

�I�m willing to serve you, my Queen,� Ashes said with a smile.

After defeating the army of Timothy, the town resumed its peace.

Roland made a group of three people from Ministry of Education of City Hall and two teachers bringing Soraya�s reprographic books to Longsong Stronghold. Despite his best efforts, he had finally taken the first step to assimilate Longsong Stronghold.

Although Petrov was not a good battle commander, he indeed behaved excellently in administration. In the short span of two weeks, 2,000 men, under the protection of the knights, had laid a road which reached the town. If not for the fact that the second batch of the 10 groups of furnaces was to be produced, Roland still would not make the decision to build a road between the two places.

This road was named Kingdom Main Street by Roland and with the full authority of the Minister of Construction, Karl, its construction was the same as the town street which used cement as a stabilizing layer. In this time without heavy vehicles, this road surface was strong enough to undertake transportation tasks. And the drainage performance was good, and it could also be improved further if paved with asphalt or concrete.

In terms of construction materials, four steam-driven mills had replaced manpower. Every day they could produce tonnes of the gravel. The weakness of the transport capacity that limited production had been negated. So many stones needed more than 100 people with a carriage to transport and it took one day to get to the construction site. Future generations, it could transport the materials in a slag hauler in a single journey.

In the furnace area, except for four kilns that were firing clay bricks, the other blast furnaces had been assigned to the production of cement powder. Nowadays, whether in quality or stability, the cement that the town produced was better than the original production due to the process of many composition experiments and the iron powder supplied by the mine mountain.

However, large groups of people transporting gravel and cement also had a negative effect on the town. The most serious problem was dust pollution. By the afternoon, with only a light breeze, the dust would fog the air and the street became a thick yellow. Although the townspeople did not mind the situation, for Roland, there was nothing worse than having to close the windows and doors in the summer.

As a result, the carriages carrying the cement and gravel were quickly fitted with covers to reduce the possibility of scattering during transport. Meanwhile, with the help of Leaf�s ability, the street was lined with the greenery and thick shade of sycamore trees in a short few days. Roland also instructed the townspeople to pour water on any dust they saw and the situation improved quickly.

The perpendicular distance between these two places was about 70 kilometers. However, to circumnavigate the Impassable Mountain Range, the total length of the road was around 100 kilometers. The work was predicted to take around a year to complete, and due to the high quality of the surface, the road would be open to new forms of transport such as bicycles and steam cars.

Under his aspirations, developing education and building the road were just a means to connect the two places, like the urban integration that later generations greatly promoted. After the development of the land between the two places finishes, Roland�s plan was for Longsong Stronghold and Border Town to merge into a big city. If he could make the southern uplands become a part of this city too, it would provide access to the sea.

Of course, developing so much land required a growth in population. And in response to any possible war in the future, the city must provide enough workers for industrial production while maintaining self-sufficiency in agriculture. According to Roland�s preliminary calculations, he needed about 100,000 people to immigrate to the city. The Kingdom of Graycastle�s biggest city, the king�s city, had around 20,000 to 30,000 people.

Roland focused on the north of the Kingdom of Graycastle and the Southern Territory. These two places had been through war and when winter came, it was possible that a lot of refugees would head towards the city. Only by supplying food and warm rooms, could Border Town appeal them. Even the refugees of the Kingdom of Everwinter and the Kingdom of Wolfheart were under his consideration. Thinking of this, he wrote a letter to his business acquaintance, Margaret, asking her to inquire about the situation of these two kingdoms.

�

After writing the development plan, Roland put the folded paper into the drawer and stretched. He then decided to go Anna�s room in order to see how her lens had been cut.

Since learning of the causes behind Soraya�s revolution, he was going to make a microscope that could observe cellular structure.

If the witches could observe the fantastic microworld with their own eyes, maybe it could trigger more witches to evolve new abilities. If nothing else, it would at least trigger their interest in learning.

To make a microscope, two convex lenses that were used to enlarge targets were not difficult. The difficulty was the focal distance of every hand crafted lens. So it was a precise operation to match the eye lens to the objective lens, it required constantly adjusting the distance between the two lenses.

After describing the image-forming principle of the convex lens, he gave Anna several crystals with excellent quality and let her try to slice the optics and measure the focal distance. After three days, Roland was full of anxiety and wondered to what degree Anna had managed.

Arriving at Anna�s room door, he saw Nightingale smiling at him. She stood against the wall, as if indicating that she would not follow. Since she reduced the amount of time that she spent in the Mist, Roland also did not have to guess her whereabouts. When he and Anna were together, Nightingale always chose to stand at a distant location.

Opening the door, he saw Anna sitting beside the table and tinkering with a metal tube.

�How�s it going?� he went ahead and asked.

Just as he was about to speak further, Roland was startled. He saw several instruments that looked like the microscope drawn by his own hand on the table.

�According to the drawing that you gave me, I made several trial products. Indeed I could see details that I couldn�t find at ordinary times.� Raising her head, her fringe slipped down one side. �I used it to observe paper, leaves and ponding, and found they�re different from their ordinary appearances.� After their hot air balloon trip, Anna did not use honorific language when Roland and herself were alone, which made him feel quite relaxed.

�How could you make that?� Roland asked surprisingly, �That diagram is only a rough silhouette.�

�The outline was enough.� Anna laughed. �You see, you can magnify objects using the eye lens and the objective lens and fixing them at the right distance. After fixing them in an iron tube, the main body of the microscope is done. When I tested the lens magnification effect, I found that the objective lens and the observation target must be kept within a certain distance to see a clear image. The slightest flick of the hand would make the image blurred. As you can see from the schematic diagram, the tube is fixed and the table below the target can be moved up and down to get the best possible object distance.� She paused. �The bottom of the sheet is harder to understand. Can you tell me what it�s for?�

Roland looked at the drawing and found that was actually a mistake of his. It was a retroreflector used to increase the ray of the light going through the target. At this time, the mercury mirror had not been invented. Generally the nobles still used bronze mirrors or iron mirrors to check their appearance. There was silver behind a sheet of glass in the imperial palace in order to obtain a better reflected image. Even without a mirror, sunlight was sufficient for the microscope to work.

He carefully made an explanation, and he was shocked by Anna�s great perception. Only using a rough diagram, she could make a complete product. This was impossible.

While looking down the barrel of the microscope, Anna�s neck became exposed. Roland could not help himself but want to kiss Anna. But Anna gently pushed his face away with her hand and said, �Wait, Your Highness, I�m busy right now.�

�Well� Okay.�

The issue of the mirrors was finally solved by Soraya.

She referred to the mercury brought from the laboratory and painted a bright layer of coating behind the glass, out of fear of poisoning risk from inhaling mercury vapor.

Light reflected much better on painted mirrors than on mirrors stuck with silver scraps. Roland set aside a batch of crystal glasses to make little mirrors and delivered them to every witch to keep. The witches were pleased to see their faces so clearly. Even the imperturbable Scroll smiled. Roland thought that the witches were still feminine in nature, even though they could not get pregnant.

It was a pity that these convenient items could not be sold to the masses at a low price. That was because the laboratory not only needed high priced crystal glasses as the basic material, but also consumed large quantities of glass to make colorless transparent containers. Although Kyle Sichi knew how to make colorless glass, the project had been too heavy to find others to make mirrors. Most apprentices were busy purifying the two acids and soaking guncotton. And chief alchemist was devoted to preparing mercury fulminate with his three students. They could not make other things, but find industrial acid-making process.

In addition to the mirror, the object moves from the finger to move the stage into a knob to control the movement of the barrel; however, Anna would be able to take the hint only if Roland gave some directions about these. With the Blackfire processing, the newly fixed bracket quickly finished. They selected two groups of the highest magnification tube to get the first complete body of the optical microscope.

Taking advantage of the sunny day, Roland gathered everyone in the Witch Union to the backyard of the castle and started the first fundamental biology lesson.

�

When Lily walked into the backyard, she found the plants there had turned more and more luxuriant.

Grapes on the wooden frame had turned a vibrant mauve color. She recalled it had not even been a week since its last maturity. Now and then, Lightning flew to pick some of the grapes and shared it with everyone. And that clumsy bird who had just joined Border Town was perched on the wooden frame, pecking and swallowing the grapes herself.

Roland and Anna were like a pair of lovers talking to each other at the center of the backyard under a tree, but Lily knew they were not flirting. If she went closer to listen carefully, she would hear many indescribable words and theories� like the mention of little balls, a cat which was dead or alive, things turning into waves, and so on. Nightingale stayed away 5 meters from them because their conversation made her sleepy!

Wherever they were, Wendy was always beside Scroll, wearing smiles and tender looks. Sometimes Lily thought Wendy looked at her like she was looking at a child. Lily reluctantly sighed. There was, after all, a huge difference when she glanced at Wendy�s chest and hers.

When she became like Wendy, perhaps she could be regarded as an adult.

When all the witches gathered, Roland put two gray-black ironware that he claimed were microscopes that could see microorganisms on the desk. Lily thought that maybe things would look very different under the microscope. But it was still hard to believe that the world was made of a kind of particle that could form a block of hard stone.

After ordering the guard to bring a bucket of water, Roland placed a few drops of water under the microscope. The water was different from what Lily imagined. The water was not muddy or dirty at all. Rather, it was so clear that it was transparent under the light. Perhaps the particles could only be seen using the microscope.

�Something�s moving in the water!� the other sisters unexpectedly shouted in surprise, �oh, it�s running away!�

�There�s not only one. It seems that there�re many in there.�

�Oh God, are those worms? They all look different!�

�That one looks like a transparent crab��

Lily�s heart rose to her throat. Were they not particles, but worms instead? His Highness was lying to them! But these worms were so strange because there was nothing in the water at all. When it was her turn, she no longer pretended to be careless. She could not help squinting and putting her head close to the microscope.

Then she saw an incredible scene.

In a narrow iris diaphragm, there were many oddly-shaped things swimming. There were square-shaped things, things with long soft hair, a demonic hybrid of beetles and crabs, and even kernels with feet. No matter how strange they looked, they were all transparent as if they had no skin or hull. Obviously, there was nothing in the stomachs of these worms, too.

�Your Highness, are all these actually worms?� Scroll asked.

�What you�re seeing are some protists and unicellular algae. It�s not appropriate to regard them as worms. They should be categorized as microorganisms,� the prince explained.

�Microorganisms?�

�Yes, they�re independent lives, but their sizes are much smaller. Besides the two kinds of microorganisms you could see with your naked eye, there�re other much smaller microorganisms like bacteria and viruses. According to a present microscope, we couldn�t see bacteria and viruses that cause spoilage of foods and other diseases,� Roland said excitedly, �these microorganisms are everywhere. They�re abundant and not resistant to high temperature. That�s why water needs to be boiled, fish and meat need to be cooked, and bath water can�t be repeatedly used.�

Though Lily could not imagine there being much smaller microorganisms, she could not help getting goosebumps once she thought of how she drank water with these worms in it.

And His Highness said that these little things were the main reason for causing food spoilage?

If the bread and meat porridge could be kept fresh, perhaps� it may work for the water as well.

Coming to this conclusion, she could not help releasing her magic power to envelope the water drops under the microscope.

Something unexpected happened.

She saw a part of the �worms� trembling and their skins quickly became no longer transparent. Covered with purple armor now, root tentacles grew out of their bodies and began swallowing the other unchanging �worms�. No, they did not really swallow it. Lily saw them assimilating with each other at an alarming rate. Their tentacles, like sharp swords, pierced the other microorganisms and absorbed them.

She did not know whether it was just an illusion. She felt that these mutant groups were still changing those invisible lives. Purple spots soon appeared in the water droplets. More and more spots gradually formed into a piece, as if a lavender carpet appeared in her eyesight. The tentacles were arranged one by one, neatly like an army. It seemed like they felt her attention on them, as their tentacles were all lifted as if they were saluting her.

It was the first time that she had seen the true nature of her power.

Nightingale in her Mist was observing the change in the witches� magic power.

There were few chances to see such bright and colorful scene in the black-white world. Compared to the time when they were looking for Holy Mountain, their magic powers had increased a lot through daily practice. They could now control their power more accurately. But what was the most comforting thing for Nightingale was the expressions of her friends.

Despite Wendy�s gentle inspiration and Cara�s firm action, they were never able to sleep peacefully, even for one night, in the Witch Cooperation Association. Any little signs of arrest from the church and suspicion of the public could make them wake from their stressful sleep. Even when they were looking for Holy Mountain, they were not able to relieve their stress. No one knew Holy Mountain would really be a safe shelter for them. Back then, the witches were usually downcast with numb, vacant expressions.

Now, nobody went hungry and had to worry about the Church arresting them. Everyone wore lively expressions never before seen on their faces. When she saw the relaxed smiles her sisters had, Nightingale shared their feelings. Holy Mountain was real. It was not in the wild, but here.

At this moment, she felt a slight tremor coming from the magic power.

A cloud of purple fog started revolving, sucking in other magic powers like a tiny storm. But only Nightingale saw this scene. She held her breath unblinkingly to see every detail. Comparing Anna and Soraya�s hindsight, it was the first time she saw the gathering of magic power in person.

Lily stood in the middle of the storm.

She was absorbed in observing the microworld and paid no attention to the change in quality in her magic power.

As the fog became denser and the revolving became faster, the fog became almost solidified. At the same time, the silhouette which produced some waves no longer appeared in a whirlpool shape. In the end, magic power gathered and stopped just as slowly.

Her new magic power was not as hard and glossy as Anna�s cube or as soft as Soraya�s silk. Her magic power was as big as a fist. The main body was an oval with eight pairs of tentacle. Four pairs were upturned and others downturned. Her new magic power looked like� a worm.

�

Roland never thought that the outcome of the first fundamental biology class would be this great or that the first witch who evolved was Lily.

Roland did not assign her many missions, except for instructing her to practice daily and learning a little about her because keeping food fresh was her magic power. After Roland listened to Nightingale�s report, he nodded without speaking. He did not make her stay until the class was over either.

�What? Are you saying that my magic power has evolved?� Lily said in shock, �I didn�t see the particles you mentioned.�

�Of course you can�t see them.� Roland shook his head, smiling. �Particles are thousands of times smaller than microorganisms. Even though we could construct a limitless microscope, we would still not be able to see the particles that form matter.�

�Is that so? I thought I can evolve my magic power after thoroughly understanding the particle theory,� she murmured, �I can�t believe everything in the world is made of those particles. If those particles are what hard steel are made of, they should be collapsing into a pile of sand.�

That was the reason he thought the microscopic particle theory was not the only way to improve the ability to evolve a witch�s magic power. �What did you see?� he said.

�Uh�� Lily gave it a thought before saying, �There were many purple worms that can be summoned using magic power. They can turn other organisms into beings like them.�

�Worms?� he said, �Are they as big as microorganisms?�

�Sort of.� She nodded. �They�re still transparent if you see the water with your eyes.�

�So� Let�s have an actual test.�

�

Unlike Anna and Soraya, it was hard to observe Lily�s magic power with naked eyes.

When Roland saw the microorganisms arrange themselves in an orderly manner in synergy, he was surprised that they seemed to have a sense of collective consciousness.

Next were the partial tests including the function, effective time, and influence of Stone of Magic on these microorganisms.

This test lasted three days. Although Lily would retort and complain sometimes, she still diligently carried out Roland�s commands.

Through the quantities of sample pairs and a discussion with Anna, he had a rough idea of the features of Lily�s new magic power.

In the variant purple worms, it was obvious to see they could be divided into the parent population and clones.

The parent population was the primary variant microorganisms Lily�s magic power produced.

The characteristics of the parent population were similar to Blackfire. As long as there was a magic power supply, they would always exist. The magic power user should stay within five meters or they would disappear. They were also affected by the God�s Stone of Retaliation, instantly dispersing within the scope of the stone.

When the parent population was present, surrounding microorganisms would be assimilated into clones in a short time. It was inconceivable for Roland that the clones were actually the result of the �ability�, like Soraya�s coating, and were no longer bound by the God�s Stone of Retaliation. Simply speaking, Lily could create a magic parent population that could create new and real microorganisms.

The clones have the same feature of assimilation like the parent population, eroding the other microorganisms. But the result of test left Roland confused. The assimilation did not last. In some samples with the same amount of clones, some microorganisms were completely converted. In others, he could see the clones and unaffected microorganisms coexisting.

He could only rely on guesswork for this as he lacked precise observation instruments.

After the discussion with Anna, Roland formed a hypothesis that the number of assimilation was relative to its size.

Lily could not distinguish the types of microorganisms with her power. That was why there were unobservable viruses and bacteria, as well as visible protozoa and single cell algae under the microscope among the clones. The numbers of clones were dependent on the parent population. if the parent population was larger, the number of assimilation would be increased.

Besides, the clones could not continue living in the form of spilled propagation. When the number of assimilation ran out, the last batch of clones could only live for about one day. Boiling the water could kill most of the clones. As new lives, they were not that starkly different than other microorganisms.

But one interesting point was that these clones arranged in a line would gather around the parent population. They seemed to be waiting for orders from the parent population, like soldiers.

Due to the limitations of their observation, Lily�s new ability was still not made clear. Unfortunately, the little girl was now completely puzzled whether parent population and clones had the same influence on viruses, bacteria or all kinds of fungi used in the chemical and food production. Leaving alone the instructions of finishing those corresponding by using her power.

Even so, those clones still had great potential for further development. Even though there was nothing to do, all the deadly bacteria or viruses could be assimilated. Lily�s power could play the role of rapid sterilization. This unreasonable drugs could apparently pave the way for healthcare in the domain.

Lily came back to the room with her wet hair wrapped in a towel.

Although she was accusing Prince Roland of pursuing pleasure, she had to admit that the stuff in the bathroom was� incredibly great. She enjoyed the cold well water that fell on her body from the shower, which washed off the stuffiness and stickiness of the scorching hot sun, causing her body to feel refreshed after a busy day.