Release That Witch

Chapter 258: The Witches from the Sleepy Island (Part I)

t was also mentioned in the letter that Tilly was trying to translate the characters and intended to see if the Witch Cooperation Association had any idea.

Roland decided to reply the letter with the updates about the demon and Holy City of Taquila along with the picture of restored scene Soraya drew, which might help her on her translation. The information like this was not supposed to be hidden. If they could figure out the misfortune 400 years ago sooner, they would cope preparation sooner and might discover the weakness of the church. If the church had nothing to hide, they would not have tried so hard to cover the history.

There was apparently something they were trying very hard to hide.

Other than that, it was best to send someone to check on the stone tower in Misty Forest. The remainings of Seawindshire in the Eastern Region were sealed by the church and the island of the Fjords was submerged in the sea throughout the year, and there was almost nothing left other than the books in the secret chamber. Perhaps, there would be some information which was hidden deep inside of Misty Forest which was very inaccessible that even the church had a hard time reaching.

However, Roland was worried about the demon reported by Lightning, the task could only be carried out by the witch. However, it would be very difficult for Roland to accept if any one of the witches were injured. He kept reconsidering and finally decided to wait for the army to be equipped with the new generation of firearms before heading into the forest along with the witches in order to deal with the possibility to encounter the demon.

Roland suppressed the insecurities in his heart and forced a smile. “I understand what happened to Tilly. I’ll reply to her letter and explain to her. Let’s complete the ability test first.”

Afterall, it was the right thing to do to expand and strengthen the ability during the peaceful time. In this case, he at least had the battle force when the inevitable battle approached.

…

The test site was set outside the town’s city wall. Roland had even transferred the First Army to isolate the surroundings to prevent the refugees to enter the test site by mistake.

Lotus was the first to accept the test.

Her age was closed to Nightingale’s, looking extremely lovely with her short curly hair and like a pretty daughter from a moderate family from her features. She was not very tall, only around one and a half meters with a petite body. She looked like a little girl who was yet to go through her puberty with a feeling of soft and weak as compared to Nightingale who had a taller build, but her ability was strong that she could easily change the terrain within five meters beneath her feet.

The description stated in the letter was far less shocking than seeing it in real life. During the test, Lotus made the land beside her raised like an earth pillar which was almost seven to eight meters through the sky, and the towering earth pillar collapsed due to the structural instability.

According to her, the looser the ground was, the lesser magic consumed to transform it. However, similarly, if the land quality was too bad, the buildings and walls formed would be extremely weak. It would be hard to create anything decent if the main component of the ground was gravel. Apparently, she could only change the terrain without changing the material of the earth. Of course, this problem could be solved by expanding the scope and thickness of growth.

Roland even asked her to demonstrate the construction of a house; however, the soil in the Western Region was obviously not as compact as that of Sleeping Island. The soil house that was raised from the ground collapsed several times when it was left with spaces for windows and doors, and the wall thickness was finally increased to half a meter. The completed house was as simple as a cave-dwelling, and it could only use for basic living as it was a lot worse than the compact brick house with a regular layout.

Nonetheless, the cave dwelling was still better than a wooden shed with air leaking everywhere, at least the house could be easily warmed up with a brazier and a heatable adobe in the winter. If there were not sufficient brick houses built before the Months of Demons arrived, the house could be used to make up the number.

The last step was a comprehensive test — Lotus’ ability belonged to the typical summoning type without any derivative skill. During the casting process, it was very susceptible to the impact of the God’s Stone of Retaliation due to the shaping of terrain could only be effective within five meters. However, the land she had formed would not retreat after that.

“What’s the level of her magic power?” Roland asked.

“It’s a brown cyclone with an extremely dense center, and she’s at a pretty good level compared to the other witches,” Nightingale contemplated and said, “It’s closer to Leaf’s level.”

“What about the speed of consumption?”

“It’s fine to raise the ground surface.” She looked down at a raised stone wall at the foot of North Slope Mountain. “It could probably only last for two or four hours to transform the rocks as the magic power descends quickly.”

Roland nodded. Leaf’s magic power was the third strongest in the Witch Union after Anna and Soraya, and having enough of magic power was the premise of the continuity to perform—of course, there would have no problem to last an entire day for Nightingale and Lightning who had a low consumption ability.

After the information was recorded in a book, he began to test the second witches.

“Who’s next?”

“Me, me, me!” Honey raised her hand.

Roland tilted his lips and said, “In this case, show me your ability.”

Honey’s height was similar to Lotus, not tall and in fact a little shorter than Lotus. She just passed her adulthood last year, and she appeared to be very lively. Her fluffy brown hair curled up like a twist and her skin was darker while a chain of beast’s tooth was strung around her neck, wrist, and ankle.

Her main ability was “Beast Tongue”, which could be applied to the animals within the range of effect. The animals tamed by magic power would execute the instructions given by her but the instructions should not exceed the animal’s ability. After the task was completed, the animals would be released or she would relieve the animals.

Other than that, Honey also had a very interesting derivative ability—Animal Messenger. She could pass the taming command through the messenger animal to the target animal—for example, summoning a bird to search for a more powerful animal to come around to serve her. It could be an old cat or a ferocious goshawk, but the final result was full of uncertainty and the process was totally uncontrollable.

However, both the main ability and the derivative skill would be affected by the God’s Stone of Retaliation, especially Animal Messenger as the command could be easily erased by the God’s Stone of Retaliation and free the animal. In addition, the bigger the animal was to tame, the more magic power it consumed as she mentioned that she could summon up to dozens of birds but she could only control around two to three cows.

The third witch to accept the test was Evelyn. About 25 or 26 years old, she sounded particularly cordial with the standard accent of the king’s city.

Tilly’s list noted that she could transform the low-quality ale into alcohol with totally different style and taste as long as she tried it before—Roland’s initial purpose was obvious for this witch, which was for the purification of alcohol. Since she could transform the watery ale into the delicious wine or fruit wine, it should not be a problem to transform it into white liquor.

Rolland had carefully prepared a few bottle of packaged alcohol with a concentration of 50% to 95% for this. Although the alcohol was a little spicy, it should not be a problem to take only one or two sips of it. The key was to persuade her that the transparent liquid that burnt the throat was indeed a type of liquor.

However, it was not a good place for wine tasting under the scorching sun without any delicious side dishes, ice cubes, and crystal wine glass. It would be mistaken as poison if he directly took the strong smell white liquor out here. He planned to have a subtle influence during the dinner instead, thus, he simply skipped to the next witch after asking Evelyn a few questions.

.

Chapter 259: The Witches from the Sleepy Island (Part II)

he fourth was Sylvie.

Roland felt slightly uncomfortable in front of this witch, it was not because Nightingale mentioned that she lied a lot since he had used to the various exaggerated flatters and rumors, and there were not many people being straight-forward other than the immediate family and a few good friends in the modern society.

He simply felt that he had nowhere to hide in front of her, and the worse was that he knew that it was not an illusion as the vision without any barrier was truly her ability, and the clothes he wore were nothing as long as she thought about it. Roland involuntarily changed his sitting position and crossed his legs while sighing to himself for not having the same ability.

Appearance wise, she was considered the unique one among the five witches. She had a green, shoulder-length, straight hair while her long and slender eyebrows were hiding below her tidy fringe. Her amber-colored eyes looked especially transparent without any depth, just like a mirror reflecting the lights. Roland felt a red mark would suddenly appear in them after staring for a while.

Sylvie’s ability was extremely easy to understand. She could see everything around her and even behind her, and her vision could penetrate through the obstacles. As for how far it could penetrate, it depended on her thought. Other than that, she also possessed a derivative skill similar to Nightingale’s which could see the convergence and dissipation of the magic power.

It slightly surprised Roland and wondered whether they would have the similar main ability if both their derivative skills were so similar. He asked Sylvie the question and she said that she had not encountered anyone with the same ability among the hundreds of witches in Sleeping Island after she hesitated for a while. Nightingale slightly pinched Roland’s left shoulder to tell him it was the truth.

Roland thought it was probably due to the rare sample.

The last who came up to the stage was Candle.

She had her Day of Adulthood during the Months of Demons last year, just like Anna. As a minor, her ability could only work on the light like candles, lamps, and torches but the magic power became stable after her adulthood and the effect was greatly enhanced that she could maintain the original characteristics of an object she was in contact with for a while—such as, after casting her magic power on an ice cube, it would still be emitting cold and not melt under the sun.

The ability was simply incredible at the first glance and it could do things that a lot of conventional methods could not, however, Roland found that it was not as perfect as it might be after several rounds of the test. First of all, it belonged to an enchantment ability, and it needed direct contact with the target which limited her ability to consolidate the high-temperature object.

Thus the desire of him obtaining a drop of permanently molted steel to provide unlimited heat to the blast furnace had broken, no one would dare to touch the thing with nearly 1,000 degrees of temperature. However, if it was turned into a fine wire, Candle would be able to hold on the other side to implement the enchantment, but yet another problem arose.

The bigger the object solidification state was different from the normal, the more magic power was consumed and the lasting effect would be shorter at the same time.

Roland verified this with ice-cubes where one of the ice-cube was put on the scorching ground and another was put into a basin after the same-sized of ice cubes were solidified. The former melted quickly within an hour while the latter decreased the water temperature and remained the original shape.

It indicated that the effect would be worse if it was the red-hot iron-wire or iron rod instead.

Finally, the volume was also one of the factors that limited Candle’s ability, just like Hummingbird and Mystery Moon; the bigger object consumed more magic power. According to Nightingale’s observation, her magic power lied in between the middle and lower levels, which looked like a golden haze and yet formed into a strong cyclone.

Nevertheless, this seemingly introverted girl was still Roland’s biggest harvest—the state of objects consolidation was completely priceless in the field of industrial production, and the key lied in the word “normality”. The metal would be exhausted and the structure would be deformed fur to the effect of heating, cooling, friction, force and other factors. Roland did not need a hot drill caused by the friction, or a seriously worn-out gear, and if the key parts of a machine could be maintained at the normal condition, it meant that it could maintain the maximum efficiency and the highest precision operation.

In other words, the burning fire could effectively improve the mechanical strength of inferior metals.

…

Returning to the castle office, Roland browsed through the abilities recorded again and began to plan for their future work content.

“How was it?” Nightingale stuck her head out from the Mist and said, “Who’s your favorite witch among the five?”

“They’re all good,” Roland casually answered.

“What?! You like all of them?!”

Roland stared at Nightingale, and she stuck her tongue out and walked away while chewing on a piece of dried fish.

Apparently, the most useful witches were Lotus and Candle at the moment.

He could easily build a cob wall outside the city wall with the ability to transform the terrain—the rubble cement wall was originally chosen to build at the mountain pass in between the foot of North Slope Mountain and Redwater River in order to save the materials and accelerate the construction period, although it would be completed before the Months of Demons, it limited the town development scope towards the west. It was a matter of time to develop the field and Misty Forest as the population grew.

The new wall would extend out to the edge of the forest while wrapping around the wood in order to almost double the town area. As for stretching out the defense line, it could be solved by leading the beasts to attack manually by expanding the military source. However, the First Army’s firepower projection capability had undergone an earth-shaking change as compared to the use of wooden spears and preloaded flintlock last year, whereas the fort, bastian and other defensive measures would also be completed along with the new city wall.

Other than that, he also planned to get Lotus to open up a route to the southern mountains in order to lead Border Town directly into Shallow Beach.

Candle’s task was to coordinate with Anna and Lucia to create a new generation of machine tools for the production of firearms and other mechanical equipment. If it went smoothly, Anna could also be freed from the boring production.

Sylvie’s task was pretty clear. It was mainly to explore the mine in the northern slope and Misty Forest. According to the miners, there were more than 100 natural caves in the mine of the northern slope and no one knew where they led to.

As for Honey, Roland did not have much idea, other than simply strengthening the ability of information transfer without any radio in the era. He needed a lot of trained birds as the messenger pigeons, and the birds did not need to be as smart as Maggie, as long as they could deliver the intelligence to him as soon as possible.

Chapter 260: The Scented Soap and Liquor

he setting sun was slanting towards the west, the rolling heat wave was fading, and the tweeting sound of the cicadas was gradually subsiding. However, the castle was still a little stuffy, as oppose to Sleeping Island surrounded by the sea.

Evelyn who was covered with sweat walked up to the second floor and opened the bedroom door, a burst of coolness suddenly enveloped her.

“You’ve had a long day of the test,” A black-haired woman who was looking mature and capable said with a smile, “Well, how did it go?”

Her name was Scroll. She was the oldest witch in the Witch Cooperation Association and a very friendly senior. Evelyn could feel the care and concern from her after getting along with her for only a day.

“I… don’t know,” Evelyn said with a little frustration, “the others had cast their ability while His Highness only asked me a few questions when it was my turn. Was it because… he felt that I’m useless?”

Scroll brought her a bottle of iced-water. “Roland, His Highness mentioned to us once that there’s no useless ability, only an undeveloped ability. So, you don’t have to worry about it.”

“But…” She took the cup and hesitated.

“You’re worried that you would be neglected if you’re useless?” Scroll could not help but smile. “It would be possible if it were the old Witch Cooperation Association, His Highness had never treated any of the witches differently and Hummingbird could prove this.”

The girl who was looking for clothes in the cupboard looked up and said, “That’s right. Just like me, Mystery Moon, Lily, and Miss Nana had nothing to do recently and His Highness also encouraged us to play Gwent to divert the boredom.”

“Divert the boredom?” Evelyn opened her eyes big and asked.

“Yeah, isn’t it incredible? His Highness said work hard and play hard,” Hummingbird paused. “However, I think His Highness is still a little eccentric as he apparently treats Anna better.”

“She was the first witch he knew, of course, they would be closer to each other,” Scroll knocked her head and said, “tidy up your clothes quickly, otherwise, there will have no water later.” And, she looked at Evelyn and said, “Come with us.”

“Where are we going?” the later asked in shock.

“Take a shower.” Scroll smiled. “There was nothing more comfortable than bathing under the shower in the summer.”

When Evelyn walked into the bathroom with both of them, she could not help but shout in surprise. She seemed to walk into a spacious grassland with the clouds and mountains in front and the sunset shone through the window into the mirror, reflecting on the wall, giving the clouds a touch of gold.

“This is…”

“Soraya’s masterpiece.” Scroll laughed, “This isn’t a traditional decorative painting, you’ll know if you take off your shoes.”

Evelyn carefully put her wooden sandals into the shoe rack by the door, she immediately understood Scroll’s meaning as she stepped onto the “grassland” with her bare feet. The delicate feeling beneath her feet was like a dense grass in general and the grass tip was filled with water droplets as if it just rained heavily.

Scroll took off her clothes and untied her ponytail with her black hair falling down then. She walked towards the wall and turned the wrench, and then the shower head above her suddenly ejected dozens of waterline, which surrounded her.

“How is it? Is it convenient?” Hummingbird passed something round to her. “This is a bath product invented by His Highness and it’s wonderful to use it during the shower. Come on, I’ll teach you how to use it.”

…

When Evelyn returned to the room, her entire body felt a bit lighter.

She had never experienced such a comfortable bath. All the sticky feeling suddenly swept away when she scrubbed the scented soap on her body to develop the bubbles and rinsed off with the water. It felt extremely refreshing and smooth. When you put on your clean clothes, the hot air seemed to be getting cooler. She could smell the scent of rose left on her skin when she raised her arms.

[This is the daily life of the witches of the Witch Cooperation Association?]

Evelyn still quietly found it incredible. She was born in outside the city area of the king’s city. Her family operated a pub, although the visitors were mostly farmers, the topics they talked about were mostly the noble within Inner City and their lifestyle, and she also heard a lot when she was serving alcohol to the guests. Such as the gild bathtub filled with wine, and a milk bathtub filled with rose petals… However, nothing could match with her experience today even though she had heard many amazing rumors—at least Evelyn did not think that it was comfortable to bath with milk and wine.

Thinking of the castle’s owner was a real prince, it was normal for him to stress for the comfort and pleasure. However, it was hard for her to imagine that the witches here actually had an equal lifestyle with the royal family and the noble. It was hard for her to even maintain the ordinary, peaceful life before she came to Sleeping Island.

“Are you hungry?” Scroll braided her hair again after drying her hair and said, “Let’s go to the hall, it’s almost time for dinner.”

The long wooden table in the first-floor reception hall was filled with all kinds of dishes. Evelyn roughly counted. There were six pots of meat with steamed egg custard, vegetable soup, and grilled mushrooms. It was not much different compared to the welcome party last night.

When all the witches came in their place, everyone started to eat. She noticed that some people used a pair of sticks to fetch the food in addition to knife and fork. And, His Highness was the same, he even rarely picked up the knife and fork and the sticks in his hand were flying up and down, looking very flexible. There were no big steak, whole chicken or whole duck in the food bowl—it was different from the food served in the tavern, the steak was cut into small pieces and the bone was already removed from the wild boar leg and it could be directly eaten.

Prince Roland, His Highness suddenly clapped when the dinner ended. “I’ve recently developed two new things which were intended to be the commodities. I want you to try them and let me know what you think.”

“What’re they? Something edible?”

“Okay, I want to try!”

“Me too! Coo!”

The witches in the Witch Cooperation Association were cheering, Evelyn looked at Scroll blankly and the latter smiled and explained, “His Highness often invents some novelty stuff, such as the scented soap you used just now, perfume, chopsticks, ice-cream… He would let us try it first before officially putting it into production.”

“Ahem,” Prince Roland cleared his throat and said, “The first thing is white liquor. It tastes more mellow compared to the common ale and fruit wine, but also more intoxicated. Therefore, the minor witches can’t participate.”

“His Highness, it’s prejudice!” Lightning shouted, “I can drink more than the grown-up sailors!”

“Well, you still can’t participate.”

“Um…” the little girl pouted. Roland did not respond but ordered the attendants to serve the white liquor to the grown-up witches.

There were also three glasses displayed in front of Evelyn—the liquor filled in each of the sparkling crystal glass was different. One glass looked like water as it was transparent and colorless, and another glass looked milky white while the last glass was in shiny bright orange color. Some small floating objects could be seen under the flickering candlelight, which looked like an unfiltered wine.”

“They’re White Liquor mixed with apple juice, white liquor mixed with milk and pure white liquor,” Roland said, “You may add in ice cubes as according to your taste, the more you add the lighter it tastes.” Then he smiled at Evelyn and said, “You used to stay in the tavern of the king’s city and your ability is brewing different kinds of liquor, so I hope to hear your opinion regarding these new liquors.”

Evelyn’s heart could not help but throb twice. She picked up the glass filled with the orange-colored liquor and took a sip. Just as His Highness said, the taste of liquor was stronger than ale, and even sting the throat little. She could taste a hint of bitterness on the tip of her tongue, but the apple fragrance had diluted its impact, and finally some mellow taste of the liquor was lingering in her mouth. It was her first time to taste such a good wine.

The liquor which was mixed with milk was mellower and the bitterness almost disappeared. She could taste some honey or sugar other than the milk, and the mixed taste of sweetness and liquor fragrance formed a new flavor.

Evelyn was filled with hope when it came to the last glass. She took a small gulp and the burning feeling suddenly rolled over the tongue and throat—it was as she expected, there was no other interfering taste, and it was only left with the pure liquor taste. It was initially burning and it contained a hint of sweetness in the bitterness.

“All the three glasses of liquor taste… unforgettable.” She put down her glass and took a deep breath. “Your Highness, some people may not accept the strong smell, but I think the people who really love to drink would not resist such a taste.”

“Is that right?” Roland laughed. “That’s great, but this glass isn’t the strongest liquor, I can further improve its mellowness and let you taste it again.”

[Uh, the reason he picked me is for me to test his new liquor?] Although Evelyn was confused, she still answered, “Yes, Your Highness.”

After all the glasses and the plates were cleared, Prince Roland, His Highness ordered the attendants to bring in a bunch of boxes and set them down on the long table.

“This is the second new thing, and it was a little gift I want to give you.” He paused. “A special dress.”

.

Chapter 261: The Gift

fter dinner, Nightingale came back to her bedroom with the box. Before she could open the box, Lightning, Maggie, Lily, and Mystery Moon also sneaked in with their eyes glistening at the carton in her hand.

“What’s up?” Wendy could not help but laugh. “Would you like to see what’s in the box?”

Three of them nodded continuously other than Lily.

“His Highness is eccentric!” Lightning muttered, “We’re not allowed to drink the liquor and we don’t even have a gift now!”

“He mentioned it was only for the grown-up adult.” Lily sighed. “You can ask from him after you become an adult and I don’t really care about what’s inside. Why did you pull me here?”

“Hey,” Mystery Moon said in shock, “I just called for you, I didn’t pull you here.”

“I…”

“Stop, this isn’t the point!” Lightning shouted, “Mystery Moon and Maggie are adults, but they don’t have any gift!”

“Indeed, coo!” Maggie pulled the white hair which was covering up her face back and raised her chin to protest. “I didn’t have too, coo!”

“About this… His Highness probably had his own considerations.” Nightingale felt a little strange about this as Roland never treated anyone differently but he only selected some to present the gift this time. “Let’s just take a look at what’s inside first.”

A strange “clothing” appeared after the box was opened—it looked like a composition of several straps and cloth pocket. It felt very soft and the material was obviously the fine silk, but it was too small to be a clothing no matter from which angle it looked.

“There’s a slip of paper underneath,” Lightning yelled.

Nightingale unfolded the paper and found the introduction and the function of the gift. There were even pictures beside it.

“Uh huh…” Wendy also opened her own box. “This is a bra?”

“… It can relieve the weight of the chest, promote the blood circulation, stabilize the posture, and reduce the discomfort caused by the friction.” Nightingale’s voice was getting softer, and her cheek suddenly became hot. It was actually something to hold the chest. She could not help but look at Wendy, only to find that all the witches were looking at her with an enlighted look.

“Pftt,” Lily laughed and said, “now you know why you have no gift? Tsk tsk, I correct my previous argument. Lightning may probably not have this gift after she becomes an adult.”

“You’re talking as if you’ll definitely have,” Mystery Moon stared at her and said.

“Who cares!” The latter rolled her eyes.

“Is this similar to the corset?” Only Lightning was remained unmoved and her eyes were full of curiosity and envious. “Can you wear it for me to see?” said she.

“Of course not!” Wendy revealed the embarrassing look that she rarely had. She felt a little relieved after chasing all four of them out. “How could His Highness suddenly… send us this?”

Nightingale felt a little embarrassed. It was okay to simply send underclothings. No one felt embarrassed as all the thing they normally used were taken from the castle. However, this obviously needed to fit the different sizes of different people, which also meant that Roland had been carefully observed each of their sizes before. The thought had made Nightingale blushed that she almost wanted to hide in the Mist.

Oh yeah, what would Anna do?

“I’ll be right back,” Nightingale said. She spread the Mist and walked through the walls. She hesitated for a while when she reached Anna’s bedroom door, and finally chose to knock on the door.

Soon, the door was opened and Anna was wearing her nightgown, looking as usual. “What’s the matter?”

“Uh, I want to ask…” Nightingale entered the room and turned around to close the door. “What do you think about… the gift from His Highness?”

“I’ve already put it on, it’s pretty convenient.”

Anna’s answer caught her off guard. “You’ve already put it on?”

“Yes,” Anna nodded and said, “Do you want to take a look?”

“No, no.” She wagged her hands and hesitated. “I just want to ask if you find it weird for His Highness to give us this?”

“Why?” Anna asked with confusion. “His Royal Highness mentioned that he wanted to promote it and sell it as a merchandise, so he needed us to try it. And it’s pretty good,” she patted her chest and said, “it’s soft and light. Other than the hook behind isn’t easy to take off, it’s better than wearing an extra layer of clothes.”

[I see….] Nightingale could not help but feel emotional, She did not care about these minutiae things but mainly focusing on the goal of His Highness, perhaps this was where she was different, simple and straightforward. As for the gift from Roland, Nightingale knew that she would try it anyway, so why should she be so affectedly bashful? It was the same for her before, so it was unnecessary to hide but to tell him what she was thinking directly—Anna might do in this way?

Thinking about it, Nightingale returned to her room. She picked up the bra and studied it. She hid inside the Mist to buckle it before she put on the coat and re-appeared in front of Wendy.

“It’s slightly big.” She tried to jump. “But it’s really comfortable to wear, at least the rough clothing doesn’t painfully rub on my bobs. It doesn’t affect the mobility and it’s very convenient without the need to use the strap to tie up my bobs… You also have a try.”

“No, I don’t want to…” Wendy shook her head.

“How can it be.” Nightingale chuckled and pulled Wendy into the Mist. “I still feel that His Highness designed this for you.”

Sylvie felt that the odds she had seen today were more than those she had seen in the past few years.

The water would flow out from the water pipe as long as she turned on the switch, a soap that could emit delicate fragrance, and the general white-liquor that would sting the throat—while Evelyn could drink up all three glasses with His Highness?

The most incredible thing, of course, was the clothes that were given after dinner… She knew there was a practice of giving corset among the noble, but at least others would give it with a tunic. It was not really common to give simply the corset. But the object was extremely close if it was given as a gift… For example, lover.

However, it sounded like His Highness not only wanted to give the underclothes to the witches but also intended to popularize it widely within the Western Region domain. Silvio could not help but shiver. [Which noble will choose to do this business in person, or perhaps… he has an extraordinary interest in bobs and ases?]

Nightingale pulled Wendy into the Mist, she could only vaguely see two blur shadow floating around—she had not come out for a long time. Obviously, Wendy had probably accepted this gift under the former’s instigation. What about the other witches? Did not they understand the meaning of sending underclothes?

Sylvie could not help but swallow after remembering Ashes’ warning.

She was right—His Highness was a dangerous figure, and it was better to stay further from him if she could.

Chapter 262: The Bridge over Redwater River

oland officially launched the construction of the steel bridge project a week later.

“You want me to raise two pieces of land in the middle of the river to be the foothold of the pier?” Looking at the rolling river, Lotus asked, “Are you going to build a real bridge instead of connecting the ends of the river banks with a pontoon bridge?”

“Well,” Roland unfolded the paper in his hand and said, “Considering the impact of the river, both pieces of the land need to have a certain volume, and in order to slow down the impact, they need to be processed like this.”

“This is… the shape of a boat.” Lotus moved her eyes back to the drawing.

“Yes, to be exact, it’s in the spindle shape.” He nodded. “As long as it’s parallel to the flow, it has the smallest impact on the front. The problem is, Redwater River is nearly 10 meters deep. Can you make the bottom of the river rise?”

“It’s not hard to do that, Your Highness,” Lotus answered, “Just leave it to me.”

To be safe, the vessel that responsible for carrying the witch was the Littletown, and the large cement hull was sailing smoothly in the river. The helmsman was still Lightning and the sail power was provided by Wendy.

However, Wendy had been trying to avoid him whenever she saw Prince Roland for almost a week. Until today, Roland finally saw her raise her head and look at him as usual. He even heard a soft whisper of Wendy saying “Thank you”, when he passed by her while boarding the boat.

“You’ll have to give this credit to me.” Nightingale in the Mist whispered in his ear and giggled.

The Littletown soon left the dock, heading toward the center of the wide river for Carter had pulled up the rope on both sides of the river banks, and the two red clothes tied on it was the expected location to erect the pier. When the concrete boat reached the first point, Lotus stood on the edge of the boat and began to cast her power.

The surface of the river suddenly looked like boiling and it started to surge, forming a “hill”. The gravel, grassroots, and silt appeared in the rolling water, and the water became turbid.

In this case, Roland thought that her ability was not only to transform the solid ground but also the water. And, it was easier to enhance the water surface, as compared to the loose gravel. Although the rising river immediately rolled around, the river bed had already raised a little.

After a long time, a bunch of green-gray soil appeared on the surface of the water, and as it looked very soft and released an awful smell, the crowd could not help but cover their noses.

However, it was a good fertilizer in Roland’s eyes. For hundreds of years, fish and other aquatic creatures, skeletons, aquatic plants, and the feces of the people had been deposited into the soil. If it was not that it was inconvenient to transport, he would rather use these soil to fertilize the soil. Unfortunately, it could only be manually shoveled away and thrown directly into the river.

After each layer that they cleared enhanced a level of it, he could finally see the solid-brown soil, and the process was kept repeated until both pieces of land were completely trimmed.

Roland expected the process to last for at least a week, but simply carrying the land out of the surface also meant that it could be used directly, and the flow of the river would continue to take away the sediment. Even the spindle type of land would not last for over 10 years without protection.

Roland summoned for Karl Van Bate, took out a charcoal pen and started drawing and talking about the next step how to consolidate the ground surface.

“What do you mean by digging the groove at the edge of the land and pouring it into the cement?” The minister of construction today was pointing at the drawings and asked.

[He’s indeed an outstanding member of the King’s City Mason Guild,] Roland thought with satisfaction, for he simply reminded him with a few words and he immediately understood his intentions.

“Yes, each length shouldn’t exceed five meters, and the depth was controlled within about one meter. The witch will drop the groove down to a meter depth after filling it with cement, so repeatedly, it’ll form a cement wall that was directly pierced into the riverbed.” This blueprint was figured out by Roland when he saw Lotus’ ability. Since she could control the ground from descending the bottom, then it would be possible to bring the structures into the ground.

“Your idea is so ingenious,” Karl said, “and in this way, it’ll be blocked by the wall that was tightly wrapped even if the river washed the outer soil away.

Roland nodded. “The key point is to control the sinking of the overall height. The bottom would not pack tightly if it were too little, and it’d be a waste of cement, causing deferment if it were too much. You’ll be in charge of it.”

“Yes, Your Highness,” he answered. “Counting the dredged silt and soft soil, I reckon the whole height should be about 12 meters.”

“Other than that, please don’t cover the center of the ground with cement after the walls were completed as I’m going to plant some flowers on top of it.” Prince Roland ordered.

“Plant… flowers?” Karl was shocked.

After all, these walls were not leak-proof and the wall would leave a uniform gap if it were under segmental construction. Planting the grass would be the easiest way to stabilize the soil—the vegetation could balance the water-content of the soil and reduce soil erosion, especially the long-rooted weeds Leaf transformed could ensure the soil firmly solidified.

After simply explaining the soil conservation with the plants, Roland turned to the busy workman by the river bank. “How’s construction of bridge approach currently?”

“It’s laying the cement pavement,” Karl said, “and it should be completed this week.”

According to the plan, both sides of the bridge were piled by the rubble cement, similar to the city wall of the Western Region. Building itself was not difficult as long as the positioning and measurement work was done. The bridge slope was seven meters higher than the ground and it was connected with the city’s streets through a long gentle slope with radians. With the height differences between the embankment and the water surface, it should be able to form 10 to 12 meters height, and it was basically enough for the use of the boats from the inland river.”

The main bridge was only half completed and the frame was being tested on the shore—due to the span was not large and the load was very low, Roland was not worried about its reliability although he knew nothing about the bridge construction. The 30 centimeters high I-beam was a solid guarantee in the absence of the eight generation of overloading. Even though it was crowded on the bridge, it was impossible to break the steel beam. Not to mention from the processing to the assembly of welding were single-handedly arranged by Anna, the probability of shoddy construction was extremely low.

Similarly, its installation was also very simple, it was directly transformed into lightweight by Hummingbird before Lightning carried and installed it into place after the three-span main bridge was completed the pre-making.

The north and south sides were really connected as a whole, when the steel bridge that was standing on Redwater River could be used by two four-wheeled carriages to cross side-by-side.

“Even the greatest masons could hardly to come up with such a magnificent bridge.” Karl sighed, looking at the wide, sparkling lake, “Your Highness, what’s the name of this steel bridge?”

Roland contemplated and said, “Let’s name it the Redwater Bridge.”

Chapter 263: [The Wheat Is Ripe]

irius Daly was walking on the riverbank to check on the growth of wheat with a straw hat under the scorching sun.

After nearly four months of planting, wheat was basically ripe now.

The wheat field without any border looked like a golden ocean at the first glance, the wheat was thick and full. Not only the fruit was doubled, but also the size was bigger than any wheat he had ever seen in the spring. Sirius knew it was a good harvest year this year without the need to weigh it after harvesting.

There was no doubt that this must be the witch’s credit.

He had been planting with his father for 10 years, so he was very clear what an ordinary wheat should look like. A wheat would be divided into three spikes and each spike could produce 20 to 30 fruits. The fertility of the soil definitely affected the size of the grain, but it would not directly increase the wheat caryopsis by twice. He could not think of any other explanation other than the witches.

There were a lot of changes like this, such as the towering water tower in the town—he had closely observed the giant water tower, and it was impossible for a man alone to carry such a large iron bucket up to a tall iron frame which was higher than a residential building. Not to mention that they were almost all built overnight. Now, the residents who lived in the town rarely needed to carry their own bucket to fetch water, the cool well water would pour out from the pipeline as long as they unscrewed the faucet.

The “little island” in the middle of Redwater River was also the case. Since His Highness held the Award and Honor Ceremony to take on Miss Nana in the ceremony, the use of witches became increasingly obvious. Making a piece of land appeared on the surface of the open river was something obviously only the witch could do.

He asked Barov, City Hall Director about this, and the answer was none of your business as His Highness had his own idea.

Well… Anyway, the royal family always acted against the church. They would have to defeat the First Army even if the latter sent their army to crusade His Highness. Otherwise, the Western Region could only be Roland Wimbledon’s Western Region.

Duke Ryan was a good example.

“You’re here, my lord.” The weeding serfs in the ground saw Sirius and immediately greeted. “Look at this, the wheat can be harvested immediately. So, I’d like to ask you…”

“If what the Lord said before was still effective?”

“Yes, yes, yes,” the serf nervously said while rubbing his hands, “Could we really be promoted to freemen?”

As the person-in-charge of the Ministry of Agriculture, Sirius had an important duty, other than recording the best way to plant and the harvest statistics, which was to communicate with the serfs and preached the policies of His Royal Highness and the City Hall to them in time. Although he did not like these country bumpkins who were dealing with the muds the entire day, he still needed to fulfill his task with the knight discipline.

“See those slogans?” Sirius pointed at the farmland banner on the edge of the farm.

“My lord, I… can’t read…” The serf smiled in embarrassment.

“Labor creates wealth, and labor changes fate,” he said, “it means that you’ll have a chance to be promoted to a freeman as long as you work hard. This is the promise made by His Highness, and it’ll certainly come true.”

“Real-really? That’s great!”

“And, you can live in the center of the town after you become a freeman and have your own brick house. You’ll also get the right to receive elementary education, so you don’t have to ask me what the slogans mean again.” The corresponding promotional content was repeated again.

“Yes, my lord,” the serf said, nodding excitedly, “it’s hot today, do you want to sit in my shed and have a glass of cold water?”

“No, I’m good. You just go about your work.” He waved his hand and saw the two men bowed to express gratitude to him for a long time before returning to the field to continue working. This is Sirius’ most heard questions for the recent one month, regardless how it was preached, they would not mind asking again as they were afraid that the lord would cancel the policy in a blink of eyes.

Without going too far, some people surrounded him again and asked, “Hello, Lord Sirius, we really need to only turn in 70% of it after drying the harvested wheat?”

He sighed in the heart. This was the second frequent question asked after the question for the “free people promotion”. “It’s indeed so for the first year and it’ll only decrease in the future. If you become a freeman, you’ll only need to turn in 20%. These’re all we’ve repeatedly stressed about.”

“It’ll be nice if I could really get promoted,” one of the tall men said while touching the back of his head, “and in this case, the 30% remaining wheat, can we…”

“It can only be sold to His Royal Highness, take it as your own food, or keep it for sowing.” Sirius clapped his hands to gather the serfs around. “Listen, private food trafficking is prohibited in Border Town. No matter whether it’s sold to the local or to the foreign businessmen, you’re regarded as violating the Border Town law. Not only your income will be confiscated, you may be imprisoned if you do so.”

“What should I do if the lord only offers a very low price?” the tall man muttered.

“This won’t happen, of course. His Highness will purchase the grain with a fixed standard market price. There will have no significant change whether it’s a poor harvest or a good harvest. So you don’t have to worry if the wheat would not be sold due to overproduction or sold at a low price.” Sirius stressed. “There’s only a place to sell food in the entire Border Town, which is the Convenience Market, which is managed by the City Hall.”

“So, the price is…?”

“No worries, His Highness will personally announce the price to you before the acquisition.”

Looking at the serfs dismissed, he licked his dry lips and continued to check on the crops. He was not sure how many of them among this group of people would remember what he just had said, but Lord Barov had clearly conveyed the strong will of His Highness to punish the food smugglers severely.

This was when a young serf left the crowd and turned around, walking back to him. “My lord.” He panted. “I’ve one more question for you.”

“Yeah?”

“Do you know where Miss May and Miss Aileen have gone?” He hesitated. “There hasn’t been any theatrical performance in the square recently, so I’m thinking… to ask you for their recent condition, did they fall… sick?”

It was a new and interesting question. Sirius could not help but tilt his lips. He would not be able to answer this question if he had not seen them, going through the formalities in City Hall. “They’ve gone to Longsong Stronghold.”

“Ah,” the other party looked disappointed. “Don’t they intend to stay in Border Town?”

“They just go to perform in the Stronghold Theater.” He shrugged. “And now the weather is so hot, can you bear to see them sweating under the sun? They’ll return to the square in the fall to perform new plays.”

“I, I see… Thank you, my lord!”

Sirius could not help but think of himself, watching the back of the young serf who walked away in satisfaction—the experience of the past few months could be described as ups and downs; from a knight to a prisoner, and from a prisoner to a city hall official, he did not want to go back to the domain of Wolf Family where there were only old houses and the empty wheat farms. Becoming a knight was simply for him to get rid of the life to live his father going for farming the entire life.

Not every knight could be as proud as Morning Light or had the best domain and squire like the knight of the duke, but his annual salary was now more than a knight’s and there was also a vast opportunity to be promoted. Perhaps it was time for him to fetch his parents to the town, marry a girl and enjoy life.

Chapter 264: A Bumper Harvest

t was harvesting day. The first batch of wheat planted in Border Town was finally being ushered in.

Serfs used reaping hooks to cut off the wheat straws and bundled them up to be delivered across the river under the scorching sun.

Roland knew it was a cumbersome process to split kernels from wheatears. Before the popularization of mechanical tools and combine-harvesters, the process of separating, cleaning, screening and drying to obtain kernels had to be done by manual labor. Now, he once again witnessed the whole process.

Once it was delivered to the camp, the serfs lay the wheat straws flat on the ground to dry. Then, a variety of tools including wooden sticks, stones, and rakes were used to repeatedly hammer the wheat straws and wheatears in order to separate the kernels from the hulls. The whole process normally lasted three to four days. In Roland’s memory, cows or donkeys had been commonly used in rural areas to squeeze wheat in the barnyard by pulling stone rollers. This was not only less labor-intensive; the hulling effect was also much better compared to hammering.

He had to admit that the agricultural industry in Border Town was far more backward.

The wheat was turned over in the barnyard after being hammered. The tools they used varied from prongs to wooden sticks. Sometimes the wheat straws were thrown into the air by hand like vegetables in a stir-fry. After the wheat had been hammered, most of the hulls were broken. The process, in fact, was intended to split the kernel and wheatears.

After threshing, the wheat straws had a lot of functions. They could be returned to the field as fertilizer or used as bedding for livestock. They could also be used to produce fodder or make paper. Regrettably, Roland had no extra plan to develop a green industry, he simply burned the straw stacked by serfs along the river. In the following days, the dusty smoke covered the entire sky of Border Town, it was worse than the previous cement flour pollution.

At the same time, two fusiform islands along both sides of the Redwater Bridge had been cleared up, and the scheduled retention walls were under construction. The pier foundation adopted the same prefabrication system as the main bridge. Concrete columns containing structural steel and rebar were cast in the open ground. Then, the columns were hoisted upright. Lotus was responsible for sinking it into the soil, with half of the steel plate coming out to connect with bridge pontic.

In one week, Roland had shuttled his way from the Redwater bridge to the barnyard. His skin had tanned considerably.

Once the wheat straws had been picked out, only a bed of kernels and hulls remined.

Serfs quickly swept the kernels and hulls together, into heaping small hills. They stood on the small piles and used shovels to scoop up the mixture of kernels and hulls, winnowing them toward the open ground. Due to the mass difference, the lighter hulls blew farther away in the wind, while the heavier kernels tumbled close to their feet. This was how they gradually collected the grain.

Of course, it was impossible to split the kernels from hulls completely using this method. Small pieces of dirt and stones were very likely to mix in with the kernels. Roland made a resolution to prepare a batch of mechanical farming tools for the reaping period next year. Even though it was not likely that he could produce combine-harvesters, it would be easy to manufacture hullers by changing the stone roller into a millstone, installing a screen cloth under the millstones and then using an air blower to filter the split hulls.

Grains of full kernels were laid evenly in the barnyard. The north bank of the Redwater River was covered with golden color. Seeing the golden kernels, a sense of accomplishment filled Roland’s heart. It did not matter whether the grains reaped could support ten thousand people. It was still a day worth commemorating, at least, for Border Town.

From today onwards, the people of his domain would no longer have to rely on importing grains, they were self-sufficient.

After three days of drying, the wheat could be filled into sacks for weighing.

“Your Highness. A bountiful harvest!” said Barov, who bounded happily into Roland’s office in the afternoon. “According to the preliminary statistics, the grain yield per mu (about 666.7 square meters) of each responsible field was four times the previous output, and the highest output was even six times more. It is enough to feed the subjects,” he added.

“Really? It appears that the newly-built granary in the Castle District will come in handy,” said Roland, who could not help but laugh.

“Did you know what this means?” The City Hall Director looked more excited than Roland. “With only an increase of 2,000 serfs we could meet the grain consumption demands of 50,000 to 60,000 people! Unimaginable! It is absolutely likely that Border Town could expand into the largest city in the Kingdom of Graycastle, no…” he paused and added, “the largest city in the continent!”

Low food production capacity was a major factor in the low rate of population. Dozens of nearby villages were needed to provide food for a large city boasting more than 20,000 people. Each village boasted a population of one to two thousand people, like the King’s City. If half of the villagers worked in farming, it revealed that almost 2,000 people supported the lives of another 2,000 people. In other words, the grain yield per capita was just enough to support himself, his family and one more person in the city.

This was also the invisible limitation of the productivity. Barov had hardly imagined that the yield of just one small group could feed tens of thousands of people. Once mechanized cropping became popular, the productivity was greatly improved. Such abundant harvest must be attributed to the “Golden Ones” built by Leaf.

Roland had set a strategy for supporting the people with as few serfs as possible, liberating more labor resources from the farming industry to engage in industrial production. Currently, the Ministry of Agriculture had obtained optimum planting processes. The per capita grain yield would inevitably improve even further next year with the aid of iron farming tools and mechanized cropping.

…

At dusk, Roland delivered a bonfire speech. It was just like the time four months ago, with the flaming bonfire, a flood of people and the last touch of afterglow on people’s faces. However, people’s looks had changed from the panic and uneasiness of newcomers to uncovered joy and hope for a bountiful harvest.

Roland waved his hand, and the scene became quiet at once. They all held their breath and waited for the prince to fulfill his promise.

“I know what you want to hear. I can tell you with great certainty that the promotion rules enacted before are still valid and will be carried out later!” Roland said bluntly, without adding his name and title as per the usual practice.

His words greatly enlivened the atmosphere of the scene. They could not help cheering happily, and some of them even got down on their knees and gave thanks for the mercy of the prince. “Long live my lord! Long live Your Royal Highness!”

“After we’ve finished weighing the food, the promotion list will be released accordingly,” said Roland. He continued as the hurrahs quieted down, “City Hall will be responsible for the follow-up arrangements for being freemen, and you can choose either to work in farming or find another job in the town.”

“In addition, if you didn’t rank at the top, in the coming year, as long as the crop yield meets the promotion standards, you can also become freemen. In other words, as long as you work hard, you have the opportunity to rid yourselves of your identities as serfs. As I once said, labor creates wealth, and labor changes fate.” He, paused for a moment and looked around. “I hope one day there will be no serfs in Border Town, and all people will my subjects,” he added.

As Roland finished his speech, the people’s cheers range out in the Redwater River for a long period of time.

Chapter 265: The Last Enemy

imothy Wimbledon walked into the arched tholos at the top of the Lord’s Tower in the Port of Clearwater.

Different from the common castle, the towering structure was much higher but also more narrow. Aside from sightseeing and handling governmental affairs, it could hardly be used to convene the ministers for an official meeting.

The room furnishings had stood forever in the same place as if its owner had just left and would come back soon. A rufous square table faced the entrance, with some neatly arranged books and unfinished manuscripts in the center of the table. In the inkpot was a quill-pen, at disposal to write at any time.

He walked to the table step by step, and then sat on the wide chair. The chair was covered with a bamboo cooling pad, suitable for easing the summer heat. A basin of water was placed beside the chair. Apparently, it was used to store ice in the hot summer months. However, the weather today was gloomy, with dark clouds close to the sea horizon. It was not too hot in the room.

Timothy leaned over and sniffed at the table. A faint fragrance came to his nostrils, the fragrance of the blue sunflower that Garcia liked most. Planted in the Coldwind Ridge, it had a unique sense of cooling. Different from rose and rosemary, it held the scent of permeating ice and snow in the Northern Region.

Only an article used for a long period of time could embody the essence of its owner. There was no doubt that his little sister had often sat on this chair, with her hands on the table, listening to her men report or writing government decrees.

He could not help but chuckle at thought of this.

Finally, Timothy simply leaned on the back of the chair and laughed aloud.

He had finally won!

Garcia had given up the Port of Clearwater and the Southern Territory, which was tantamount to abdicating her intention for the throne of the Kingdom of Graycastle.

Upon hearing that the Blacksail Fleet would continue to march north, he had gathered his troops at once and drove over 5,000 slaves, Rats, and criminals to the Southern Territory to attack the Port of Clearwater, Garcia’s nest. The only defense had been from the Sand Nation in the Southernmost Region. It was not clear what they had been promised, they’d just put up a desperate fight like cornered beasts. Most troublesome, was that they had mad pills.

The battle lasted for nearly half a month. Taking advantage of his numerical superiority, Timothy defeated the counterattack and again continued to encroach on the defense line of the Sand Nation. Almost 3,000 people died from this war of attrition. Had it not been for the pills, these rabbles could not have engaged in the war, let alone fought against the barbarous and fierce soldiers of the Sand Nation.

The result of the war was that he finally crossed the corpses lying on the field and occupied the Lord’s Tower in the Port of Clearwater.

The “Queen of the Port of Clearwater” was now a thing of the past. The Southern Territory of the Kingdom of Graycastle was finally under the rein of Timothy.

“Your Majesty?” the knight on duty entered. Possibly he had heard him laughing.

“It’s nothing,” said Timothy. He stood up, hinting that the knight should follow him, and then ascended to the terrace from the side door of the tholus.

A slightly salty sea breeze was swirling, and their robes rustled in the wind. The dark clouds gathered overhead in the distance, it appeared a heavy rain was approaching.

It truly was a pity! He had planned to witness the port, the wharf, and Garcia’s Lord’s Tower turning to dust and ashes, but it seemed to be impossible. He had been on various expeditions with his troops for nearly half a year and had hardly stayed in the King’s City for more than a month. All the government affairs had been entrusted to the prime minister to deal with. Although Marquis Wyke seemed to be loyal, even loyalty could not resist the lure of profit. Gerald Wimbledon was the best example. He had to return to the King’s City as soon as possible to control the turbulent political situation. The rain in the Southern Region would last for several days, but he could not wait any longer.

“I will return to the king’s city tomorrow morning. The other knights and mercenaries will be under your command except for the guards and knightage in the King’s City. Sir Ed Howes, guard the Southern Territory for me. Don’t let the people of the Sand Nation set foot in the Kingdom of Graycastle.”

“You’re leaving me here? But I wanted to fight for you, Your Majesty. I…” the young knight from the Howes Family in the north, was momentarily shocked.

“Defending the frontier is still fighting for me,” Timothy interrupted. “Listen up, there are several things I need you to do. I need a loyal and competent person to deal with follow-up matters.”

“But…” Ed appeared irresolute.

“I know what you’re worried about. Rest assured, I won’t leave you here to guard forever. After the follow-up matters in the Port of Clearwater come to an end, I will recall you back to the King’s City at once. The Kingdom of Graycastle hasn’t achieved unity yet. I will need more knights to fight for me before recapturing the Western Region. It is unlikely I would forget you,” said Timothy, smiled and clapped the knight’s shoulder.

He raised his head and then got down on his knees, eyes shining. “Yes, Your Majesty,” he shouted.

“Rise,” Timothy nodded satisfactorily and said, “Subsequently, you need to do three things. The first is to escort all the remaining residents in the Port of Clearwater to the King’s City.” ..

“You don’t want to gibbet the betrayers?” Knight Ed asked in surprise.

“No, they’re not real betrayers. They would have left with the Blacksail Fleet if they had defected to Garcia. If I killed them, it would just play into her hands,” said Timothy. In fact, Garcia’s influence was really beyond his expectation. The port boasted a population of over 10,000 people, along with the slaves plundered from Eagle City. Only 400 people were reluctant to leave. But for the desperate defense of the Sand Nation, it would have been an empty city.

“May His Majesty be merciful.”

“The second one is to burn the port, wharf and Lord Tower. I wanted all the people in the Southern Territory to see that the nest of Garcia has gone with the wind. Even she fled hither and thither to come back finally, only ruins left to her.”

“Yes!” The knight answered.

“Your last task is to gather all the refugees regardless of the methods adopted. All the homeless, Rats, and caterans, even the people of the Sand Nation are okay. Since the Eagle City war, the disputes in the Southern Territory were never quelled. There will be a large number of refugees in the villages and towns nearby. You should have a troop of at least 5,000 soldiers before waging war to suppress the Western Region,” Timothy looked toward the horizon as he said this calmly.

Garcia’s escape had proved the feasibility of his strategy. Her forces were consumed by more than half of the population of the Kingdom of Graycastle. Under general circumstance, thousands of civilians would be in command of one hundred knights to launch an attack. The knight who had no need to participate in the war would only be responsible for distributing the pills and commanding the general situation. With their advantage in numbers, those who surrendered first must be the enemies. Garcia’s withdrawal seemed to be much determined. If she had made a last-effort defense, the Port of Clearwater would have been encroached on by the crazy civilians who had swallowed the pills.

The only enemy he had now was Roland Wimbledon in the Western Region.

Chapter 266: The Determination

quot;Your Majesty, how come my brother hasn’t sent any news back by now?”

Hearing Ed’s words, Timothy remained speechless for a moment. “Indeed, it’s strange. I sent Lehmann Hawes to sack the Western Region two months ago. Counting in the time spent on the road, now it’s time for him to report or return to the king’s city.”

Timothy was clear that Lehmann and his knights who had merely 1,500 drugged men could hardly occupy the Western Region, so he had only told Lehmann to try to take control of the Western Region if possible. Their main tasks were to bring back the pills of the stronghold church, investigate the battle between Duke Ryan and Roland, and launch drugged men attacks to consume Roland’s effective strength before leaving the town.

This tactic of drugged men attacks paid off during his battles against Garcia. Even if he had not capture Port of Clearwater at once and all the drugged militia members had been killed, his knights would have still managed to get back safely. As long as they could mass another group of useless people, they could launch another round of attack like that.

This time, however, out of Timothy’s expectation, he had heard nothing from Lehmann Hawes and his platoon of knights since they had left.

“Maybe he’s attacking the town or on the way back.” Timothy finally opened his mouth to give Ed some unconvincing explanations instead of the most possible one. “With any luck, I’ll receive information from him when I return to the king’s city.”

“Your Majesty, if you receive any news, could you please…”

“Tell you the information he’s come back?” Timothy nodded. “Of course, I’ll send a carrier pigeon to you at that time.”

“Thank you, Your Majesty!”

Leaning on a railing, the new king looked at the dark, cloudy sky. He occasionally saw a lightning in the clouds and heard muffled, deep thunders coming from a long distance away. His heart sank.

Ed’s question neutralized his excitement of finally conquering Port of Clearwater. Garcia Wimbledon, as he had expected, had fought back. Tilly Wimbledon, out of his expectation, had left Graycastle. As for Roland Wimbledon, Timothy thought what he had done was unimaginably queer. The new king had thought he would have never needed to worry about this incapable little brother who would have soon got tired of the dull, remote town and returned to the king’s city by himself. However, what had happened in the town was contrary to what Timothy had thought.

Roland had stayed in the town and survived the Months of Demons. He had even defeated Duke Ryan and seized Longsong Stronghold. Now, Timothy wondered what had he done again to make Lehmann and his 1,500 militia men lose touch.

He did not know very much about this younger brother. Neither Garcia nor Gerald had liked to play with him in childhood. When Roland had grown up, he had only seen him on banquets in the palace and heard quite a lot about his numerous bad deeds. Even their father had not liked him very much. But based on what had happened after he had gone to the town, Timothy doubted whether he had been hiding who he really was all the time.

Soon he vetoed that idea. No one was born to know how to disguise or deceive. Smart as Tilly was, she had not been very different from a common little girl in childhood except for her talent in learning. Given that, Roland’s change must be caused by something happened to him in Border Town.

He shook his head to banish these thoughts.

“What’s the matter? Your Majesty.”

“Nothing.” The new king took a deep breath. “A rainstorm is going to start.”

“No matter what he’s met in Border Town, the position of the town has already put him in a corner. What’s behind Roland is Barbarian Land, making it impossible for him to retreat backward. Without any port and fleet, he can only fight till death if I keep on launching attacks,” thought Timothy.

“Do you insist on setting out tomorrow?” the knight asked with some anxiety.

“How can we withstand a real storm in the future, if we’re easily stopped by some raindrops?” Timothy turned around and said to Ed. He believed that sooner or later Roland Wimbledon would kneel down in front of him to beg for mercy, and he himself would become the King of the Kingdom of Graycastle. He also knew it was just the beginning and the real challenge was the church, as he had already sensed its intention. “Go ahead and do your job. The sooner you finish the task I gave you, the earlier we’ll return to the king’s city.”

“Yes, Your Majesty.”

Ed walked two steps away and suddenly turned around to say, “I almost forget. Your Majesty, what should we do about those drugged men who didn’t die on the battlefields? They’ve taken pills for three times.”

“Let them burn with Port of Clearwater,” Timothy answered, showing no emotion.

The knight received the order and left. Timothy suddenly felt something cold drop on his nose and looked up. Several raindrops fell down from the clouds and then more of them came down, rippling the surface of the sea.

On the top floor in Tower of Babel, New Holy City, Hermes

“Damn it, damn it! This b*tch! This devil defying deities! How dare she aim her spearhead at the church!?” Tayfun shouted harshly while banging the table.

It was the first time for Mayne to see this elder archbishop acting like that. His face looked ferocious now with his beard shaking and veins throbbing on the forehead. He acted as if he wanted to swallow Garcia alive.

Tayfun had complained a lot about Heather before and would have even spent a whole afternoon quarreling with her over a trifle. However, the moment he had opened the jewelry box sent by Queen of Clearwater, he had flared up.

Inside the box, there was no pearl but a blood-stained finger wearing an iron ring that bore an archbishop emblem and had been bestowed by the pope.

Mayne heaved a sigh and stretched his hand to close the box, saying, “Of course, she dares to do so, as we weren’t blessed by deities this time. Deities prefer the winner.”

Hearing this, Tayfun, still panting heavily, calmed down at once and then sat back in his chair without a word. In the end, he asked with great efforts, “So, what’re you going to do next?”

The church had never met such a predicament in the recent 100 years. They had never expected that Garcia would have come to the Kingdom of Everwinter. After she had captured the king’s city, she had sent out Blacksail Fleet to approach Hermes. Even though the church had almost succeeded in seizing Wolfheart City at that time, Mayne had still recalled God’s Punishment Army to the old Holy City.

They had to defend this city which had no city walls, as behind it there was Hermes’ underground castle.

When the God’s Punishment Army had retreated from Wolfheart City, Blacksail Fleet had also changed its course, sailing back to the king’s city. By doing so, Garcia had shown the church that if they dared to attack the Kingdom of Wolfheart, she would attack Holy City from waterway. Her strength stirred up the nobles in the Kingdom of Everwinter again. Mayne believed that as long as she could ensure the safety of those greedy nobles’ domains and property, they would support her to become the new queen of the Kingdom of Everwinter without hesitation.

He knew these problems now were not easy to solve.

But the church would never be subdued by them. Before officially becoming an archbishop, Mayne had understood that it was a thorny path ahead.

He slowly said to Tayfun, “First of all, Holy City needs a new archbishop. You can make a list of candidates for the pope to pick.”

Tayfun snorted and said, “So what about the enemy?”

“I’ll tell everything to the pope. Don’t worry.” Mayne closed his eyes. “His Holiness will make a wise decision.”