Release That Witch

Chapter 333: The Defensive Battle on the New City Wall

he entire camp seemed to become astir when the bell rang.

Van’er rushed out of his tent, followed the flow of people rushing towards the city wall, and took up his combat position. Since everyone had practiced the process countless times, they knew exactly what to do even without a commander around.

Just like in last year’s Months of Demons, only a small patrol was arranged to guard each section of the city wall in normal times. After all, scattered demonic beasts could be taken care of by two or three people. It was only when the lookout spotted a large-scale demonic attack that they immediately sounded the alarm.

A group of shadows was approaching the city wall from the horizon. Van’er observed them and estimated the number to be about 1,000, thinking, “If this happened a year ago, we’ll definitely have a tough battle to fight.” In the past, he, as a pike man whose responsibility was to earn time for the Flintlock Squad to load their weapons, had to take turns with the reserve members in order to persevere until the end.

But now, the forces of Border Town had undergone a massive change.

Cat’s Claw removed the gun cover and shook off the snow on it. Meanwhile, Rodney checked the barrel of the field artillery, and after confirming it was clear of foreign objects, he began to load the ammunition. Although the new city wall was built of soil and concrete, it was higher and wider than the old one. Moreover, with a shelling platform set every 100 meters on the wall, its defensive fire was greatly improved.

The city wall was rather wide, allowing four persons to walk side by side. During a battle, the Flintlock Squad was set in the first row and recruit loaders in the second; the latter was responsible for filling cartridges and then handing them over to regular soldiers in front of them.

“Why can’t they just leave us alone?” Rodney yawned and continued, “They frantically run over here during the “Months of the Demons” every year. Even if they managed to break into Border Town, they wouldn’t benefit much, right?”

“They serve as good practice for us,” Nelson laughed and said. “In comparison, it’s much more amusing to shoot moving demonic beasts than fixed wooden targets.”

“Speaking of shooting practice, I heard of an interesting rumor recently. It’s something to do with our cannon squad,” Jop said mysteriously.

“What kind of rumor?”

“I heard it from other mortar teams. They told me sharp shooters would be put in an Elite Artillery Squad and take on brand-new tasks,” he paused and asked, “Does any of you know more about it?”

“An Elite Artillery Squad?”

“You have a nose for news. How do we possibly know more about it than you do?”

“Maybe it was all made up by some raffish person.”

Van’er was the only one that remained silent in the mortar team. Hearing Jop’s words, he couldn’t help but frown, thinking, “How imprudent they are to gossip about this!”

A week ago, Lord Iron Axe summoned and told him that His Highness planned to develop a new type of cannon, which was totally different from existing field artilleries and would not serve the First Army. Instead, they would be used to turn ordinary ships into warships with long-distance attack capability. Moreover, the best member of the artillery team would be chosen to operate the cannons. Anyone interested could apply to Iron Axe.

Of course, Van’er agreed straight away since it was obviously a good opportunity for him to get promoted in the army. According to Iron Axe, His Highness had high expectations for the new unit, which might even be separated from the First Army and become a new army. Besides, if anyone managed to make great contributions, warships built in the future might be named after them.

What an honor that would be! Van’er would feel content for the rest of his life if he could have a warship named after himself. Thinking back, although he was merely a common laborer in the mining area, he always believed he could make a name for himself. Unfortunately, he failed to save his own younger brother’s life in the slum in Longsong Stronghold. But now, he didn’t need to brag about anything as he could have decent meals and wear warm uniforms in the army. Additionally, every time he went back to his community, his neighbors would take the initiative to say hello to him.

All these changes could be attributed to His Highness.

Originally, he joined the Militia for an egg. Now it seemed to be the wisest decision he had ever made in his life.

In addition, Iron Axe also asked Van’er to recommend candidates, who may submit their applications together with him. In other words, it was equally possible for these young men to get this opportunity to prove their true worth. However, in Van’er’s eyes, they were too immature right now and thus it was better to wait until they grew more composed. Besides, if they actually rendered outstanding service, should the warships be named after them as Jop or Cat Claw? It would sound awful… Maybe Rodney and Nelson were better choices.

As for the matter that some disclosed the news to their subordinates, Van’er thought he should report it to Iron Axe. After all, it was clearly set in the regulation training that any piece of news about the First Army must be kept only within the army. No one was allowed to spread it unless explicitly required by their leaders.

“Stop gossiping. Focus all of your attention on the battlefield.” Van’er cleared his throat and interrupted the discussion among the mortar team members. “Don’t forget what Lord Iron Axe stressed in the class. Any mistake may lead to irreparable failures.”

“Yes!” They said in unison.

As the destructive power of solid iron balls were too low, they didn’t start shooting until the demonic beasts came within range. When fierce-looking demonic wolves crossed the 100-meter line, the shelling started.

Heat waves rolled up the snow beneath the muzzles and big booms caused acute pains in Van’er’s ears. In the distance, dark red blood suddenly splashed everywhere with groups of demonic beasts falling to the ground. Neither the fur of demonic boars nor that of bears could withstand the damage inflicted by iron balls in short distance.

“Look at the beast over there.” Cat’s Claw pointed to the front left. “It’s a red-skinned demonic wolf!”

A group of people swiftly moved the gun carriers, adjusted the muzzles to the right direction, and loaded them before firing again. Theoretically, it was unnecessary for them to aim at any target because as long as they fired, their shots would always cause heavy casualties among the enemy. On top of that, the new mud wall was higher than the old stone wall, so demonic wolves wouldn’t pose a threat to soldiers on the top. Therefore, they targeted these agile demonic beasts first just to practice their shooting skills.

Finally it was the Flintlock Squad’s turn. In order to ensure high hit rate, they didn’t shoot until demonic beasts were near the 50 meter line.

Unlike the synchronized sounds of flintlocks, those of revolving rifles were dense and continuous. Wisps of white smoke rose from the top of the city wall. Stimulated by the pungent smoke of gunpowder, Van’er couldn’t help sneezing.

“Holy crap! Revolving rifles are less powerful, but they produce more smoke than any other weapons.” Jop complained.

“Yeah. Cannons decide who win the battle,” Rodney agreed and added, “whether it is a war against knights or demonic beasts.”

At that moment, a short but sharp chime was sounded from the observation post. It was an early warning for spotting demonic hybrids.

Van’er squinted forward only to see two huge shadows moving slowly in the smoke. Judging from their sizes, they should be Siege Beasts with thick shells.

“What did I say just now?” Van’er grinned and said, “It’s time for us to show what we can do now. Put in pointed ball ammunition.”

To deal with enemies with strong defensive ability like these, new shells developed by the arms plant can penetrate their shells within the range of about 200 meters. If the fight against demonic wolves was deemed as warm exercises, now the official shooting began.

“Do your best,” Van’er clapped his hands to draw everyone’s attention and said, “Prove you’re the best cannoneers to other teams.”

.

Chapter 334: Distressed

ndrea had just climbed onto the corner of the city wall when she saw something stunning.

A row of soldiers in the uniform of the Militia was standing on the wall, each of whom held a strange weapon—probably the flintlock that Ashes mentioned. As the demonic beasts drew near, the flintlocks sprayed flames and smoke, and the sound of gunfire rang constantly in her ears.

The weapon should be similar to a crossbow, but she couldn’t see bolts shot out of it, probably because of all the smoke. The demonic beasts rushing to the front seemed to be heavily struck by something, because they all suddenly stopped and fell on the ground one after another.

However, the soldiers didn’t stop to observe their shots, nor did they refill bolts into the weapons. They just kept on shooting at the enemies at a speed that was even faster than shooting with crossbows.

“Is this the dreadful weapon you talked about?” Andrea felt her lips dry. “The shooting speed is indeed fast, but the accuracy seems…”

Ashes interrupted her. “These people were only miners, farmers or hunters before they were recruited. They have only trained with these weapons for less than six months.”

It takes five years to train a warrior well, and longer to train an archer. Even for the crossbow, which is easy to operate, it takes about six months of training to at least prevent a farmer from placing the bolt in backwards in panic. As for actual combat, who the hell knows what they’ll shoot at. The prince will probably just use their size to intimidate the enemies.

Andrea gulped in awe. She was no stranger to these trainings. Her family used to train outstanding knights, so she understood what it meant to produce qualified soldiers in about six months. As long as they had sufficient weapons and food supply, Roland was able to put together a large army in a short time, which didn’t have to worry about close-quarter combat, because their ceaseless attacks prevented even elite knights from coming into attack range.

It had nothing to do with the soldiers’ courage and willpower, because the weapons had endowed them with great strength.

“Do you know anything else about flintlocks?” Tilly pondered for a moment and asked Sylvie.

Sylvie nodded. “I’ve carefully observed it many times. It’s indeed similar to the crossbow, but the arrow it fires is very short without any shafts or tail feathers. The difference is that the arrow shot by the flintlock is not propelled by an elastic string, but by the impact of exploding black powder – it can bring the shots to an extremely high speed in an instant.”

“Black powder?” Ashes asked, “What’s that?”

“It’s probably an alchemic product.” Sylvie shook her head. “I don’t know its specific ingredients.”

“It must be very expensive,” Andrea said. “Nothing made by alchemists is cheap.”

Ashes frowned. “Is that so… When the soldiers are shooting, they don’t act like they’re using something expensive at all.”

“Wait a moment, something is coming,” Sylvie, who had been observing the battlefield, said in a stunned tone. “Oh God, is that also a demonic beast? It’s almost as tall as the city wall! It looks like a huge turtle with a giant shell on its back.”

This caught Andrea’s attention. “Shell? Those flintlocks may have limited impact on that, but as long as I can get within ten steps of the target, even the city wall can’t withstand my magic arrows. Ashes, you cover me.”

“OK.” Ashes took down the sword on her back reluctantly. “Let me remind you—you’d better not embarrass Lady Tilly.”

“Don’t go.” Sylvie tried to stop them. “They have…”

Andrea missed the second half of Sylvie’s sentence. All she could hear was a deafening roar that sounded like a thunder ringing in her ears. Looking back, she saw that those metal tube weapons standing on the city wall were shooting out flames in unison. This time she vaguely followed the arrows’ trajectories – they were like shadows going at a lightning-fast speed toward the distant beast that had just appeared.

After a few seconds, columns of snow sprung up near the beast. While the snow scattered down, the ugly large demonic beast still proceeded with the same speed—obviously the round of attack missed the target.

Despite this, Andrea was already in shock… the shooting distance was much farther than what a longbow and a heavy crossbow could reach. “Is this…”

“His Highness calls it field artillery. Simply speaking, it’s a magnified flintlock.” Sylvie uncovered her ears. “This weapon is much more powerful than flintlocks and can reach a much farther target. His Highness used these to easily defeat Timothy’s fleet at the fork of Redwater River.”

The demonic beast wasn’t as lucky in the second round of firing, as two shots accurately landed on the beast’s shell. After two heavy collision sounds, Andrea clearly saw a layer of mist spring from the beast’s bumpy shell and two big holes appear on the shell near the beast’s head. Black blood and guts spurted out of the holes, splashing everywhere.

The fight didn’t last long. After a short while, piles of demonic beasts’ bodies were scattered at the foot of the city wall. Warm blood flowed out of their bodies and turned into fog when it touched the snow. The soldiers began to clean up the mess. Andrea, on the other hand, hadn’t found any chance to use her abilities in the fight.

“It seems my prediction was wrong,” Tilly said resignedly. “He doesn’t need the help from combat witches.”

“When I arrived in this town last time, this sort of weapon hadn’t been popularized, and they were exclusive to Chief Knight. However, this time, he has already produced so many of them…” Ashes sighed. “This was probably why His Highness insisted on announcing the existence of witches in public despite the pressure from the Church.”

Andrea didn’t talk back. Normally, she would have teased Ashes, but now she felt extraordinarily depressed with no strength to fight back.

After the witches returned to the castle, they found that His Highness Roland had prepared a hearty lunch for them.

Looking at the colorful dishes on the table, Andrea felt even more depressed.

The upper nobility of the Kingdom of Dawn emphasized the natural form of food. They spent lots of money and time on collecting cherished and rare ingredients, and they cooked them using the most authentic methods. The food served in the Kingdom of Graycastle was covered with all sorts of spices and sauces. In her eyes, this was a rather vulgar way of eating – seasonings were only used to cover up the defects of the food itself. The more seasonings were added, the worse the food actually tasted.

Surprisingly… every dish on the table was terribly delicious.

Take the grilled mushroom for example—where did His Highness find all these juicy mushrooms? A small bite of it yielded a mouthful of flowing juices.

Then there was the vegetable soup. It looked just like ordinary clear soup, but it tasted as rich and fresh as it had been cooked with a whole chicken, ribs and kelp for a long time.

The most special dish was the dessert—ice cream bread, which was actually a kind of sandwich with fragrant ice cream in between. Taking a bite of it, she felt intoxicated by its icy and creamy texture. Although it was “winter”, it didn’t stop her from eating piece after piece.

Damn, even in regards to food, she had completely lost.

Looking at Ashes, who was smiling at her provocatively, Andrea didn’t say anything in response for the first time. <br/>

Chapter 335: The Drastic Change

n the third day, the assembly of a large hot air balloon was completed, and it was time to explore the ruin.

The new hot air balloon was called the Farsight. Its huge basket could accommodate more witches and was surrounded by a canvas so that it could resist the cold wind and heavy snow.

As the earlier they carried out the mission, the safer it was, the witches bade a simple farewell to Roland and stepped onto the hot air balloon. They took off from the castle backyard and headed for the stone tower.

In order to land quickly and fight enemies as soon as they appeared, the Farsight flew at a very low altitude, almost as low as the rooftops of the town houses. Most of the subjects witnessed this “miraculous view”. Some of them froze in place, while others shouted “Long live His Highness Roland”—in their eyes, such a miracle could only be created by the Lord of Border Town. When the hot air balloon flew over the West Wall, the soldiers of the First Army all saluted it. Both Lightning and Maggie, who were flying to escort the balloon, were no strangers to them. The little girl Lightning, who used to guide the Artillery Squad’s shooting directions, aroused especially enthusiastic cheers among the soldiers.

Soon, through the flying snow, Farsight left the town behind and entered the Misty Forest.

Tilly stood at the edge of the basket, overlooking this boundless forest.

The snow season during the Months of Demons turned the whole world white. The top branches of gigantic trees were all covered by thick snow, which looked like high and broad platforms above the ground at first sight. On the other side of their view were layers of mountains, casting a shade of gray in the obscure mist. As the feet of the mountains weren’t visible, they looked as if they were floating in the air.

“Beautiful scenery.” Shavi sighed. “This is the first time I see a snow-covered Western Region.”

“Are you a witch from the Western Region?” Wendy asked curiously.

“I used to live in Fallen Dragon Ridge. It was close to the south, so it rarely snowed in the winter. Later, I heard that Lady Tilly was exploring Sleeping Island, so I secretly travelled to the Port of Clearwater by boat to meet the other witches.”

“I see,” said Wendy, shaking her head with a smile. “His Highness had been complaining about the lack of new witches even after spreading the rumor of the Witch Cooperation Association in Border Town… it seems that he was one step later than Tilly.”

“Did you also spread messages to attract witches?”

“They did, but the person they sent wasn’t very skillful. I kept my eyes on him the moment he reached Fallen Dragon Ridge,” Ashes said with satisfaction. “and I caught him at Silver City. Was his name Theo?

“You were also a witch. Of course you would notice this strange rumor.” Andrea twitched her mouth. “If you didn’t run into Lady Tilly, you would probably have gone to Border Town.”

“I’m not His Highness…”

“Oh,” Andrea said, mocking Ashes’ voice, “His Highness … You’re quite good at saying it.”

“Ha-ha,” Tilly couldn’t help but laugh. Yesterday, Andrea seemed depressed about something, but today, she seemed to be herself again. On Sleeping Island, Andrea, born to a noble family, was the only one who dared to pick on Ashes. Tilly said, “No matter where we are from, Sleeping Island or Border Town, we’re of a family, so let’s make no distinction between witches.”

She turned around and looked at the witches one by one.

Before leaving, they had introduced their own abilities to one another so that they could cooperate well while fighting against enemies. There weren’t as many combat witches in Border Town as there were on Sleeping Island, and most of the former ones weren’t fit for combats. However, thanks to their tireless efforts, the town was turned into the way it was today.

Tilly focused her gaze on Anna. If she had to choose a witch who impressed her the most, it would be this woman, who had her awakening in this desolate place and made a profound impact on Roland.

Every time she stood beside Anna, she felt an indescribable decorum and peacefulness, which was a new feeling to her. If she had to put it into words, it was like the feeling of laying on a broad field, with the soft but firm ground on your back making you feel at ease.

Anna didn’t talk much to anyone but Roland, and her facial expressions didn’t change much, either. However, as long as she stood among the witches, she was hard to ignore.

Sylvie told her that Anna was the first witch who evolved in Border Town and had astonishingly great magic power as her Blackfire was extremely powerful and malleable. Besides, she was the first witch who read through Natural Science Theoretical Foundation, a fact which made Tilly feel closer to her.

“In this winter, if only I could sit with Anna beside the fireplace and have a good discussion about books. I’m more than willing to do that.” Tilly thought silently and was looking forward to it.

Princess Tilly then moved her gaze to Lightning, who was flying beside the basket. As the daughter of Thunder, Anna had a lot in common with his father, the number one explorer in Fjords. She was lively, curious, and a girl of action. “She is cut out for flying.” Tilly thought. “Only the endless sky could accommodate her adventurous heart.” Although Thunder wanted his daughter to live a peaceful life, Tilly knew Lightning was bound to be an explorer as soon as she saw her, and maybe even a more successful one than her father.

All she could do was try her best to protect Lightning.

“We’re almost there.” Tilly’s thought was interrupted by Lightning, who came near the basket to inform everybody.

“Come inside and rest,” said Wendy concernedly. “Your lips are frozen white.”

“I’m OK. My face is just a little numb.” She patted her rosy cheeks. “Fortunately, I have the scarf from His Highness with me, so my ears aren’t cold at all.”

They didn’t encounter ferocious demons along the journey. The demonic beasts crawling through the forests occasionally roared once or twice towards them, but they obviously didn’t have the ability to attack a hot air balloon on the sky, so the first half of the journey was fairly smooth. However, when the Farsight arrived above their destination, everyone was shocked by the sight down below.

The forest seemed to have been swept through by something huge. Broken trunks and branches were scattered everywhere, and the snow on the ground was totally turned over and mixed together with mud, forming a very messy scene.

“Where is the Stone Tower?” Ashes asked.

“It used to be there.” Lightning pointed at the open space under them, her tone full of disbelief. “It’s… gone.”

Tilly looked in the direction that Lightning was pointing at. On the brown-and-white ground, there was a huge hole. It was so black that its bottom remained invisible, and it looked as if someone had dug a tunnel toward an abyss. However, according to the size of the hole entrance, whoever created this hole must be extremely huge.

“Sylvie, come and see what’s inside the hole.”

Sylvie quickly frowned and her expression grew ugly. “A… A worm-like monster. It’s moving northwest. Wait a moment, the ruin is in its stomach!”

“What? In its stomach?” Ashes said surprisingly.

“That’s right. I see the stone tower… and the Frozen Coffin you talked about,” she said carefully. “God. It swallowed the whole ruin!”

What to do next? Everyone looked at Tilly.

“Is there anything else other than the worm?” Princess Tilly asked in a deep voice, “especially demons.”

“Hmm… there are some demonic beasts, but all in the worm’s stomach. I think they are dead.” Sylvie watched for a while and shook her head.

Tilly thought for a moment and said decisively, “Let’s land. Several of you keep watch outside, and the others should follow me into the hole, kill the huge beast, and retrieve the Frozen Coffin.” <br/>

Chapter 336: Worm Stomach

quot;Tilly, you can’t…” Ashes was just about to stop Tilly when she was interrupted.

“If we want to get into the hole, we must rely on witches who can fly to bring people out.” Tilly waved the ring on her finger. “Although carrying heavy objects will consume more magic power, I can bring at least one witch, who would be vital to our mission—with one more witch, we can face bigger challenges.” She paused, looking at the Border Town witches and said, “Anna, Lightning, Maggie – I need your help.”

The three of them didn’t show any dissent, and Maggie even seemed itching to go.

Tilly was slightly relieved. “Ashes, Shavi, and Sylvie will join us and go to the bottom of the hole. Sisters who are on the ground – please try your best to guard the gate.”

“Lady Tilly, please let me join you,” Andrea said.

“Nightingale might find it hard to cope with the demonic beasts all by herself.” Tilly shook her head. “You two can cooperate well from close and afar.”

“Don’t worry. I will guard the exit for you.” Nightingale seemed full of confidence. “Neither demons nor demonic beasts will get close to the exit.”

Tilly was fully aware that the number of witches who could go down depended solely on the flying witches. First of all, the heaviest item was the Frozen Coffin. If the witch inside the coffin couldn’t be awaken on the spot, they would have to chop the coffin apart and take her back. The coffin’s weight would amount to that of two to three witches, a weight only Shavi could carry using her invisible barrier.

Sylvie’s Eye of Magic was necessary too. Without her, they couldn’t precisely locate the ruin in the worm’s belly. So were Anna’s cutting and heating abilities, but neither Sylvie nor Anna could fly. Fortunately, neither of them was heavy, so Maggie could transform into a magic bird and carry them. The last necessity was the Extraordinary Witch Ashes, who could fight fiercely under any circumstance. Tilly would carry her during the mission.

Lightning could fly, but according to her, her altitude would drop greatly if she carried someone on her back. Therefore, she would not be able to fly out of the deep hole. Her advantage lay in her excellent flexibility and high speed, which could play an effective role in alarming, exploring and attacking.

These witches were almost irreplaceable. The absence of any of them could make the whole situation extraordinarily tricky. So, Tilly’s decision was made out of comprehensive consideration instead of momentary impulse.

As for Andrea… her destructive power in close range was astonishing, but her ability would be greatly impeded in a dark, narrow area. So, it would be better if she and Nightingale stayed on the ground to guard against possible demonic beasts nearby.

Tilly had also considered giving up the rescue mission completely and going back home directly, but an uneasiness kept gnawing at the back of her mind. “How could the surrounding areas remain intact and the stone tower ruin be the only target?” The direction the giant beast was crawling toward was especially suspicious. She looked to the northwest of the mountains, which was the demons’ exact residence.

Could there be any connection between the two?

Under Wendy and Anna’s control, the hot air balloon soon landed steadily. Tilly put all her confusions aside and went through the whole plan one more time. Taking a deep breath, she said slowly, “Let’s go.”

…

This hole was 6m deep, which was deeper than she had expected. At first it plunged straight down, then it tilted, and in the end it became a horizontal channel. The surrounding soil exuded an unpleasant smell. Looking closely, one could see sticky liquid dripping from the surface of the soil that looked like wet traces left by slugs.

As the team proceeded, the light that came from the mouth of the hole soon disappeared. The bottom was completely dark except for some dim spots illuminated by a few torches. Meanwhile, the whistling wind had gradually died out and the coldness was replaced by heat emanating from the earth. Tilly felt that her body was also warming up.

Looking at the flickering torches, she couldn’t help but think of fireflies.

“The giant beast is ahead of us,” Sylvie whispered.

Even without her warning, everybody could sense that the target wasn’t far way—there were strange sounds coming from the deep hole. Some were like an autumn wind blowing through rustling woods, others were like something chewing.

“Let’s land.” She told Ashes, who was on her back, to wave the torch twice, and then she controlled the Magic Stone to lower her altitude until her feet fell onto the loose and soft soil.

Then, Anna’s cold light appeared.

She changed her Blackfire back to Heartfire, and cold and soft light suddenly filled the surrounding areas. Under her green light, the witches clearly saw the giant beast’s tail. The beast was slowly crawling forward. Its squirming grey skin was constantly excreting mucus, which made the putrid smell even stronger.

“A disgusting big worm,” Ashes pulled out her sword and said. “What should we do next? Cut its stomach open?”

“Wait a moment and let Anna do it,” Tilly shook her head and said. “I’m not sure if what’s in its stomach is dangerous, but killing it with a sword is too risky.”

“Well, let me try.” Anna summoned a ball of Blackfire while keeping the Greenfire burning. In the blink of an eye, the Blackfire turned into a thin line and flew directly toward the giant beast.

It penetrated the beast’s skin without any resistance and cut its belly open. Perhaps the thin line had too high a temperature, because the skin it touched instantly burst into flames. The liquid inside the beast’s body was vaporized into white mist. Shavi was already prepared for it and held up her invisible shield, blocking all the scattering liquid.

Tilly thought, “This must be her evolved power.” Although Anna had spoken about her own abilities, seeing it happen still shocked Tilly. The Blackfire was transformed into a thin line and could be operated by consciousness, without being attached to anything. It was not only sharper than any giant sword, but its movement was also hard to predict, thus making it difficult for enemies to dodge it.

The beast issued a sharp scream, and its body began to squirm maniacally. However, the Blackfire continued to attack and soon pulverized most of the beast’s body. The flowing liquid was vaporized by the Greenfire before it reached the witches.

Gradually, the giant beast stopped struggling, and its skin crumbled in a heap.

“It’s dead,” said Sylvie. “Its heart has stopped beating.”

“Something like this also has a heart?” Ashes asked, with one hand covering her nose.

“Yes, the heart is in its head and is about as big as the basket of Farsight. And…” she paused and said, “There is magic power flowing inside of the beast.”

“So, is this a demonic hybrid?”

“Nobody knows,” said Tilly. “There isn’t much recorded in history books about demonic beasts and Barbarian Land, so this area basically remains unknown to us. Let’s hurry up and dig out the Frozen Coffin.”

After Anna burned the beast a second time, the putrid smell wasn’t so strong anymore. Under Sylvie’s guidance, they quickly found the ruin swallowed by the beast. Unsurprisingly, the basement had been turned into nothing but scattered rocks and showed no signs of its previous structure. The illuminating Magic Stones that Lightning mentioned earlier were mostly turned into pasty lumps. Fortunately, the crystal pillar was still intact. After being turned out from the beast’s stomach, it showed no signs of erosion, and the woman sealed inside still looked lifelike.

“Now show us what you can do,” Tilly said to Anna. <br/>

Chapter 337: Rescue

nna nodded. She stretched the Blackfire into a thread, which gently arrived on the crystal pillar.

The witches subconsciously held their breaths. Then they saw some green smoke rising at the spot where the Blackfire touched the pillar. However, that was not the color of the smoke itself, but a reflection of the light of the Greenfire.

The Blackfire penetrated into the crystal.

“How is it?” Tilly asked.

“It’s a bit difficult, but I can cut it open,” Anna replied.

Suddenly, changes occurred in the Frozen Coffin. With a crisp clicking sound, a few cracks appeared around the area where the Blackfire penetrated. It looked as if the entire pillar was suddenly covered by cobwebs. Almost at the same time, Shavi held up a shield to protect all the witches.

But there was no explosion as they had expected. The crystal just broke into pieces and fell off, exuding coldness from its core. Now, the witches found that the transparent pillar was actually composed of two layers, and its inner layer was a genuine ice crystal. Instantly, everybody could feel a chill, and the temperature of the surrounding areas dropped rapidly.

Fortunately, Anna quickly stopped the temperature from dropping and managed to raise it to normal degree.

Under the baking of Blackfire, the ice crystal began to melt even faster, and its transparency declined drastically. A while later, the pillar didn’t have an angular shape anymore. It kept on melting and shrinking under warmth, like ordinary ice did. But Tilly noticed that there was no large pool of water on the ground. The melted ice had turned into mist and drifted away, as if the Frozen Coffin had never existed.

After the whole ice crystal had melted away, the woman sealed inside appeared.

She seemed still in her deep sleep. Her long hair and robes had no trace of being soaked, and they looked the same as they did before she was sealed. Losing the support of the pillar, the woman fell back feebly, only to be held by Ashes in her arms before she fell to the ground.

“Is she still alive?”

“She’s weak, but her heart is still beating,” Ashes pressed the woman on her chest and said, “This… is really incredible.”

It was indeed incredible. Tilly found that in less than a week since she arrived at Border Town, she had witnessed more bizarre things than she had in the past year. But she was also a little relieved, because the identity of the person who had survived a freezing cold ice crystal was almost certain a witch.

At least this adventure wasn’t for nothing.

As for her name, her origin, and the reason why she was trapped in the ruins… all these puzzles could wait until they got back.

Andrea felt a bit bored waiting outside the cave. Now and then she looked down the hole, wishing to see Tilly return as early as possible.

No trace of demons was spotted around the ruins. Even demonic beasts were rare to see. Occasionally, some demonic wolves or demonic boars popped out of the forest, but before Andrea pulled out her bow, Nightingale had darted her daggers on their heads.

Time seemed to slow down. Apart from her, all the guarding witches were from the Witch Cooperation Association. She couldn’t find anyone to chat with to kill time. Although the woman called Wendy looked very kind, Andrea couldn’t pluck up the courage to start a conversation with her.

As an unmarried female upper nobility of the Kingdom of Dawn, elegance and reservedness were her essential qualities.

“Never mind. I probably should talk to Nightingale. I heard that she used to fight against Ashes and ended up with a draw. Since I’m prying into my old enemy, this doesn’t count as starting a conversation.

“Yes, it should be my homework.” She thought to herself.

She dusted off the snow on her head and looked up, only to surprisingly find that Nightingale had disappeared.

That girl who had blonde curly hair and looked as graceful as nobility had been leaning against the basket all along. Now she was nowhere to be seen. “Oh right, her ability seems to be concealing herself.”

Keeping that in mind, Andrea calmed down to feel the surrounding sounds. When vision couldn’t come in handy, ears and noses could be good helpers for capturing the whereabouts of the opponents.

Then she heard a series of rustling footsteps.

“Is that Nightingale?”

“No, it’s not,” Andrea thought to herself. Then a creepy feeling hit her. Those footsteps weren’t from one individual. There must be a group drawing near, right in the jungle ahead of her, no further than 100 steps away! She kept her eyes wide open, but she could see nothing but a scene of quietness.

The footsteps seemed to be in arm’s length. “Damn it. Those enemies are transparent!”

Before she could sound an alarm, a roar suddenly burst near her ear.

There was a flare appearing midair, followed with an air wave, and then came out an oddly shaped monster. It had a narrow head and a pair of sharp claws, which made it look like a mutant mantis. But what made it different from any other insect was that it was walking upright.

An arrow shot out of the flintlock smashed part of its face. Black blood was blown out of its head and almost splashed on Andrea.

The monster collapsed on the ground. Then she saw Nightingale’s flying white cloak and hood.

Then came a second shot!

“Damn. I was too careless!” Andrea tightly bit her lips. “Nightingale noticed the danger earlier than I did.”

She summoned the Magical Longbow. But without knowing where to shoot at, she slowly retreated to the basket, standing alongside the other witches.

With four more shots later, four more monsters fell down, each being killed by one single shot.

When Nightingale showed herself beside a monster, Andrea put away her weapons and walked swiftly to Nightingale.

“What are they?”

“Either demonic beasts or demons.” Nightingale squatted, fiddling with those creatures’ fangs and claws. “But judging from their blood color, they look more like demonic beasts.”

“When did you notice them?”

“The time they appeared.” Nightingale smiled. “In Mistland, the magic powers glowing on their body are as prominent as stars in the night sky.”

“Could demonic beasts have that ability?” Andrea frowned.

Nightingale smiled. “Uh… probably the demonic hybrids are special.”

At the same time, the seven witches who had gone down to the hole returned. Coming with them was a blue-haired woman on Ashes’ shoulder.

“Is she the one who called for help in the ruins?” Andrea walked toward them and asked.

“That’s right.” Tilly nodded. “I’ll tell you the details when we get on the Farsight. The longer we stay in this forest, the more insecure I feel. Oh, was it alright on the ground?”

“A few odd demonic hybrids came, but they are all dead by now,” Nightingale shrugged and said.

The hot air balloon quickly lifted off. The basket went across the tree tips and began to move to the direction of the town. Right then, Sylvie exclaimed, “Oh dear, what are those down there? Are they demonic beasts?”

“Demonic beasts?” Andrea stuck out her head and looked toward the ruin, but didn’t see anything.

No, something was moving on the ground indeed, because the bodies of those dead monsters were suddenly half missing, and the black blood was scattered by trampling. At the junctures of soil and snow, one could see some weird twists, as if seen through a glass. One might miss it without watching closely.

“Still the same old demonic hybrids,” Nightingale carelessly said. “There are about a hundred of them rushing into the hole… Maybe they are tempted by the smell of the dead giant worm and go for a good meal.” She yawned. “But none of that is our concern.”

.

Chapter 338: Police

ader got out of bed and tried to move his body. His back didn’t hurt at all. “It seems the Lord Knight was right. The wound would heal by itself.” Vader thought so himself.

“How do you feel?” asked Cacusim. “I think you should take more rest.”

“I’m OK. I worked well yesterday, didn’t I?” Vader put on his old coat, and stuck his feet into the cold boots. “The sooner I start working for them, the earlier I can receive my share of oatmeal. I can’t always rely on you. Your bowl of oatmeal isn’t enough for the two of us.”

“But I think it’s OK. The oatmeal here is much thicker than relief porridge elsewhere, and it has the taste of meat.” The old man shook his head. “Kid, you used to be a patrolman. You might not be familiar with the life in slums. The porridge there was more like clear soup. Its only difference from soup was that it contained a few grains of wheat. To make it look thick, the authority used to boil it with grass roots or tree leaves. The oatmeal given by the Lord may not be enough for both of us, but at least we won’t starve.”

“I hope both of us can have enough to eat,” Vader tied his shoelaces and said with a smile.

“OK.” Cacusim sighed. “Then you take care. Don’t be too hard on yourself.”

“What a strange feeling. Originally he was just a scapegoat picked by the black street rats, but now he seems to be an elder member of my family.” Vader thought. More strangely, Vader even liked this feeling.

“I will.” Vader shook his head, as if he found it funny. “Take care of yourself, too.”

As he opened the door, Vader saw two men standing there. Their white uniforms with a light blue shoulder ornament and armband revealed their identity – clerks from the City Hall.

Vader frowned and asked, “Whom are you looking for?”

One of them pulled out a sheet of paper and glanced at it. “Are you Vader?”

“Yes.”

“What’s happening?” Cacusim also heard of the conversation outside.

“Congratulations,” One man smiled and said, “You have passed the written test for public security officer enrollment. What follows is a week-long comprehensive training.” Then he put a small card into Vader’s hand. “This is your temporary identity card. Bring it with you when you go to the campsite of the Second Army. You’ll be received by people there.”

Vader said with his eyes wide open. “Did I… really pass the Lord’s test?”

“Not yet,” one clerk replied. “The written test is only the first step of the the screening process. You’ll pass all the assessments and become a regular public security officer only after you complete the training and get the Chief Knight’s recognition.”

After delivering the message, the two men left. They neither asked for money, nor tried to gain popularity. It seemed their aim was solely to deliver this piece of information.

“You did it!” The old man patted Vader’s shoulder with excitement. “What did you say earlier on? You said you could never be chosen.”

Vader was stunned for a while, and then he murmured, “Because the questions in the test were really bizarre.”

The old man was curious. “What were the questions?”

Vader couldn’t help but think back what happened a week ago. Ever since he learned that His Highness was recruiting public security officers – the same thing as patrol guards but with a different name – he applied to the City Hall following the requirements on the notice. He got a quick reply – only five days later, he was informed to go for a test.

Vader was full of confidence, because he not only met all the requirements on the notice, but also had more than five years of practical experience. Considering that the town was really in need of supervising personnel, he felt the chance for himself to be selected was very high. If he could become a patrol guard, he could take care of Cacusim at any time even if he had to live in the Inner City.

But he didn’t he would sit for such a weird examination.

That day, over 100 candidates sat in a hall. The Lord Knight distributed a pile of paper to them one by one, and asked them to answer all the questions listed on the paper. He also told them to write clearly because the final examiner would be the prince himself. Such a testing method aroused confusion among the candidates. Although it was clearly written on the notice that the candidates must be able to read, none of them had ever expected that the government would actually be serious about it.

At that time, half of the candidates felt lost. Vader could read the paper, but after reading it thoroughly, he was also left in bewilderment. “What the hell are those bizarre questions about?” For example, “Imagine you are a coachman driving a carriage along a narrow mountain road and there are two civilians in your carriage. Suddenly, a bunch of refugees appear in front of you. You can only choose to run over them or let your carriage fall off the cliff. In the first case, some refugees will be hit and die, while in the second, the two civilians will lose their lives. Either way, you can survive with your agile skills. What would you do? Please explain your reasons with at least 300 words.”

The question simply made people feel at a loss. It mentioned the numbers of civilians, but the number of refugees was uncertain, making it very difficult to measure the damages of the two scenarios. Besides, Vader felt that it may not be such a big deal to hit and kill a bunch of refugees, but it might not be the answer His Highness wanted.

“Should I choose to let the civilians die? Would this be the right answer?”

The whole paper was full of bizarre questions like this. At that time, Vader even felt His Highness deliberately made the test difficult, and actually the real candidates had already been chosen.

“Forget it. Maybe I was wrong.” Vader took a breath. “Now I’m going to the campsite.”

“OK.” Cacusim laughed. “I think you’ll be enrolled eventually as a public security officer.”

…

The campsite of the Second Army was located in the north of the town, out of the stone wall surrounding the Inner City. When Vader arrived, he found that the Chief Knight was already waiting there.

“From today on, you’ll be reserve policemen,” Carter said when all the people were there. “In the following week, all of you must live in this camp to receive special training. Those who are qualified may stay, and those who aren’t may go back where you’re from! I’ll make you understand what disciplines mean and how exactly to serve His Highness!”

This was what Vader imagined a test should be like, but… “Did he just say that only 15 out of the more than 100 candidates will stay?” He took a glance at people around him. Judging from their clothing and complexion, they, unlike him, must be the locals.

Sure enough, the requirement for reading wasn’t a joke.

“Report!” someone raised his hand and said.

Carter grinned. “Oh? You are familiar with the rules in the army! Go ahead.”

“Well, my brother is in the First Army,” the man said with one hand touching the back of his head. “My Lord, I want to know what ‘policemen’ exactly means. I thought we were enrolled as public security officers.”

“The policemen are part of the public security system, and you can take them as security officers in His Highness’s territory. Their responsibilities are to arrest criminals, fight against illegal acts, maintain territorial orders, execute policies issued by His Highness and the City Hall, and help the subjects in difficult situations.”

“Helping the subjects? But just now you said we are to serve His Highness…”

“There isn’t much difference between the two. Serving the subjects of His Highness is the same as serving His Highness. Well, do you want to serve His Highness in his castle?” Carter shrugged. “Become a good knight first.”

“But all the knights are nobles…” Vader thought to himself. “There is a world of difference between them and civilians. Not any ordinary person can become a knight.”

“Remember, you are both the executors of the law and the guardians of the people. OK, go to the tent and put on your uniform.” The Chief Knight clapped his hands. “Now, there’s a mission for you to complete.”

Chapter 339: The Assassins

fter Vader took off the old jacket full of patches and put on the brand new uniform, he could feel that his whole body was warmed up right away.

Making of thick leather on the surface and a cotton lining, the uniform could both keep people warm because of the leather and comfortable. Only these materials used could cost up to a few silver royals.

Although it was similar to the uniform of City Hall in design, it was very different in color—the shirt and pants were pure black with white striped lace at the shoulders, collar, and cuffs, looking extremely striking. Standing in a row in the new uniform, the 15 people could not help but hold their chest up higher than usual.

“Not bad,” said Carter with a smile of satisfaction, “Now, you follow me.”

Snow was still falling from the sky at that time. It was the first time ever that Vader saw the scene with non-stop snow since autumn. It occasionally snowed in Valencia, but it would normally cease within one or two days. Children were often found making snowmen or having snowballs fight on streets. That’s why there was a saying that it was the Children Festival whenever it snowed. However, it was extremely inconvenient for the adults as snow would make their shoes wet and moldy, walk on the streets difficult, and business slack. Worst of all, occasionally some roofs collapsed under the pressure of heavy snow.

The patrol platoon of Valencia would never go out in such weather. Instead, they would probably find a tavern to sit around the fireplace and flirt with the maids while drinking warm ale.

However, it was completely different in Border Town.

Every day, the streets were cleaned and the snow was swept to both sides of the streets, which was a long-term job offered by City Hall. Although the workers were low paid, they could make quick money since they could receive their wages daily or monthly.

There were many townsfolk coming and going on the street. Wearing straw hats or in their cloaks, they were all busy with their own chores. It would be just like summer if all the snow in the town was removed.

If it were not witnessed by himself, Vader would not have believed that a town on the border of the kingdom would seem busier than Valencia. If it were not because of the high rise church and bell tower in the town, it would make him wonder which big city he was in.

Soon, the group of people arrived at the pier side. There were more than ten sailboats anchored in the Redwater River. The shore had gathered up to hundreds of people. This scene seemed to be quite familiar… Right, Vader remembered, it was the same scene as the time when he first arrived in this town with the others fleeing from Eastern Region.

“Report! These people are…”

“Refugees from Southern Border and Northern Land. To make sure they can get through the winter, His Highness sent people to summon them to Border Town. Your job is to help the City Hall maintain order, ask these people to queue up for customs check, and then quarantine as well as registration. Currently, the number of police officers is quite limited, so soldiers of the First Army will assist you. But in the future, you have to do this independently.”

“Yes!”

It did not sound difficult for Vader for he once organized refugees to queue up for claiming of porridge. In order to let everyone nearby hear his commands and approach one by one, Vader walked towards the hurdle and yelled.

“Your name? Where do you come from? Any expertise? Are you literate?”

Every refugee who passed through the hurdle will be questioned by City Hall officers and their answers would be roughly recorded. Vader knew that these were just preliminary statistics. There would be further audits and verification after everyone settled down, and those with skills would have the priority to be transferred to the Inner City. He knew the process well because he personally experienced it once.

Suddenly, he heard uproarious noises from his back. Vader turned around and saw a man in a long fluffy robe coming into the dock area under the protection of the guards. The flowing gray hair indicated his identity—His Royal Highness Roland Wimbledon, the local Lord. Standing beside him were a few finely dressed members who were probably leaders of the City Hall.

Vader did not expect His Highness would come to visit the refugees in the snow storm. Few few great nobles were willing to leave their warm beds in the cold season, especially when servants could do everything for them.

“My name is Mane. I’m from the Northern Land. And … I am good at… good at farming. I can’t read. ”

“Farming?” A City Hall officer ticked the corresponding checkbox on the record sheet and said, “OK, pass.”

Right at that moment, Vader noticed that the man quickly glanced at the direction where the prince was standing while passing through the checkpoint. There was little respect shown in his eyes, which was totally different from the normal civilians.

“Hold on,” he said subconsciously.

“What… What’s the matter?”

“You’re a farmer? When do you plant wheat in winter? ”

The City Hall officer also looked at him with an impatient look. “It’s only a simple registration, and I don’t have time to judge whether they’re telling the truth. Hasn’t His Excellency Carter told you the procedure? All you need to do is to help me maintain order.”

Hearing what he said, the man kept quiet immediately.

What a fool!” Vader frowned and continued, ignoring what the officer said, “You don’t speak like a northerner. You have the accent of the central part of the kingdom. Which town of the north do you come from? I’m very familiar with that area.”

Mane hesitated, yet he didn’t answer the question.

“Besides, if you dress like this in the northern area, you’ll suffer from frostbite in fingers even if you manage to survive. As far as I know, it’s below the freezing point throughout the year in the north.” Vader grabbed his right hand and asked, “Where’re your gloves? Don’t tell me that you threw them away when you arrived at Border Town because you found it’s warm here.”

Now the officer at the checkpoint also realized something was fishy. A refugee may lie about his expertise to get a better treatment, but lying about his hometown was obviously strange. “Where exactly are you from?”

Grinding his tongue, Mane suddenly fished out a red pill out from his chest, stuffed it into his mouth and shouted. “Go away, you all!”

Vader instantly felt Mane’s wrist become boiling hot. He reflexively tried to pin Mane down onto the floor, only to find that Mane remained still even though he had exploited all his strength. After that, Mane swang his arm and Vader was flung far away.

He fell heavily onto the ground and he could feel the burning pain on his back. “Damn, the wound’s been ripped open.” He spat, shook his dizzy head and got up, only to find Mane had long gone.

Another four or five refugees sprang from the crowd. Their movements were as agile as the demonic beasts outside the city wall. They jumped over the temporary railings of the City Hall in a few steps and directly ran towards the prince.

This group of people could not make their targets more obvious. They came to attack the high-level officials and the lord of Border Town.

Considering the wierd strength of Mane, Vader could almost imagine the scene in which the prince’s guards were torn into pieces on the spot, and even the prince himself might not be able to survive.

However, none of those happened.

He soon heard a series of noise just as the one he heard when soldiers on the walls were fighting the demonic beasts.

White colored smoke floated in front of the prince.

Blood splashed from Mane’s head amidst the smoke. <br/>

Chapter 340: The Reason of Employment

ll the eccentrics that rushed out of the crowd were killed, but the outburst of the refugees caused by that sudden change continued and gradually became difficult to control. Amid continuous screams of the people, dozens of specially armed warriors surrounded the scene, and at the same time, the prince’s sonorous voice suddenly rang above the crowd-

“Quiet, my people. I am your Lord, Roland Wimbledon. Now listen to me.”

The voice was loud, yet it was not a hysterical roar. It was a clear and steady narration. Vader felt as if he was talking directly into his ear, and there was an undeniable force in his words that overtook the tumult and fright of the scene.

The crowd quieted down suddenly.

“As you heard the news when you first arrived in Border Town, we’ll provide you with shelter to protect you from the wind and snow as well as food that can fill your stomach. There’re also plenty of well-paid jobs. I’m here to tell you that all of these are true. ”

“You’ll live in thick clay houses with no air gap and a charcoal stove beneath the bed. Sleeping on it will be as comfortable as lying on the grass in the summer sun. As long as the doors and windows are closed, you won’t feel cold even if you only wear an unlined garment in the house.”

“You’ll have meat jerky and wheat porridge for meals. Digging into the porridge with a spoon, you can see the grains dripping. It’ll slowly flow down into your mouth due to the consistency. You’ll just need one bowl to fill up your stomach.”

Hearing this, Vader suddenly felt hungry. His Royal Highness made a novel speech. Unlike most aristocrats who kept emphasizing their powers and the obligations of the subjects and claiming that all people must follow their will, he spoke from the point of view which the people were most concerned about by describing his promise with the food and clothing. Judging from the facial expression of the refugees, one could tell his words obviously had touched their hearts.

“I hope that all the people will be able to live well without any worry about food and clothing, but the enemies that are hidden in the dark don’t want to see this. There’s no doubt that these beasts that rushed out were sent by them. The reason is very simple—they don’t want to see that I am still alive, and they don’t want my people to live a better life.

“If I’m gone, will any other lords help provide you with warm shelter and delicious food? You should be very clear about this point and you’ll understand looking at your previous experiences. I’m the only person that is willing to do so.”

Vader found that the fright had dissipated. After the monsters that did not behave like ordinary people were regarded as common enemies, the uneasiness and fear of the refugees were gradually transformed into anger. The villains who were trying to be detrimental to His Highness and wanted to destroy their wonderful life at the same time would never be forgiven.

“In order to avoid the attack again, the inspection needs to be repeated. This time, my guards will be responsible for the body search to make sure no enemy has the opportunity to destroy it all!”

Everyone followed the will of His Highness. Those who had passed the checkpoint were brought back to the dock by the guards. None of them protested and they were even better-organized than before.

“His Highness is good indeed,” Vader could not help but be filled with awe since the prince managed to put an end to the impended chaos with just a few sentences.

“I heard that you were the first one that sensed something was wrong?” Carter Lannis approached him and said, “Come with me, His Highness wants to see you.”

Following the Chief Knight, he came in front of the young prince and knelt on one knee. “My respect to you.”

“Tell me, how did you find that there was something wrong with him?” asked the prince.

Vader reported what happened truthfully.

“Very observant. Were you just an ordinary civilian?”

“No, Your Highness, I served the Valencia patrol team for almost six years until Valencia was attacked by large groups of pirates,” he replied honestly.

“But there was no expertise stated on your resume. I asked Carter about you and he said currently you still live in the temporary residential area. In other words, you hid your identity during your registration with the City Hall at the entrance—this was absolutely unnecessary.” The prince said. Why did you do that?”.

Although he did not understand the meaning of the resume, it did not affect his answer to this question. Vader hesitated for a moment and told the prince about the story of Cacusim, “If it was not for this prisoner, I may have long been dead. I cannot just leave him alone in the Western Zone. ”

“So you want to be a patrolman in order to help him while executing inspection missions in the future ?”

“I…” Vader panicked. Judging from the previous penalty, it was clear that His Highness was very concerned about the violation of the system, and that he would obviously be suspected of crossing the line.

“No worries. You have not done that yet, so we won’t punish you for having the idea.” The prince seemed to have seen through Vader’s thought and said with a smile.

But these words made Vader disappointed. There was no doubt that His Royal Highness did not agree with this approach, even if he became a police successfully. Once he was found to be biased in handling disputes, he would be punished as severely as the City Hall officer was.

“Do you have a family?” The prince suddenly asked.

“… they were all killed in the robbery of Valencia.”

“Does Cacusim have a family?”

“I don’t think so,” said Vader, although he was not sure why His Royal Highness asked the question. “If he had any family member, he wouldn’t have been chosen by the Rats as a scapegoat.”

“Anyone who has special skills will have the priority to rent a residential house. Besides, he can obtain the identity documents issued by the City Hall and enjoy all the power of the town’s subjects. All of these, of course, can also be enjoyed by his family members.” The prince grinned and said, “Do you understand what I mean?”

Startled, Vader could not help but ask in surprise, “Your Highness agree to let me have Cacusim…”

“Bring the old man to the City Hall for registration, and they will arrange it for you.”

He held back the excitement and knelt down again. “Gracious, Your Highness!”

“Don’t be slack, and be as vigilant as you’re today.” The prince nodded and said, “If you cannot pass the follow-up tests, even if he becomes your family member, you’ll have to stay in the temporary area for now.”

“Yes!”

The things that he cared the most was finally settled, Vader felt so much more relaxed. He was ready to be excused when he suddenly thought of the written test. Hesitating for a while, he could not help asking, “Your Highness, I was not sure about the answers to many questions in the first round of test. Why would you hire me? ”

“Because there’re no correct answers to them,” Prince grinned and continued, “They differ from man to man. By the way, it was not the right answers that counted, but the applicants’ reading and writing abilities did. You may pass the test as long as you could understand the questions and write down your own opinions.” <br/>

Chapter 341: The Transportation Corridor

quot;Your Highness, may I ask you a question? Do you know who sent them here?” Carter came up to ask Roland after Vader left.

“Only the Church and Timothy have the pills. Garcia has been far away from the Kingdom of Graycastle. It’s completely unnecessary for her to assassinate me.” Roland sighed. “More likely, it was Timothy. He doesn’t dare to send his army out of King’s City to attack me, but that doesn’t mean he has abandoned his plan for revenge.”

Roland thought it was lucky that these attackers only carried pills instead of covering themselves with explosives. If they successfully ignited the explosives among the crowds, the efforts of these two months would have been wasted.

Actually, the Suicide Squad wasn’t his concern. He wore God’s Stone of Retaliation and was protected by the guards when Nightingale wasn’t around. By doing so, he believed that those enchanted people could hardly approach him under the suppression of ten runner flintlocks, not even an Extraordinary.

He was surprised to see how quickly his mindset had changed in less than a year since he became the Lord. Any assassination or tumult like that attack would definitely make him get cold feet and feel at a loss if he remained to be his old self, that newcomer to the town. Despite the tension, he successfully hid his uneasy feelings and looked calm and in command. With absolute trust in his brave and loyal bodyguards, he was even amazed by himself. As the center of attention, he was able to stay cool during the emergency.

“Please bring the emissary delegation here. Ask them the details about how they recruited these people,” Roland said to Barov, “and I also need to know where those people boarded the ship.”

“Yes, Your Highness.” As the City Hall Director, Barov felt uneasy. He didn’t expect that most capable City Hall officers he had chosen for this mission would have made such a great mistake.

“Don’t blame them. Let’s clarify the situation first.”

When all the refugees went through the check point, Roland came back to his office in the castle. The emissary delegation brought him the good news this time. As the Eagle City and the Port of Clearwater in the Southern Territory were destroyed in the battle, the farmlands outside of the cities were deserted and all the former residents became refugees, looking for shelters. The food prices surged in bad weather when temperatures dropped sharply across the Kingdom of Graycastle. Under such circumstances, slave prices had already been halved.

If Roland could provide them a reliable, effective transportation corridor, those people would pour into Western Region. In fact, according to the report from the emissary delegation, many refugees were starting to head towards the Western Region, after hearing the news that Border Town was calling for recruitment.

But offering such a “transport corridor” was a tricky task.

As heavy snow in the “Months of the Demons” had covered all the roads, it was better to choose water transportation, using sailboats to transport refugees via Redwater River. “The Littletown”, the witch-powered and the only boat of Border Town, obviously couldn’t meet all the needs in refugee transportation. To fulfill that task efficiently, at least twenty more sailboats were needed.

Shortage of boats remained a burning issue for the emissary delegation. On their mission, they found it hadn’t cost them a lot to win the refugees over, yet they had spent most of their gold royals on the transportation and settlement of refugees. Only nearly 400 refugees had already arrived at Border Town and more than 3,000 were still settled in Willow Town, Silver City and Fallen Dragon Ridge, waiting for boats to fetch them.

Unfortunately, all the boat owners raised prices based on the current market trend. The budget cost for the transportation of the remaining 3,000 refugees was now almost the same as that for the last rescue plan in King’s City. If this condition persisted, this refugee transportation would cost more money than they could imagine. After the delegation’s report, Roland thought for a moment and quickly decided to ask the Margerie’s Chamber of Commerce for help, hoping they wouldn’t bid an unaffordable price for the sake of Lightning.

He thought further and had a plan in his head. He wanted to build more boats for the town so as to control the transportation expenditure. With advancements in steel and cement production, the town now was able to build steam engine-driven huge punts, serving as transportation vehicles on the river.

…

After the lunch, Barov knocked at his door and came in, “Your Highness, I’ve found out what you want to know.”

“Go ahead.” Roland said.

“Cyron, one of my students, was in charge of the refugees in the North. He couldn’t find enough boats to transport refugees back to Western Region, so he contacted some old friends in King’s City , hoping that they could help him with the boat issue.” Barov sighed. “He settled his refugees in Silver City, which is close to King’s City. I guess it was possible for Timothy to somehow hear about that and send his men to mix in the refugees.”

“How many refugees are there now in Silver City?” Roland asked.

“About 800,” Barov answered, “and the hired boats make a round trip in at least half a month. I’m worried about what will happen when they carry refugees back the next time. How about recalling the platoon of the First Army and abandoning those refugees in Silver City?” Barov suggested.

“No, no, let’s improve our check process, pick out the ones sent by Timothy and separate them when they are passing the check of the town.” Roland answered, “If we abandon the refugees in Silver City, driving some of them back to the North, the people there hearing about this will never trust us again.” Roland said.

With the help of Silvio and Nightingale, spies and assassins could be identified easily. They weren’t a threat to Roland. He just wanted to make proper arrangements to ensure the safety of the innocent refugees.

“Yes, Your Highness.” Barov paused a while and asked. “So, what about Cyron?”

“I want to listen to you first.” Roland suggested.

Barov hesitated for a moment and said, “I suggest removing him from the office and deducting two months’ salary. He isn’t prudent enough for this job, but it seems cruel to exile him to the North Slope Mine area as a punishment. After all, he didn’t mean it and it hadn’t caused any severe damages.”

Roland couldn’t help laughing for he could easily tell that Barov felt awkward from his face. Roland smiled and said, “That’s alright. Let him off. The salary deduction is enough. He didn’t deliberately leak the information. He just lacked experience and had never done this kind of job. I remember he’s still in his twenties, right? He has room to grow and must have learned some useful lessons this time. Let’s give him a chance.”

“Yes, Your Highness.” Barov answered and made a bow.

Roland smiled and shook his head. He knew that Barov wasn’t willing to punish Cyron severely, despite the fact that he suggested a quite tough punishment in the beginning. Cyron was among his first group of students and had followed him since the time when he was still in King’s City. He fostered him like his own son.

“That’s it.” Roland said and Barov withdrew.

Then Roland stretched. and took some blank papers out of his drawer, planning to draw sketches for steam engine-driven cement punts. At this time, Leaf suddenly ran in.

“Your Highness,” she said excitedly, “Farsight is back!”

“Really?” Roland sprang up and quickly followed her to the castle backyard. A huge hot air balloon was gradually flying down, casting shadow on the garden.

As soon as it landed, Anna hopped off. Roland opened his arms to fetch her and Ana took this chance to give him a sweet hug.

“I am back.”

. <br/>

Chapter 342: Strategy

quot;I want a hug, too,” Lightning rushed up.

“And me!” yelled Nana.

“Coo!” Maggie followed close at Nana’s heels.

Roland just stood there, fetching the witches from the hot air balloon basket and all of the Witch Union witches hugged him one by one. Seeing this, Tilly couldn’t help but laugh. “Ah! You are really good with the girls.”

“And do you want a big hug from your brother?” Roland joked.

“No, thanks,” she smiled and shook her head, “I can still remember that you once took me up and threw me onto the hard ground.

Roland turned off this dialogue with a shrug of his shoulders, as if saying, “I didn’t mean that. I was innocent.” Then he moved his eyes to the girl in the arms of Ashes. The girl seemed young and had sea blue hair and a figure as slim as Anna’s. Her eyes were tightly closed and her slender eyebrows looked slightly upturned. Her skin was so fair that a mole which looked like a tear stain in the corner of her eye was particularly eye-catching.

She looked like a sleeping beauty rather than a prisoner trapped in the stone tower basement.

However, her beauty wasn’t the focus of Roland’s attention. Her purple robe with exquisite patterns was the thing that intrigued him. As in this era, dyestuff was rare, especially purple dye, he believed that this gorgeous purple robe with beautiful and complicated white stripes and sigils must be a magic robe which could only be seen in movies.

He assumed it must be a piece of orange equipment.

“Is she still alive?” Roland asked.

“Yes,” said Nightingale, “She is alive, yet she has exhausted all her magic power, a similar situation to that of Anna when she entered adulthood. Still she’s a little different from Anna for her magic power is regained very slowly. It may take three or four days for her to fully recover.”

“I see, so let’s call her Sleeping Beauty for now,” Roland nodded and said, “I’ll make a room for her on the third floor of the castle, giving her time and space to recover. The other girls, let’s go to the lobby. I wanna listen to the story of your trip.”

…

Having heard what Tilly and Nightingale said about the trip, Roland was surprised and somehow broke into a cold sweat for them.

Provided that Silvio had eye of truth, he thought it was still dangerous to go far below the ground, hunting a strange and huge demonic beast. Roland believed even he himself would be hesitant under such circumstance, but Tilly was decisive. She managed to pick up the right people immediately and lead them to fulfill the task… Now he realized that Tilly became the leader of her witches not only because of her identity as a princess.

“What did you think at that time? Did the maggot have something to do with the demons?”

“I don’t know, but I guess yes,” Tilly said slowly, “because in Barbarian Land, some witches of Witch Cooperation did encounter demons riding demonic hybrids whose wings were cut off. Those hybrids seemed tamed by the demons and followed their orders. Behind the snow-capped mountains, you also saw those flying beasts. They are totally different in form compared with the demons. Maybe they are another kind of demonic beasts.”

“Based on what we’ve seen, I guess the demonic beasts are demons’ pets and servants. Their relationship is similar to that between human beings and their hunting dogs. The demons could somehow tame those beasts and drive them to complete some difficult tasks by giving them orders?”

“It… sounds right.” Rolland nodded, but still felt confused. “The demonic beasts only attacked the human communities in the ‘Months of the Demons’, but the moss and weeds on the Siege Beasts’ shells suggested that they didn’t just live during that one month and they could possibly stay alive for decades. Limited by the Red Mist, the demons couldn’t expel all the human beings and fully occupy Barbarian Land in a short time, but they should have been able to keep sending demonic beasts to harass the Four Kingdoms all the time instead of just in winter.”

Another question was how come a demonic hybrid could be tamed. He could never forget the smart demonic wolf-lion hybrid that attacked Iron Axe during the first year’s “Months of the Demons”. It could learn and analyze, set a goal and plan out how to achieve it. It was nothing like those so-called clever animals that acted upon conditioned reflexes repeatedly and far more intelligent than most animals and beasts. If all the demonic hybrids were long-living and intelligent, they could not be tamed and enslaved by another species.

“Compared with the underground demonic beast, the ones Miss Nightingale encountered outside the stone tower were more worrying,” Tilly sighed and said, “because they could remain invisible to us in daytime and we could hardly detect their movement, let alone fight them. It’s a pity that we know little about demonic beasts and have no idea of how to deal with such horrible enemies.”

“I wouldn’t believe they actually exist if Nightingale hadn’t seen them with her own eyes,” Roland said, “Luckily, such kind of demonic beasts have never appeared in the Western Region… If a few of them came in every winter, Longsong Stronghold would have been ruined by now.” Roland said.

“According to the historical records, the longer the ‘Month of the Demons’ is, the stronger demonic beasts will be. This year, it began to snow in fall. That means a long ‘Month of the Demons’ and we will confront with powerful enemies.” Tilly said.

The word “we” said by Tilly warmed Rolland’s heart. He was happy to see that she had already regarded the town as her close ally, of course, for the sake of the witches. Now it wasn’t that important whether she had accepted himself as a brother.

“Based on the current situation, the line of defense must be under the oversight of Nightingale.” Roland suggested.

“No, let’s give that position to Silvio this winter,” Tilly said, “because Nightingale would work overload. She needs at least half a quarter of an hour to merely make a tour around the eastern and western city walls, while Silvio can observe the entire city wall area, staying inside the castle. When she detects demonic beasts, she can immediately notify other witches in the castle. ”

“Yeah, that’s a good idea,” Roland nodded.

“That witch…” Scroll hesitated, “I have some reservations about her. Before we can confirm her identity, she is a potential enemy.”

“I understand and I will put God’s Locket of Retribution on her for the time being,” he said, “and I hope she won’t misunderstand us.”

…

Roland went into Sleeping Beauty’s bedroom where Anna alone was taking care of her.

“How is she?” Roland asked.

Anna shook her head, “She’s sleeping all the time, giving no response.”

“I see.” Roland went close to her bed. The lady lay quietly, still with her eyes tightly closed. Only her eyebrows were somehow lowered and seemed relaxed a lot. Nana and Lily had used their powers to help her, now all they could do was waiting.

“It’s incredible for someone to be frozen for so long, having absolutely no trace of freezing in the body.” Roland said with amaze.

“That’s no surprise to me. In my case, I feel at home with fire,” Anna chuckled and said. “Her ability must be related to this freezing.”

“I heard that you’re the one who cut apart her frozen coffin.” Roland patted her head. “You nailed it, Anna.”

“Actually, it wasn’t only because of me,” she said seriously. “This witch must have gained mastery of her magic power. It looked like that she had frozen herself in very low temperature at first, and then wrapped her whole body up with ice crystals which were at normal temperature. By doing so, she could prevent melting and preserve her life. That was tricky.”

“Ice crystals at normal temperature…” That sounded ridiculous, but Roland understood. He knew something about a summoning type witch’s ability and this was merely an embodiment of her magic power, just like Anna’s Blackfire which could be changed in form and temperature.

Anna paused a bit and continued, “When I cut into the surface of the ice crystals of the Frozen Coffin, the whole thing collapsed instantly, as if she had deliberately left flaws in it.” That means she was expecting this to happen.”

“You mean…” Roland said.

“She’ll definitely wake up,” Anna answered.

. <br/>