Release That Witch

Chapter 175: The Hot Air Balloon Tour

he 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 high-rise 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.”

Chapter 176: The Answer in Her Heart

fter 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 go back to his work after 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 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.

Chapter 177: The Will of the Church

he 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.” Mayen 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.”

Chapter 178: The Pivotal Secret Temple

quot;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.”

Chapter 179: The Incarnation Ceremony

o 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.”

Chapter 180: The Census

ecently, 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.

Chapter 181: Soraya’s [Painting]

fter 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.

Chapter 182: The Shaft Furnace

s 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 fire-proofing 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 micro-world 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 summited 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.