Release That Witch

Chapter 191: The Teeth of the New King

etrov 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 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.”

Chapter 192: Under the Curtain of Night

§§ Chapter 192 Under the Curtain of Night

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.

Chapter 193: The Castle Toilets

he 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 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.”

Chapter 194: Lily

croll 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 kind-hearted 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?”

Chapter 195: The Answer

oland 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.

…

Chapter 196: The Church Disaster

ehmann 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 pain-killer 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.

Chapter 197: The Preparation for Engaging the Enemy

oland 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, and the church 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.”

Chapter 198: The Unexpected Opening

hree 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 ordered 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.

Chapter 199: The Battle of Chaos

quot;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 re-installation 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.